Villeneuve and Pironi Documentary

[f13dfx]

Villeneuve is the reason why I started following F1 back in 1979! I even went to the extent of getting our strata council to allow me to put up a 10’ satellite dish so I could watch F1 races broadcast live from Europe! Spent my honeymoon watching him race in the first ever Las Vegas F1GP at Caesar’s Palace back on October 1981.

[ronnie1972]

Like a few others here, I don’t have Max, and will wait until it makes it to Blue Ray, DVD, etc., however I am very interested in seeing it. I remember watching GV in the halcyon days of the North American Formula Atlantic Championship back in the mid-seventies, the competition was fierce and the talent in the series was incredible, racing with Gilles were the likes of Keke Rosberg, Bobby Rahal, Price Cobb, Tom Gloy, Danny Sullivan, Tom Klauser, etc
I remember spectating at a Atlantic race with my uncle and he said “this Villeneuve kid will be really special, if he lives long enough” Gilles always seemed to step over the edge to often, and you always got the feeling that eventually it would catch up with him.
Personally I always thought Pironi was the more complete driver, and had he not crashed out of the sport at Hockenheim I suspect he, not Prost would have dominated the turbo era. But like Gilles, he lived on the edge and flirted with fate too often.

[ronnie1972]

Happy New Year all! Watched it last night on YouTube (with the Eastern European subtitles?). I found it beautifully done, they interview everyone involved with Didier & Gilles and the archive footage is tremendous. For those of us who are old enough to remember that era it’s a must watch, and even for younger fans it gives a great insight into F1 in the late 70’s-early 80’s. Joanne Villeneuve and Catherine Pironi both have their opinions which one would expect, but at the end of the day it’s left to the viewer to form their own. Mine has always been that Didier was way over the top vilified by certain members of the racing press who resented Pironi because he came from a wealthy Parisian family and Gilles was from working class Qubec.

[bossy122]

The only thing that disappointed me was seeing Gilles and Jackie Stewart on the Imola podium conversing and all Jackie said was, "He was very upset". No kidding. What did you say to try and calm him down, if anything? Oh, well. And honestly, I didn't need to see Gilles' open casket, viewer beware.

[feelgood]

Amazing documentary! Small mistake though…. They wrongfully used footage of a 1981 crashed 126CK in the segment which covers Didier’s Hockenheim accident!

[Hugeprong]

I watched it and was pleased to see how Didier's son is now working at Mercedes F1. A nice counterpoint to the great success of Jacques Villeneuve in the 1990s.

The crash footage of Gilles' accident was horrible. The way that the 126C2 broke in half so easily (in both the Zolder and the Hockenheim accidents) was pretty shocking and one does wonder if it had some inherent chassis-weakness. I had forgotten that Gilles had an "off" immediately before Pironi overtook him but as the commentary pointed out, if Gilles hadnt slowed down earlier (as he thought there was no threat behind), Didier wouldnt have been so close behind him anyway.

The British GP in 1977 was my first ever Grand Prix and of course it was also Gilles' F1 debut in the Mclaren M23. Without an unnecessary pitstop, I think he might have finished close to the podium positions - albeit helped by a number of retirements. I remember seeing the number "40" on the car and wondering who this new man was!

I also recall how shatteringly fast Didier was at Brands Hatch in the (slightly illegal!) JS11 in 1980 and how he disappeared off into a huge lead at the start. Despite Brands Hatch being a short track, I see that he qualified 6 seconds faster than the pole time from 1978! It was awful finding out more about his powerboat accident. Like Gilles at Zolder, he sounds slightly as if he had ceased to care about his own safety, or sanity.

A fascinating film all round. Now I am looking forward to the Brawn GP documentary with Keanu Reeves....