The 1982 San Marino GP will go down in history with Pironi’s controversial victory over Villeneuve, a beloved and “cursed” Ferrari couple. The French and Canadian will never be friends again because of that race, and Gilles will die in Zolder a few days later.
1982 really seems to be the right year to bring the F1 world title back to Ferrari: Mauro Forghieri, assisted by the work of the British engineer Harvey Postlethwaite, presents the Ferrari 126 C2, a car that had the engine power that the previous 126 C already boasted. , winner in Montecarlo and Jarama in the 1981 world championship above all thanks to two unforgettable driving tests by Gilles Villeneuve, combines a more robust frame and highly effective aerodynamics. It is the machine with which the Canadian is convinced he can become champion. The same conviction begins to have also Didier Pironi, the reassuring Parisian with whom Gilles immediately got along, whom he often hosts on the helicopter, with whom he loves to have fun competing on their respective road Ferraris. On the other hand, if Villeneuve, tied as he is to the code of loyalty and friendship, thinks that the team is ready to repay him for what he did in 1979 with Scheckter, perhaps Pironi believes, on the other hand, that Ferrari does not speak out. never clearly as to which of the two pilots is the one to favor for the hunt for the world title. Not even if one of the two is called Gilles Villeneuve.