Pironi, the one who was to be the first French World Champion

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40 years ago today, Didier Pironi clinched his first victory in Formula 1. A look back at the career of a driver for whom the world title seemed promised, before a tragic fate decides otherwise.

Didier Pironi was made for the Formula 1 era ground effect. His bravery was as limitless as the grip offered by these cars. In reality, there was a limit, but it was excessively high. In addition, he constantly knew how to progress, refining from year to year a raw talent. Was he an absolute genius? No … And yet, in 1982, he seemed doomed to become the first French Formula 1 World Champion until fate – some would say karma – make him lose this opportunity.

In marked contrast to his generally cold demeanor outside of a race car, Pironi got out of his car with a purple face, sweating and apparently exhausted. It was hardly unusual during the time of the ground effect, at a time when the stables had to use very resistant suspensions to maintain the ride height of the cars. With the adrenaline rush, Didier was able to erase the fatigue caused by these monstrous brutality cars and, like Alan Jones, he could bring a car with ground effect close to a limit which he still managed to feel despite numbness.

It is said that Pironi would perhaps have become World Champion in 1981 if he had chosen to stay at Ligier rather than go to Ferrari. Instead, his only season in Guy Ligier’s stable in 1980 was one that confirmed that he was a top talent. Strong, experienced and sometimes very fast teammate Jacques Laffite, there were many days when the youngest, then in his third F1 season, had to give way to his elder. But in its best days, Pironi was on another level. In fact, that year it was on another level compared to almost everyone else, except for Gilles Villeneuve, who was driving the Ferrari 312T5, and the two men fighting for the world title, Alan Jones (Williams FW07B) and Nelson piquet (Brabham BT49).

His talent was such that if he had teamed up with Jones or Piquet, we would not have wagered on who would have emerged de facto as the leader, because Didier seemed to combine the best features of each: Jones’ determination over the length of a race as well as its pace, enthusiasm and flair of Piquet. If Ligier had managed to have a regular car in 1980, the fight for the title could have been three, but that was not the path promised to the team, including during its best years. In 1979, his JS11 had won three of the first five Grands Prix and won four pole positions, but after the first third of the season it had lost its advantage, having neither the pace of Williams nor the regularity of Ferrari. In 1980, replacing a Ferrari with a Brabham would be like having an idea of ​​what Pironi was facing with the new car, the JS11 / 15. Its designer Gérard Ducarouge had improved the aerodynamic properties of the car, but the support was such that increasing pressure was exerted on the suspension elements.

Pironi also experienced a lot of bad luck. Despite the altitude of Interlagos, which gave the advantage to cars with a turbo block, Didier had managed to place his Cosworth-powered Ligier in the front row of the Brazilian Grand Prix. Unfortunately in the race, a puncture forced him to fall to fourth place. At Zolder he dominated, leading the race from the start and winning with 47 seconds lead. It was forty years ago today. Subsequently, all hope of doing the same in Monaco was dashed when, after having signed pole and dominated three quarters of the race, Pironi lost a gearbox before leaving the track at the Casino, forced to retire .

The mishap could have been repaired during the stable’s Grand Prix at home on the Paul Ricard, but Pironi had failed to beat Jones there. Sign of the magnitude of his ambition, he had fooled his teammate Jacques Laffite before the race, telling him that the wider tires he had tested before made no difference. Laffite took it at its word before finding that the Williams pilots as well as Pironi had opted for these gums. Unhappy with the situation, Laffite had finished half a minute behind Jones and 25 seconds behind Pironi.

A week later, it was Pironi’s turn to take pole before a new race which should have turned to his advantage. But after having led to the 19th lap, he found himself last following a puncture and an idle lap. Launched in an ascent to fifth place, he signed a new lap record which was not beaten until three years later by a field largely made up of F1 with turbo engine.

There was another wasted opportunity at the last Grand Prix of the season in Montreal, where Pironi stole the start. It was not much when you put the incident in the context of the time, and one wonders if the fact of having penalized him for a minute was not due to the fact that he could get in the way of the two candidates for the title, Jones and Piquet. Although first to cross the line 40 seconds ahead of the competition, the Ligier # 25 was ranked third.

It was an unsatisfactory conclusion for the only year that Pironi spent on the French team, but he knew it would have no bearing on his future. His brilliant driving experience in Brazil at the start of the season convinced Enzo Ferrari that he had the potential to replace Jody Scheckter, and an agreement was reached during the summer. Pironi had not warned Guy Ligier, he learned the news by reading the Autosport magazine! Nevertheless, Didier’s pragmatic thinking was judicious. Deeply ambitious and just as perceptive, he believed that he needed a car with a turbo in 1981 and knew that the Scuderia, finally abandoning the flat-12 naturally aspirated engine, would be able to design a ground effect chassis.

As was the case with Patrick Depailler at Tyrrell in 1978, then Jacques Laffite at Ligier in 1980, Pironi was aware that by joining Ferrari, he was entering the sanctuary of a holder who was dear to him, in the person of Gilles Villeneuve. But he felt ready to prove his worth. He was not one to be intimidated by such an environment.

After winning the Volant Elf in 1972, Pironi had won the 1974 Formula Renault title and then won the Super Renault championship in 1976. In 1977, he was beaten by his compatriot and teammate René Arnoux in Formula 2, before returning to F3 to win the prestigious side race of the Monaco Grand Prix. It was there that he caught the eye of Ken Tyrrell, whose team was sponsored by Elf.

For his first season, Pironi was rarely at the level of his teammate Patrick Depailler. Didier listened to the advice of sage Uncle Ken – and his reprimands when he folded the car – to collect a few points (attributed only to the first six of each race at that time). Pironi’s main satisfaction in 1978 was his victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Renault, alongside Jean-Pierre Jaussaud. The French manufacturer then wanted to enroll the 26-year-old driver in his F1 team for 1979, but no clause in the two-year contract between Pironi and Tyrrell did not allow it.

