The Horrifying Story F1 Wants You To Forget..

It's the 8th of May 1982 at Zolder.

With eight minutes left in qualifying, Ferrari star Gilles Villeneuve, driven by not just ambition but a darker motivation, is going to change Formula One forever.

It will be this precise moment that turns Ferrari's hopes for the championship into a horrible nightmare.

This is the story of the disaster Formula One wants to forget.

I always liked speed more or less.

When I remember being, I don't know, six, seven, eight years old and telling my father all the time to go quicker or to pass the guy in front in the road or...

I just loved speed.

Back in 1977, Gilles Villeneuve wasn't a big name in Formula 1 at all.

Yet, none other than Enzo Ferrari took a chance on him.

What did that young driver have back then?

Born in Quebec in 1950, Villeneuve soon swapped from snowmobiles, a sport in which he excelled internationally, for car racing.

He started competing in Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic, winning both.

The Canadian, as you will see, was a man of many talents.

His big break came in 1976 at a Formula Atlantic event in Trois-Rivières, where some F1 drivers were invited.

Pretty crazy that F1 drivers raced in these events with young kids.

Gilles, practically in his own backyard, outshone everyone.

Gilles got invited to race for McLaren in the 1977 British Grand Prix, so they had an extra driver for that race.

Back then, teams could have as many drivers as they wanted, whenever they wanted.

Carlos Sainz would have saved himself a lot of trouble.

Anyway, while pushing the car to the max during free practice, the Canadian kept spinning out.

But, amazingly, he didn't ever damage the car.

Pretty much sums up his F1 career, to be honest, consistently pushing the limits to be the fastest.

Unfortunately, an unnecessary pit stop ruined his strong performance in the race, leaving him in just 11th place.

based on that single performance and without ever participating in F3 or F2.

Enzo Ferrari signed Villeneuve to step in for the two-time world champ Niki Lauda, starting from the last two races of 1977.

Il Comendatore saw something in the young Canadian, and he was more than right.

By 1982, with six wins in F1, driving a Ferrari that wasn't very competitive, Villeneuve had already become a legend among the T4C.

He gave the fans some of the most epic races in F1 history, like his incredible battle with René Arnoux in the 1979 French Grand Prix.

And Villeneuve got...

Incredible!

Villeneuve stood on everything, locked up his tyres, got the line, and he's back into second position on the last lap but won, and the French crowd aren't very happy about that, and who can blame them?

or his astonishing blind podium finish at the 1981 Canadian Grand Prix.

Gilles Villeneuve will never voluntarily give up and off comes the wing and he immediately

had the car spin, half spin, as the wing came off and affected the balance and handling of the car.

But now, paradoxically enough, with that spoiler off, things will be much easier for Gilles Villeneuve."

But, along with his moments of brilliance, there were unfortunately also some more than tragic accidents, like the one in Japan in 1977, where two spectators lost their light, or the one he had at Imola in 1980.

With highs and lows, one thing was clear.

Villeneuve always gave his all on track.

He fought until the very last corner and was always incredibly loyal to his team, acting as a devoted teammate to Jody Schechter in 1979.

That year, Gilles won three races, beating Schechter at the beginning of the season.

where he won two out of four races, but the team told him to support his more experienced teammate.

And Gilles did exactly that, giving up his chances to win, even when he was faster.

Everyone saw him as true world champion material and believed his moment would come very soon.

And after some mediocre seasons due to very, and I mean very, bad cars, 1982 looked like it was going to be Ferrari's year.

Sounds familiar?

Even back then, the Tifosi already had their delusional confidence.

They had a completely redesigned car, a more advanced turbo engine, and two young and very fast drivers who got along great.

A very exciting prospect in number 27 is Gilles Villeneuve because he has a new car, the new Ferrari 126C.

With their best car in years and a dream duo, Ferrari had everything they needed to beat their faster rivals Williams, Brabham and Renault.

Everything was perfect.

Or at least, it seemed.

As you'll see, the smallest of incidents made Ferrari go from having the dream duo into an absolute nightmare.

This was largely due to a lack of communication and uncontrolled emotions.

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The season started in the worst possible way.

Villeneuve retired from the first two races, and in Long Beach, was disqualified for an illegal wing, costing him a podium finish.

Meanwhile, Pironi's best result was just sixth place.

So much hype for nothing, right?

But despite the bad results,

The team never gave up.

They arrived at Imola, their home race, with high hopes, having no idea that this race would mark the beginning of an end for them.

Yet, the weekend couldn't have started any better.

I'm gonna simplify it.

