Didier
Pironi

Didier Pironi was born on 26 March 1952 in Villecresnes, in the Val-de-Marne department of France. He began studying engineering but then enrolled at the Winfield Racing School at Paul Ricard. As the best student of 1972 he won a scholarship for a season of racing. In 1977 he won the Formula Three support race at the Monaco Grand Prix and finished third in the European Formula Two Championship. His half-brother José Dolhem was also a racing driver.

Pironi entered Formula One with Tyrrell in 1978 and made his debut at the Argentine Grand Prix. That same year he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Renault, sharing the Alpine A442B with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud. He entered the race four times between 1976 and 1980. He stayed with Tyrrell in 1979, took his first podium at the Belgian Grand Prix and ended the season tenth in the standings. In 1980 he joined Ligier alongside Jacques Laffite, won the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder for his first victory and finished fifth in the championship.

Ferrari signed him for 1981, with Gilles Villeneuve as his team-mate, and he ended that year thirteenth. In 1982 he won the San Marino Grand Prix after a disputed battle with Villeneuve. Two weeks later Villeneuve died in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. Pironi was leading the championship when he crashed in heavy rain during qualifying for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim and was seriously injured. He never raced in Formula One again. Keke Rosberg moved ahead of him in the standings and became champion, with Pironi losing the title by five points.

In Formula One, Pironi started 70 races, won three of them, scored 13 podiums and took four pole positions. Outside Formula One he was also a race winner in the BMW M1 Procar Championship. In 1986 he tested for AGS and Ligier, but a comeback did not materialise. He then turned to offshore powerboat racing. On 23 August 1987 he was killed in an accident during a race near the Isle of Wight, and two crew members also died. Pironi was 35.

Source: Wikipedia, “Didier Pironi”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.