Didier Pironi
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| Nation: |
 France
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| Automobile / Formula 1 world championship | |||||||||
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| First start: | 1978 Argentina Grand Prix | ||||||||
| Last start: | 1982 French Grand Prix | ||||||||
| Constructors | |||||||||
| 1978–1979 Tyrrell · 1980 Ligier · 1981–1982 Ferrari | |||||||||
| statistics | |||||||||
| World Cup balance: | Vice World Champion ( 1982 ) | ||||||||
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| World Cup points : | 101 | ||||||||
| Podiums : | 13 | ||||||||
| Leadership laps : | 265 over 1107 km | ||||||||
Didier Joseph Louis Pironi (born March 26, 1952 in Villecresnes , † August 23, 1987 in Southampton , United Kingdom ) was a French racing driver .
Career
Didier Pironi was the son of a manufacturer and followed the classic path of many French racing drivers. Enthusiastic about racing through his half-brother José Louis Dolhem , he won the Volant Elf of the French racing driver school Winfield in 1973 and then proved himself in the French and European Formula Renault , which he won in 1974 and 1976, before he finished third in the Formula 2 European Championship in 1977 behind his team-mate René Arnoux and the American Eddie Cheever .
In 1978 , Pironi won the Le Mans 24-hour race with the Renault team . He had competed in the endurance classic in 1976 ( Porsche ) and 1977 (Renault), albeit with less success. In 1980 he started again on a BMW M1 and finished 14th.
From 1978 to 1982 Pironi drove in Formula 1 . For 1978 Ken Tyrrell hired him for his Formula 1 team alongside the experienced Patrick Depailler . Tyrrell had followed Pironi's career from the start and was on the jury of the Ecole Winfield as early as 1973 .
1978 was still more of an apprenticeship year for Pironi, even if his talent was always visible, but the following year he usually surpassed his much more experienced teammate Jean-Pierre Jarier . In 1980 he switched to Ligier and celebrated his first Grand Prix victory at the Belgian Grand Prix in Zolder . He finished the season in fifth place. Numerous failures in the second half of the season prevented a better placement.
In 1981 Pironi switched to Ferrari , where his first season was unsatisfactory. In 1982 the Ferrari was much more stable and Pironi won the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola . This race went down in Formula 1 history because Pironi overtook his team-mate Gilles Villeneuve on the last lap in the Tosa curve and thus snatched victory from him. The two drivers stopped speaking to each other. Just two weeks later, Villeneuve was killed in a training accident in Zolder.
Contrary to popular belief, it has by no means been proven that a stable order actually existed; the statements of various team members are contradictory. In addition, the race in Imola on April 25, 1982 was only the fourth run of the year, so placing a stall order this early in the season would have been both unusual and incomprehensible, especially since Villeneuve had zero points and Pironi one point at that time. Villeneuve had certainly assumed, possibly due to a "private" agreement between him and Pironi, that the race "belonged to him". However, it is not, as is sometimes shown, that the two drove one behind the other during the entire race and suddenly overtook Pironi in the last corner. Rather, there were numerous, sometimes hair-raising overtaking maneuvers by the two of them against each other, so that the team management felt compelled to hold out the sign "SLOW" so as not to jeopardize an impending victory. That first happened when Pironi was in the lead. The chances of victory seemed great, as most of the British teams boycotted the race because of a dispute between FISA and the manufacturers' association FOCA , so that in addition to the two Ferraris, only the two Renaults of René Arnoux and Alain Prost were actually eligible for a victory.
Pironi celebrated his second win of the season in the Netherlands and took the lead in the World Championship two weeks later with a second place in Great Britain . In Canada the engine came from Pironis Ferrari. He was on pole position at the start line . Riccardo Paletti couldn't avoid it and sped into the rear of the Ferrari at high speed. This accident cost Paletti his life. Pironi finished the race in ninth place. It was the only time that he finished a race from pole position.
His Formula 1 career ended in Hockenheim as a result of a serious accident. In training for the Grand Prix of Germany he collided in the pouring rain with the Renault of Alain Prost , after the pole position had secured. The Ferrari overturned several times and crashed into the guardrails. Pironi suffered multiple broken legs and had to endure many operations. Until his accident, Pironi was leading the Formula 1 overall standings by a large margin over the competition. The Finn Keke Rosberg was the sporting beneficiary and became world champion at the end of the season.
