💙✨ So you want to learn more about Didier Pironi? Great news, I’m here to help! 💙✨
There isn’t much stuff out there, and a lot of materials are biased in favour of Gilles, but this is my overview of the materials about Didier that can be found out there:
(note: I say reading bc it’s how I best absorb info, that being said there will be a mention of the Villeneuve Pironi documentary. Also I will not include books that are mostly about Gilles)
Books in english:
Pironi, the champion that never was - David Sedgwick: so, remember when I said most materials are biased in favour of Gilles? Well, this one goes the opposite route. The only reason why I cannot call myself Didier’s number one defender and apologist is because mr Sedgwick is out there. This is the best starting point, it’s easy to find, cheap and very thorough. Among its source materials it can boast the book written by Didier’s mother and never published, which provides a lot of details about his childhood and personality. This is the book that got me obsessed with Didier, if you only have to get one book, get this one.
Didier, dreams and nightmares - Lorie Coffey & Jan Moller: I haven’t been able to find a copy of this one for a reasonable price, sadly, so I can’t vouch for this. Sedgwick told me on Twitter that it’s lacking some info, but again, I haven’t read it.
1982 The inside story of the sensational Grand Prix Season - Christopher Hilton: I’m including this because while it is not focused on Didier only, it does give an interesting overview of such a crucial life changing season. It’s not what I’d consider a mandatory read but it’s still worth checking it out.
Documentaries in english:
The Villeneuve-Pironi documentary: I have to mention this one at least. While it is better than others, I still have beef with it, because despite having some people from Didier’s side in it, it’s also still incredibly biased towards Gilles, and also Joann Villeneuve lies a few times (or at the very least what she says doesn’t match what’s out there in terms of available info).
Books in italian:
L’indimenticabile 1982 della Ferrari - Alfredo Rossi: a small book written by a journalist, it’s like a time capsule since it was written before the 1982 season even ended! Noteworthy how there is both deep admiration for Gilles and sincere respect for Didier. A bit harder to find but if you are in Italy you could get this on Abebooks or similar websites
Books in french:
Didier Pironi, la flèche brisée - Martine Camus: not as complete as the Sedgwick one but it contains a lot of interviews and pieces written by people who have known him, and can be found for decent prices, so it’s worth reading it
Lettre à Didier - Catherine Goux: this one I have yet to read, however I’m still including it because it was written by Didier’s last girlfriend, and mother of his twins. This is probably something that will make you cry a lot, but I bet it’s an interesting insight (Sedgwick said so, anyway)
Magazines in french:
Grand Prix #8, 2012: a Didier-themed issue which also contains extracts from the book written by Didier’s mom, an interview with Didier’s twins and Jacques Villeneuve and much more. It can be found on the magazine’s website, but they are out of the paper version so you can only get the digital issue.
Grand Prix #9, 2012: a Didier-Gilles themed issue, focused on Imola 82 and what happened to their friendship, another interesting read.
Other magazines and sources:
I like to collect old issues of Rombo and Autosprint, two very popular motorsport magazines of the past, even if that means enduring the bodyshaming they did to Didier, they’re still a valuable historical insight. According to where you live, you may look for old motorsport magazines too! Libraries may have those, and there’s always flea markets and ebay. I recommend starting with issues that depict positive events such as Didier’s victories, but I also own the Autosprint issue for Didier’s death.
Sometimes I translate old articles from those magazines! This is the sideblog where you can find them: la flèche brisée
If you can’t get old motorsport magazines, I have a suggestion: browse the online archives for your most popular newspapers, the biggest ones are probably old enough to have online archives, most of these are free. Select the dates for important events in Didi’s life, lead to the sport section and profit!
note: watched this during ferrari suffering of the 2024 season (see - the triple header from hell) & needed some forza ferrari desperately
my thoughts + reactions!
ferraris unsure on the engines? / changed them from prac before the race
prost w engine problems sigh
concrete grandstand is where they are reporting from lol
vroom vroom noises so clear i love it
discussion of how senna is using boost to build a lead
where is nigel mansell.
