De Ferran Roaring Back Onto The Track

Gil de Ferran planned to "stop driving all together" when he announced his retirement while at the peak of his career in 2003.

Since over-the-hill drivers weren't even staying retired long, it seemed unlikely de Ferran, that year's Indy 500 winner and the 2000 and 2001 CART champion, would be able to keep his helmet on a shelf for long.

He lasted five years as a TV analyst and sports director for the BAR Honda Formula One team before returning to the cockpit last season as an owner/driver in the American Le Mans Series.

Not surprisingly, he got his feel back quickly and recorded three podium finishes over the final eight races of the season.

This year, the French-born Brazilian who lives in Fort Lauderdale has moved up to the ALMS' top classification with an all-new Acura P1 prototype. He'll try to give the favored Audi and Peugeot teams a run in Saturday's 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and race in three weeks at St. Petersburg.

"I see this as a very different phase of my life," de Ferran said recently, gazing at a bright blue sky from under a Starbucks umbrella in Pinellas Park. "It's not about me reliving the dream as a racing driver. I'm not saying I'm not enjoying my job behind the wheel again, but this is mostly about making the team a success."

For a time, it seemed de Ferran, 41, would have a John Elway-type exit. He even won what was supposed to be his last race, the Indy Racing League finale at Texas in 2003.

Only two drivers had announced their retirements in the same year they'd won the Indianapolis 500: Ray Harroun in 1911 and Sam Hanks in 1957. Both did, in fact, stay retired.

Dario Franchitti retired from Indy-style racing after winning the 500 in 2007, but he moved to NASCAR and since has returned to the IRL.

But de Ferran couldn't pass up the opportunity to build his own racing organization in the ALMS with backing from Honda. He entered the series with capable Acura's P2-classification car, but the plan from nearly the beginning was to race an Acura in the top prototype class.

De Ferran will run the full season, including the sports car portion of the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg April 4-6, with impressive 24-year-old Frenchman Simon Pagenaud. For Sebring, the longest race on the schedule, defending Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon will share the driving.

"I still think I have my uses behind the wheel," de Ferran said. "But I want to find the best possible drivers for my team, and I think having Simon, who is one of the most promising talents, and Scott Dixon, who is one of the best talents, period, underlies the desire we have to win."

De Ferran raves about he new P1 Acura ARX-02a, saying it "contains the latest technology from the front suspension to the gearbox," along with the unorthodox approach of equal 15-inch wide tires in the front and rear.

What the car gives up in aerodynamics up front, it's supposed to make up for with possibly the fastest cornering speeds ever recorded at Sebring.

Connecticut-based Patron Highcroft Racing also will race a new Acura, and with capable drivers Franchitti, David Brabham and Scott Sharp should be a factor.

They'll try to put up a fight against two of Audi's next-generation turbo diesel-powered R15 TDIs - each driven by accomplished endurance drivers - and two "heavily revised" turbo diesel-powered Peugeot 908 HDi FAP cars. Four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, formerly of St. Petersburg, will drive one of the Peugeots.

"We can only influence our own performance," de Ferran said. "So we're keeping our heads down and trying to compete against ourselves. We're trying to go quicker and quicker, and frankly, we don't know how that's going to measure up."

Gil de Ferran, the Indy great who thought he would retire, is still measuring up.