Team Penske had endured a period in the doldrums in late 1990s Indycar racing with underperforming chassis, engines and tyres. But that changed when Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves were paired up in 2000 to race its Reynard-Hondas on Firestone tires.
There is no one who had quite the impact on the career of Helio Castroneves as Gil de Ferran did. The two Brazilians first met in the mid-1990s. Castroneves joined Paul Stewart Racing for British Formula 3 in 1995 just as de Ferran left the squad’s Formula 3000 operation for his rookie CART season, and they became team-mates in 2000 for a struggling Team Penske, which had failed to produce a win or pole in either of the previous two seasons in CART.
Meanwhile, Castroneves became the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 in his first two starts , and de Ferran won the 2003 edition of ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ to make it three in a row at Indy for Team Penske. Photo by: Walt Kuhn / Motorsport Images Castroneves and de Ferran notched up a hat-trick of Penske wins at the Indy 500 between them in 2001-2003 Those early days set up a lifelong friendship.
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