Forty-one years after his fatal accident, Gilles Villeneuve, a true hero in Quebec, is still being talked about.
The Quebec driver, who died tragically in Formula 1 in 1982 aboard his Ferrari, will not only be the subject of a biographical feature film whose shooting is due to begin next winter, but also that of a fascinating documentary that Crave subscribers will be able to watch starting Monday in Canada.
simply titled Villeneuve-Pironi, the documentary is the story of a rivalry that will turn into a tragedy for two pilots with a fiery temperament. Two friends turned rivals and obsessed with winning.
If, like us enthusiasts, you’re old enough to have experienced those troubling times, the 90-minute report is unlikely to contain any major revelations. But, no matter, you will devour it like us from start to finish, it is so well done, structured and documented.
The youngest will be captivated by this story which, according to several observers, led to Villeneuve’s fatal swerve during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix on May 8, 1982.
An instruction not respected
Two weeks earlier, the Saint-Martin Grand Prix, contested at the Imola circuit in Italy, took place in a particular context where only 14 drivers took the start. A legal battle had erupted over who controlled F1. From then on, a confrontation was taking shape between the two best teams on the board, Ferrari and Renault. Between Villeneuve, Didier Pironi, René Arnoux and Alain Prost.
The latter states in the documentary that these four drivers had agreed before the race on a strategy to adopt to compensate for the low participation rate.
“As there were few cars, we decided to put on a show for the public. At the start of the race, we tried to overtake each other. In the middle of the event, we struggled and a little before the end, we no longer overtook each other. Whoever was leading had to win. It was understood”, explained the quadruple world champion in front of the camera.
But after the abandonment of the two Renaults, including that of Arnoux at 45e turn, the lively duel between the two red single-seaters was going to monopolize the attention. After taking the lead, Villeneuve slowed down on the orders of his team. Pironi had to do the same.
Villeneuve is faster than his teammate, but he makes a mistake and knocks two wheels off the track. Not enough, however, to cause his downfall. Pironi took the opportunity to overtake him. In the lead, he picks up the pace. But the Quebecer managed to surprise his teammate to regain control of the race. Then, he slows down again seeing his team hold up the sign “Slowto the two Ferrari drivers. Despite everything, the transfer of power was repeated several times.
“Slow did not mean to maintain its positions, claimed Pironi. If I had to do it again, I would do the same…”
The treason
On the last lap, Villeneuve was overtaken by Pironi, who won the race. When he gets out of the car, he does not hide his frustration and says to one of his mechanics: “You have a shitty driver…”
“Gilles did not want to appear on the podium, says his wife, Joann. He felt deeply betrayed by someone he thought was his friend.”
The team order was strict at Ferrari at the time. We did not overtake a teammate if both were driving at the same pace. In 1979, when Jody Scheckter confirmed his championship at Monza, Villeneuve stayed behind him without ever trying to destabilize him. That year, the Quebecer had however demonstrated on many occasions that he was faster than the South African driver.
Three years later, at Imola, Villeneuve expected the same behavior from Pironi. But it didn’t happen.
Pironi was to be the victim, in turn, of a terrible accident at the Hockenheimring circuit, in Germany, three months after the death of Gilles, when he was leading the championship. Accident where he will suffer very serious injuries which would put an end to his career in F1.
Grim Zolder
It was two weeks after the Imola episode that the drama unfolded during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.
Villeneuve finds that Pironi is faster than him. He emerges from the supply pits, knife between his teeth. He will never come back. His car shod with worn tires (he had exhausted the two sets of new tires that were at his disposal), he tried for the last time to get ahead of his teammate on the starting grid.
We know the rest. Villeneuve sees the March of Jochen Mass, which runs much slower than him. The German moves to the right to give way, but Villeneuve performs the same manoeuvre. The two single-seaters touch and the Ferrari is thrown into the air.
The images of this swerve are still terrible to see today. We see Villeneuve ejected from his cockpit, nailed to his seat. After losing his helmet, he crashes, inert, near a protective fence. It was the end.
The disastrous fate was also going to strike Pironi, who, five years later, was killed on board an “offshore” boat in England. His widow, Catherine Goux, gave birth, a few months later, to twins whom she named Didier and… Gilles. Don’t see that as a coincidence.