Pironi: The Champion that never was.

In 82, Didier Pironi was leading the championship before his accident.

82 was a sad year for Ferrari with Gilles Villeneuve dead and Didier Pironi accident

 

I have it and have read it. I thought it was most interesting. The author makes no secret that he was a fan of Pironi and certainly Imola '82 is told from a different point of view. Taking that into account, there is a great deal in the book that was new to me and I would certainly recommend it to anyone with an interest in its subject, especially given it is not very expensive. It is not a truly great biography in the way that I think Gerald Donaldson's Villeneuve biography is but in many ways Pironi's story is quite extraordinary and to my mind this book is well worth the time taken to read it.

Jonathan

 

Gilles is my biggest hero, i trully believe he was teh greates driver that ever lived, this being said, i think Didier was very, very good, had it not been fait i believe he could have been as great as Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet, he was very fast, confident, hard worker, had every qualitie needed to win multiple championships....true he was slower than Gilles, that he didn't heev the same ability behind the whee...but then, nobody else did!..Pironi was at the time regarded by many as the second best.

 

Pironi was a very competent driver - when in the right car. in 82 - that should have produced a Ferrari F-1 champion. The Gilles Didier fight at Imola is a sad chapter with fault on both sides. Didier clearly felt that Ferrari was stacked on Villeneuve's side, and he worked hard to swing the team to him... and that Marco Piccini's family and Pironi's did business together helped. Pironi also was the lead driver in that year in the drivers walk out at SA gp, and all the legal fuss over super licenses & being bonded to one team. Villeneuve on the other hand just wanted to drive and was less cunning and ruthless out of the car. Gilles Villeneuve was perhaps the very last " gentleman driver" who really raced for the love of it - and money and fame came 2nd & 3rd.... if at all. Pironi was more in the Prost mold, thinking guy, and always seeking an advantage. he had the benefit of learning from Ken Tyrrell and Jackie Stewart and support from Elf, and Francois Guitier.... the accident at Hockenheim was shocking - and pretty much not needed as he was fastest that day... but he was seeking to ensure that he was stamping his authority as the lead French driver of the day... Prost quickly coming from nowhere... Had they not held the Swiss Gp, there was a good chance that he could have still won the championship... but it was a stretch. if he had been able to recover & Ferrari had maintained pace - and not sat out the Dutch GP, he could have won the title .. 82 was a year that nobody wanted to win.

 

Can you post a picture of the front cover of the book pls?

 

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I have seen an interview with Pironi some time after the accident where he said that he 'wasn't going that fast, just faster than anyone else' and that he needed to be out because it might have rained for the race. If there is blame to be apportioned for the Hockenheim accident then you might very well say that Prost really should not have been trundling around so slowly for no reason. But really it was just one of those things.

Maybe you mean the Belgian GP as Pironi won the Dutch GP?

Well yes he would have won if there had been no Swiss GP because Rosberg took 9 points for the win there and won the championship by a lot less than that but there are many ifs you can use to come up with any result you want in any sport.

Jonathan

 

You are right... I was getting my years confused... when Lauda had his accident - they skipped Zandvoort... I seem to remember that Prost was on his slow down lap, when Pironi hit him..?

 

Excellent post, very very correct. There has been much unfair judgment of him by the British press in particular. I will post my Didier memories later, am on deadline now.

 

Do not underestimate the influence of Marco Piccinini on Enzo Ferrari when it comes to politics.

"In general, i always respect people, especially if they are in authority. But they have to learn the respect and i don't like two faced people, nice
in front of you and the contrary when their back is turned."
Patrick Tambay words about Piccinini (27 Patrick Tambay The Ferrari years book, Evro Publishing).

Pironi was not the team fastest driver. He had to find another way to win. That's it.

 

I hadn't realized that he was Jose Dolhem's half-brother (and, confusingly, first cousin as well). Dolhem finished 9th at Le Mans in 1973 in a Charles Pozzi-entered Ferrari Daytona, and raced in the 1974 U.S. Grand Prix for Surtees, where his car was withdrawn following the fatal accident to teammate Helmuth Koinigg. Dolhem died in a plane crash, and he and Pironi are buried in the same plot.

 

The 82 Ferrari drivers were both heroes of mine, although there was nobody like Gilles at the limit. And I've continued to read things about them both over the years. One thing I came across recently was Dr Sid Watkins book Life at the Limit (1996) which had some date that was developed regarding heart rates of the two drivers. I recall thinking "why would any driver allow for that comparison?". Clearly GV seemed less stressed than DP, whether as a result of physical size or attitude is not clear, but it always seemed that if the data were known to both drivers it might have caused DP some concern, which he perhaps compensated for in other ways. Speculation of course. I respect them both.