Although Pironi was cured and was able to walk again symptom-free from November 1983, he did not return to Formula 1. Although he drove in 1986 for AGS and Ligier tests; but AGS soon withdrew from Formula 1, and Ligier's comeback plans were not pursued. In addition, he would probably have had to pay back the large amount of insurance he received after his accident.
Didier Pironi took part in a total of 72 Formula 1 races, three of which he won. He was on pole position four times, set the fastest lap five times and scored a total of 101 championship points.
Pironi switched to motor boating in 1986 , where he was soon able to celebrate some successes. In 1987 he was killed in a boat race off the Isle of Wight when his boat hit a wave and overturned.
Didier Pironi was buried in Grimaud , a small town not far from Saint-Tropez in southern France. Shortly after Pironi's death, his partner gave birth to twins; the children's names are Didier and Gilles.
In 1988 his half-brother José Louis Dolhem , who died in a plane crash, was buried next to him.
The offshore racing boat "Colibri", with which Pironi had an accident, has been restored and is now in the Manoir de l'Automobile, a museum in Lohéac in Brittany . There is also a Ligier JS11 / 15 from the 1980 Formula 1 season driven by Pironi .
Success statistics
- 1974: French Formula Renault Champion
- 1976: Champion of Formula Renault Europe
Statistics in the automobile / Formula 1 world championship
These statistics include all participations of the driver in the Formula 1 World Championship , which until 1980 was known as the Automobile World Championship.
Grand Prix victories
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Single results
| season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 |
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| 1978 |
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| 14th | 6th | 6th | DNF | 5 | 6th | 12 | DNF | 10 | DNF | 5 | DNF | DNF | DNF | 10 | 7th | |
| 1979 |
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| DNF | 4th | DNF | DSQ | 6th | 3 | DNF | DNF | 10 | 9 | 7th | DNF | 10 | 5 | 3 | ||
| 1980 |
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| DNF | 4th | 3 | 6th | 1 | DNF | 2 | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | 6th | 3 | 3 | |||
| 1981 |
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| DNF | DNF | DNF | 5 | 8th | 4th | 15th | 5 | DNF | DNF | 9 | DNF | 5 | DNF | 9 | ||
| 1982 |
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| 18th | 6th | DNF | 1 | DNS | 2 * | 3 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | DNS |
| Legend | ||
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| colour | abbreviation | meaning |
| gold | - | victory |
| silver | - | 2nd place |
| bronze | - | 3rd place |
| green | - | Placement in the points |
| blue | - | Classified outside the point ranks |
| violet | DNF | Race not finished (did not finish) |
| NC | not classified | |
| red | DNQ | did not qualify |
| DNPQ | failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify) | |
| black | DSQ | disqualified |
| White | DNS | not at the start (did not start) |
| WD | withdrawn | |
| Light Blue | PO | only participated in the training (practiced only) |
| TD | Friday test driver | |
| without | DNP | did not participate in the training (did not practice) |
| INJ | injured or sick | |
| EX | excluded | |
| DNA | did not arrive | |
| C. | Race canceled | |
| no participation in the World Cup | ||
| other | P / bold | Pole position |
| SR / italic | Fastest race lap | |
| * | not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered |
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| () | Streak results | |
| underlined | Leader in the overall standings | |
Le Mans results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
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| 1976 |
Porsche Kremer Racing
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Porsche 934 |
Marie-Claude Charmasson
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Bob Wollek
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Rank 19 | |
| 1977 |
Haran et de Chaunac team
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Alpine A442 |
René Arnoux
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Guy Fréquelin
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failure | Turbo damage |
| 1978 |
Renault Sport
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Alpine A442B |
Jean-Pierre Jaussaud
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Overall victory | ||
| 1980 |
BMW France
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BMW M1 |
Dieter Quester
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Marcel Mignot
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Rank 14 |
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
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| SURNAME | Pironi, Didier |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pironi, Didier Joseph Louis (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 26, 1952 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Villecresnes |
| DATE OF DEATH | 23rd August 1987 |
| Place of death | Southampton , UK |