so apparently nigel mansell has chicken pox
the blue flag mandatory yield started in 1995 -- here they used blue lights for lapped cars. blue flag before 95, they did not need to yield
piquet out from p7 in lotus: "not even sure he cares" LOL
they kept saying prost was rapid & gaining on senna & the gap actually just barely changed
"i think the ferraris have just... given up" completely unnecessary no no
comms talking about ferrari switching engines & concerns about it... so consistent to this day wow
comms saying prost sucks in traffic oop
marshalls just chilling right next to the track?
comms clocking piquet when he makes excuses for spinning out we love to hear it
only top 11 out of 16 races count towards the wdc
the margins in the wdc are crazy... senna 75, prost 72, then berger 28
talking about how good mcl reliability is (sigh)
mcl overalls look so red its criminal
cars unlapping themselves like yesss go you
"with that metronome mind of his" about senna
"looking through ferrari tinted sungalsses" well yes!
senna spins out: "spins out like a beached whale" LMAO 😭
anyway - home win!!!! forza ferrari!!!!
sounds like they just abandoned the studio with the cameras - white noise & clacking/ringing
podium celebration was lame. tifosi slayed tho
i miss the cunty background graphics
they bled in so well to the coca cola graphics
p1 berger p2 alboreto (ferrari 1-2!!!) p3 cheever
rating: 3/5
>> the lapping & unlapping was fun. mostly just prost/senna coverage. i love a good forza ferrari rahhhhh but there was literally no w2w. what a fantastic tribute to enzo ferrari tho - forza ferrari
note: my notes for the first few races i logged are not incredibly readable or organized, but when i look back, i'd still like to have some log of my thoughts
my thoughts + reactions!
both williams pass prost & senna quickly >> off to early big lead
the graphics!!! are something!
i kept looking for dark blue williams cars (they're yellow!)
turbo fire! lots of fire! oh the fire extinguishers lol
lapped the first guy on lap 10 & comms said expected to be lapped 6 times?? wild to me
but yet this dude is placed in the wdc because he has finished every lap & reliance sucked
berger parked lap 1 by a bridge & commentators noticed & brought it up on lap 12 lol
point system! had to recap!
the mechanic shorts my goodness
the onboards being from one car in the back
calling mansell & piquet the "biggest rivalry on the circuit"
the driver in p8 got lapped on lap 24 - huge field spread
the numbers graphic is so hard to read at first because the driver numbers change every season
no required pit stops
ron dennis warning
i laugh: "proving he's incompetent & not fit to be a grand prix driver"
lapped driver holding up piquet 🫶🏽
praising the Williams radio technology makes me lol also
8 laps left in race & only 3 drivers are on the same leading lap (the williams' & senna) which is. insanity.
oh. "only 7 runners left"
crazy w2w between mansell & piquet. mansell came from 25s back, but piquet didn't pit.
comms hates piquet during this ^^, essentially kept saying he sucked LOL
crowd just running & being on the track & blocking the pits oh goodness
they completely surround the cars?
Nigel Mansell home win! Piquet p2, Senna p3
>> if not abundantly clear, this was the first archive race i watched, & some things really shocked me. even if i knew a bout a lot of the things - ie. field spread, radio, pit stops, etc etc - it felt different to see it play out in a race. i enjoy nigel mansell a lot & home win! i also dislike piquet a lot so i really laughed about the comms sharing my hatred & seeing him owned during this race. comms were a pleasant surprise i kept laughing.
hello! i'm cass (she/her, 21)! newer to tumblr but wanting a space to explore more of formula 1 history & just get more of the sport as a whole!
