Villeneuve-Pironi, what is the ‘betrayal’ of Imola and what happened after
On 25 April 1982, the two Ferrari drivers were leading the San Marino GP. Due to an incorrect interpretation of a team sign, the Frenchman overtook his Canadian colleague, crossing the finish line first. Villeneuve accused him of not having respected the agreements which provided for the “freezing” of the positions on the track. It’s the end of their friendship and their relationship (now told in a documentary broadcast at Christmas on Sky). Two weeks later “The Aviator” will lose his life in an accident at Zolder
Gilles Villeneuve he is remembered as one of the most iconic and spectacular Formula 1 drivers for his daring driving style. The Canadian never won a World Championship and died very young, at the age of 32, in an accident at Zolder, during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian GP, after his Ferrari collided with Jochen Mass’s March. Aviatore”, as he was nicknamed, however, are also intertwined with those of his team colleague Didier Pironi. Their rivalry it arose in particular from an episode that went down in history as “the betrayal of Imola”. Here’s what happened.
What is “the betrayal of Imola”
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Gilles Villeneuve, the story of the Ferrari driver who died 40 years ago. PHOTO
The 1982 F1 season saw Gilles Villeneuve and the Frenchman Didier Pironi at the wheel of the two Ferraris, who had arrived in Maranello the year before. The Canadian started the season badly, requesting the first races with two retirements and a disqualification. The fourth stage of the world championship is that of Imola, for the San Marino GP. A duel between Ferrari and Renault already emerged from the free practice sessions, but the French single-seaters in the race were forced to retire. The Ferraris find themselves in the lead with a large advantage. The pre-race team orders envisage displaying the “Slow” sign on the wall to instruct the drivers to slow down and maintain their positions to avoid letting the one-two finish fade. Villeneuve complies and slows down, while Pironi interprets the team’s signal in a different way, as a warning not to push. He then overtook his teammate who thought of a maneuver to entertain the public. The two then began a close duel and overtook each other several times in the final laps. At the finish line Pironi wins in front of Villeneuve, who returns to the pits and to the award ceremony in a rage. He will then vent shortly after with journalists accusing Pironi of not having respected the agreements. The Frenchman will reply by denying that there was an agreement to freeze the positions in the race.
The end of friendship
This episode meant the end of the friendship between the two drivers, despite Enzo Ferrari himself trying to mend the relationship. Villeneuve thought that the team did not intend to support him in the race for the world title. And in those weeks, rumors emerged according to which the driver began to meditate a farewell to Maranello to spend the following year at Williams or even (as his wife Joanna later recounted) to found his own independent racing team.
Villeneuve’s death
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Villenueve – Pironi, the doc on the story of two legends on Sky
Two weeks later, the next Grand Prix was held, that of Belgium. At Ferrari, the atmosphere was tense and the two drivers hadn’t cleared up. Pironi had tried to talk without success and Villeneuve had continued with the accusations in the newspapers. On 8 May 1982, while qualifying was underway, Villeneuve had the eighth fastest time and Pironi sixth. The Canadian was facing the descent that leads to the “curve in the woods” of the Zolder circuit when he found himself in front of the March of Mass who, seeing him arriving, moved to the right. But the Ferrari driver also went in that direction and the two cars collided. Car number 27 took off from the ground and flew about twenty-five meters, making two laps in the air before crashing to the ground. In the rebound, Villeneuve was thrown out of the cockpit. Transported to the Louvain clinic with very serious injuries, he was kept alive for a few hours with the machines but his conditions were desperate and without the possibility of improvement. His wife, who had arrived in Belgium in the meantime, gave the authorization to disconnect the machines at 21.12. Gilles Villeneuve died at the age of 32.
The documentary
The story of Villeneuve and Pironi is at the center of a documentary produced by Sky Italia and Sky Studios and made by Noah Media Group, which will be broadcast exclusively on Sky Documentaries on 25 December at 21.15, streaming only on NOW and also available on request. It tells the gripping and tragic story of two Formula 1 legends, with contributions, for the first time, from both families. Through archival footage and exclusive interviews with the families, the documentary explores their lives and the relationship that culminated in the Imola episode.