Ken Tyrrell’s refusal to let him go annoyed Pironi but did not affect his performance behind the wheel of the Tyrrell 009, with which he clinched his first two podiums while gradually gaining the upper hand over his teammate Jean-Pierre Jarier. Gaining the upper hand over JPJ gave him confidence when he joined Ligier for a third season in F1 which further strengthened this assurance.

With Villeneuve, it was quite another matter, and there is no doubt that the difficulty of taming the Ferrari 126CK of 1981 widened the gap between the two men. For the first time in his F1 career, Pironi had a really delicate car, with latency in the turbo and a chassis designed by an engineer, Mauro Forghieri. At a time when the air was becoming the predominant factor for the competitiveness of a car, it may not have been ideal. Harvey Postlethwaite, who would design the Ferraris for the next six years, estimated that the 126CK had only a quarter of the aerodynamic support available to a Williams or a Brabham. It was probably an exaggeration, but the car was still a wild beast. Villeneuve had enough confidence to control it, while Pironi, not wishing to upset his new employer, was much more cautious.

Which doesn’t mean it was hopeless: far from it. On five occasions – although three of them imply special circumstances – Didier beat Gilles in qualifying in the 15 events of the 1981 season. In racing, he impressed at Imola, Zolder and Silverstone. But besides that, there were weekends like Monaco, where he crashed while trying to compete with Villeneuve in qualifying, then, starting 17th on the grid, gave a turn to his victorious teammate. Gilles ended the season with two victories, in seventh place in the championship, while Pironi signed his best result during this famous Monegasque weekend by taking fourth position.

The 126C2 designed by Postelthwaite for 1982 was a big improvement over its predecessor, although not yet at the level of a Renault while being more reliable, and not as agile as the (too) light Brabham and Williams with Cosworth engine. Pironi and Villeneuve were encouraged by the enormous progress of the chassis department and knew that Postelthwaite would continually improve its machine over the season.

A terrible test accident on the Paul Ricard, due to a suspension failure, could have lost confidence in Pironi, who still gave the feeling of not being at the level of his teammate. But the turning point would come at the time of the fourth Grand Prix, in Imola. Not in qualifying, where Villeneuve was more than a second faster on the lap, but when Didier deceived his teammate in the race by making him believe that they were only playing for the pleasure of the public.

The agreement in effect at Ferrari was to slow down and maintain positions once first and second place appeared secure. This happened when Renault capitulated and Villeneuve was ahead of Pironi. Given Ferrari’s concerns about managing fuel on this very demanding circuit, Villeneuve lowered the pace. He had no problem with the idea of ​​seeing Didier pretend to fight with him for the pleasure of the crowd, but he was alarmed by seeing the Frenchman increasing the pace, forcing him to do the same to recover first place and slow down again. On entering the last lap, Gilles was back in the lead and almost coasting when his teammate took his head back at the Tosa turn without ever returning it.

Villeneuve was furious, Pironi publicly proclaimed his innocence, and during the qualifications of the next Grand Prix at Zolder, Gilles killed himself without ever having forgiven a man whom he previously considered his friend (despite the warnings of his wife Joann, according to whom Didier was a politician). Ferrari withdrew from the Belgian Grand Prix before returning to Monaco with a single car for Pironi. He now found himself without the presence of someone faster in the sister car, before Villeneuve was finally replaced by Patrick Tambay.

In the last moments of the Monaco Grand Prix, Didier were in the running for the victory but he ran out of gas at the exit of the tunnel. He was classified second then went on with a new podium in Detroit. In Canada, he signed pole position but stalled at the start: the beginner’s Osella Riccardo Paletti collided with the Ferrari, causing the death of the young Italian.

Pironi, who had tried to help F1 doctor Sid Watkins to rescue Paletti, was going to control his emotions to make the second start at the wheel of a mule which required some adjustments at mid-race, causing him to lose three laps and any possibility to register points. But the Frenchman was incredibly fast, made the fastest lap in the race, and in the next test he easily won at Zandvoort.

Then there was free practice at Hockenheim, where the sky fell on Ferrari’s head for the second time in four months. In the dry, Pironi had signed what was going to be pole position, but during a session in the rain he tested the Goodyear tires. Arriving at the Stadium, he thought the Williams of Derek Daly pulled away from him to let him pass, but the Irishman actually avoided the projections of the RenaultAlain Prost. In a way reminiscent of the fatal accident at Villeneuve in Zolder with Jochen massPironi hit the back of Prost’s car head-on and took off before landing violently, suffering serious injuries to his legs.

Enzo Ferrari promised Pironi, then 30, that a bucket would wait for him as soon as he was ready to resume competition. But 33 operations later, this was still not the case. Four years after his accident, Pironi carried out tests for AGS and Ligier and, although showing all the signs of a legitimately rusted driver, he planned to return to F1 with the Larrousse-Calmels team. Finally, he decided to devote himself to offshore racing, until he lost his life in a terrible accident in August 1987, off the Isle of Wight.

When it comes to establishing a list of the greatest F1 drivers who have never been a World Champion, Pironi is often overlooked when it seemed obvious that he was going to achieve this ultimate goal in 1982. Perhaps is – because he won only three Grands Prix and signed four pole positions, but he was only competing in his fifth season in F1. Perhaps it is because it was not up to Villeneuve’s performance … but who would be?

After Gilles’ death, there were many drivers of an equivalent level at the top of F1, although having different qualities: Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, ​​René Arnoux, Keke Rosberg and Nelson Piquet. You would have to be brave to suggest that Didier Pironi had no place among them.

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