>> live watching f1 since beginning of 23 season
>> cl16 & ferrari rep. fond of others. 2010s grid enjoyer.
i've researched most tracks & lots of history & drivers so i am mostly using this space to blog watching through old races & info dumping for myself & giving my thoughts! enjoyer of lots of the classic drivers & want to learn more about them :)
Once again convinced that Charles' friend group would have been the single-braincell himbo frat boys in uni always doing random shit, while Max and his friends would be gamer discord boys and if they lived in the same building and were neighbors Max would constantly complain about the loud noises of Charles and his friends partying next door
here are some of my favourite facts about the most equivocally ferrari driver to ever exist, gilles villeneuve.
instead of karting, he made his start in snowmobile racing which is why he was so rapid in corners and ballsy in the wet.
he mortgaged his house to buy a helicopter that he flew to races. to announce his arrival to the paddock he would do a fly-by as low to the ground as possible.
when he wasn’t flying helicopters he used to park his road cars by doing a 180° skid into the parking spot which drove enzo ferrari MAD.
once he drag raced his 1981 car (big red cadillac my beloved) against a supersonic airfighter, won and did a bunch of high speed doughnuts at the end of the runway.
this one time he took a couple of his sponsors on a joyride around toronto in one of their shitbox sedans. he literally went on verges and shit to go past traffic.
he played the trumpet bc why not.
literally just the entire zandfoort saga. crazy little man.
also i cannot express this enough; EVERYONE loved him. literally the drivers, team bosses, mechanics, you name it. the og small chaotic pleasant guy of the grid. we miss you gilles and ferrari are still not over you!!
Look I love this man with my whole heart and I have to say that his chaotic vibes were, and still are, unmatched lol.
(please I need a part 2)
till to this day he holds the record for having covered the distance between Monaco and Maranello (435 km) with his red Ferrari 308Gts in just 2 hours and 25 minutes, when usually it takes 4 hours and 23 minutes
he would have probably continued his studies at the Québec Conservatory of music, if it hadn't been for his sudden interest in cars
in 1974, while racing in the Formula Atlantic, he had a bad accident where he broke his left leg, forced with a cast from hip to toe he wasn't able move properly, also he turned out to be a baaad patient: he constantly tried to cut off pieces of the cast, he even asked Joann to help him, but obviously she refused, but a younger doctor suggested to change the cast in one more comfortable so he could move his leg a bit, well that turned out to be a big mistake lol, he was convinced to be able to go back racing, everyone said no, but as the stubborn capricorn he was, he insisted, so the doctors said 'alright you can race if you are able to extricate yourself from the cockpit of the car in sixty seconds' (which was the minimum safety margin in case the car catched fire), well he failed the test and he wasn't allowed to race
Bruno Giacomelli, former Alfa Romeo driver, was another 'victim' of Gilles' reckless stunts with his helicopter, when he got off he was pale as ghost lol
Brenda Vernor, Ferrari's historic secretary, recalls that both Gilles and Jody used to pull pranks on her: "They would lock things up in my office and hide the keys, I'd have to phone Monte Carlo and ask Gilles what he'd done with my keys or my typewriter ribbon"
Once he flew his helicopter with fog and had to navigate by following telephone wires and while in a blizzard near Pra-Loup, he discovered his absence of altitude by gently grazing a snow covered hill
In 1981, prior to the Monza GP, he took part, along with Didier Pironi, Riccardo Patrese, Bruno Giacomelli, Beppi Gabbiani, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Marc Surer and Eddie Cheever, to the 'Rothmans trophy powerboat race' that took place at Lake of Como and yes you guessed it, he won the competition
At the start of his racing career, he used to lie about his age because he was afraid to be considered too old to start a racing career in F1, so he would take two years off his age
Around when he was 17 he subscribed to a lot of motorsport magazines, that his room was filled with posters of racing cars and those magazines helped him to improve his understanding of English
I'm sure there's more out there about him but these facts are the ones that came to my mind ♡
ok part three because gilles lived quite a life for a man so small
he originally test drove for mclaren because james hunt scouted him after gilles whooped his ass in a race. they whacked him in a car for silverstone and he was immediately up to speed despite spinning in pretty much every corner. THIS MAN WAS LAPPING AT THE SAME TIME AS THE REST OF THE FIELD EVEN INCLUDING MULTIPLE SPINS.
mclaren accidentally baited ferrari into giving him a long term contract lol.
he was enzo ferrari’s straight up pride and joy. there is a whole other thing to this that will simply have to be another post.
police would try and pull him over for speeding but gave up when they realised they would never catch up
with regards to the maranello-monaco story, his buddy once asked him to pick up his newly serviced ferrari from the factory and deliver it to his home in monte carlo. gilles absolutely SENT it and by the time he got it back he had driven it so hard that it already needed a new service lmao
keke rosberg said in junior series they used to race eachother so hard that they would be touching wheels whilst in the air? madness. but also said he raced very fairly and wouldn’t fuck you over into a corner <3
he would have to remind himself that he was holding a grudge against someone because he was so bad at staying angry with people. based.
at the absolute washout 1979 us gp he was reportedly 9-11 seconds faster than the rest of the field - jody scheckter, his teammate at the time, was absolutely gobsmacked.
once his front wing broke and he continued the race with it completely obscuring his vision until it broke off (taking half the nose with it). he finished the race third.
sorry for the fuck off post but like. it’s gilles <3
He was rally racing his car with his daughter Melanie in the backseat sleeping and Jacques in his lap egging him on, shouting "Faster, Daddy, Faster!"
He designed his helmet by drawing on a blank white one with crayons while Jacques watched on (I'm convinced it was Jacques' crayons.)
He loved to scare the passengers of his helicopter by flying it in the most deranged way possible. He once tried to stop the overheating battery/engine by flying the thing, and then turning it all off, and as it started to dip he would start it back up again. Jody Scheckter was furious with him.
Piggybacking off that, the only person he seemed to stop his antics with was Jody, who threatened to choke him and Gilles obediently flew the whole ride with no incident.
Used to fly and land helicopters in the night near hotels (which is very illegal bc of poor visibility) and would wake up Niki Lauda by flying the thing right next to his hotel window. He waved at Niki from the cockpit when the Austrian angrily opened his hotel curtains to see who tf it was.
Him, Didier Pironi and Alain Prost would get up to no good in the early days, apparently they crashed a car into someone's vineyard.
Gilles was actually very introverted and kept to himself back in Canada as a kid, his brother Jacques was the social butterfly.
yes he named his son Jacques, bc when he started talking about his brother to his wife the baby started laughing so he decided to just name him Jacques after his brother.
Prost: "We saw each other outside the racetracks, although this happened rarely. He knew how to be so attractive... When we used to look for each other, call to see each other, talk, he quite openly admitted that he missed me, that he wanted so that I would always remain close. I didn't even dare to think that this could be said out loud somehow! We always respected each other, sometimes we hated and loved... This is the special subtlety of our relationship, which we both recognized and which was so difficult, practically unacceptable in the world in which we both lived. Press, it was difficult also because we were still very different and, despite everything, we still got along poorly, without building any illusions on this score, neither he nor I. These were fantastic years, very difficult to survive. Us. It was a beautiful war between two individuals, between two men, between two... Almost gods, so to speak! But we could not live this war, this battle only on trusts, only in some episodes, often ostentatious for the press. We lived it every day, every hour. Lord, how unbearably hard it was! And today it has become... almost poetically beautiful, I would say. What's wrong? It became fantastic. Never before have we been so close to each other as at the very end. And now we are getting closer and closer..."
Alain spoke with an amazing expression of some kind of guilty tenderness in his eyes. And - in the present tense. And when the author of the film, Pierre Jouvet, gently corrected him, he fell silent, and then smiled: - "Yes. .. but I can't say otherwise, because everything is alive for me. And everything goes on."
- Senna vs Prost. Test of Tensile Strength (Formula 1: Destinées extrêmes on Canal+)
all 1980s to 1990s grid because i am fascinated by these crazy men. they were all very queer and very strange, i wish they were better documented in videographic form.
anyways enjoy (was the josef leberer one a little niche? fbdjsb)
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