A lot.

But basically, at the beginning of 1982, no one agreed on the car regulations.

Rumors were going around the paddock that Williams and Brabham weren't hitting the minimum weight, and Villeneuve, as I said earlier, got disqualified from a race using an illegal wing.

After that, things got even more tense.

The FISA, which was the sporting arm of the FIA, accepted Ferrari and Renault's protest to disqualify Keke Rosberg and Nelson Piquet from the last Brazilian Grand Prix because they'd used water tanks to stay lighter than the weight limit.

Because of that, the British Formula One Constructors Association, upset with this decision, decided to boycott the race, allowing none of the British teams to compete in San Marino.

Brabham, McLaren, Williams, and Lotus joined the boycott, while Tyrrell, Ossola, ATS, and Tolman broke it, justifying their decision with sponsor obligations.

This meant only 14 cars would race in the GP.

So, of course, this was a golden opportunity for Renault and Ferrari.

On Saturday, it was Rene Arnoux and Alain Prost in the Renaults who secured the front row, followed by Villeneuve and Pironi.

On Sunday, things got even better for Ferrari.

After both Renaults retired, Villeneuve and Pironi took the lead in the final stages of the race.

This looked like Villeneuve's big chance.

After years with Ferrari, he felt he had gained the team's trust and leadership.

From Ferrari's pit box, they showed their drivers a sign saying, slow down, as they had pretty much had the victory in the bag.

So Villeneuve and Pironi spent several laps swapping positions, with the Canadian thinking it was just a little show for the fans.

Villeneuve then took back the lead on the penultimate lap, thinking that would be the end of it.

And now he's got to keep ahead of Pironi.

This is that 60th, the last lap.

Fantastic stuff.

They've changed places, two laps running in Pironi now.

All he has to do now is keep it pointing the right way.

And no, I don't think Bielner can possibly do it.

But there we go.

And he thought he did.

While the Tifosi celebrated a 1-2 finish at home, no one realized this was going to have serious consequences for Ferrari as a team.

For Villeneuve, Pironi had stolen his win.

When he got out of the car, his usual calmness and composure were completely gone.

I'll never forget how angry he was.

He was raging."

The Canadian, furious, had to be convinced to get onto the podium.

He didn't say a word to Peroni or even look at him whilst he was enthusiastically celebrating his win.

Villeneuve valued loyalty above all else.

After he gave up a chance to win the championship for the team in 1979, he felt betrayed.

Not just by Ferrari, but especially by Peroni, who he thought was a close friend.

Gilles felt this enormous betrayal from someone he thought was a friend.

Gilles Villeneuve is very unhappy.

I suppose you are very happy.

It was an illustration of his single-mindedness.

Gilles Villeneuve, I don't give a damn about you.

I'm racing for myself.

Understandably, Gilles was deeply upset.

Enzo Ferrari and the other top team members tried to stay calm and not take sides with either driver.

Nobody wanted to get involved, but the internal war had already started.

For Gilles, it was all about friendship.

He could not get over how his trust had been betrayed.

Gilles said, I'm not going to speak to him again, ever.

I've declared war.

Even though it was a calm and sunny morning in Zolder, Villeneuve hadn't forgotten what had happened just two weeks earlier.

The week after, I was on my phone for hours trying to calm down Gilles.

He could not calm down.

That weekend was also different for him.

It was one of the few races I didn't go to.

Mélanie was doing her First Communion.

I thought, you know, First Communions come once in a lifetime.

There are going to be many more races.

The fact that members like Marco Piccinini, the team director, or the engineer Mauro Forieri felt a greater affinity with Peroni, who had spent fewer years at Ferrari than him, was something that triggered Villeneuve deeply.

In motor racing, emotion is dangerous.

Only Enzo seemed to be on his side.

Because of all this, Villeneuve had to prove once again who was the team leader and wouldn't accept finishing behind his teammate.

And he was willing to give it his all.

The qualifying session at Zolder was so intense you couldn't even blink an eye.

With incredible equality, the Renault seemed to be the fastest.

But could anyone beat them?

The Ferrari drivers were giving it their all.

Villeneuve clocked at 1.16.6 after pushing his car to its absolute limit, and was then told to pit.

Meanwhile, Pironi had managed to go just one tenth faster than the Canadian.

And although it's not sure if Villeneuve planned to pit at the end of the lap, one thing was clear.

The Ferrari driver was pushing flat out.

Considering that his tires were already worn out, improving his time was incredibly unlikely.

So what was he trying to do?

Was he pushing to beat Pironi at any cost, or just trying another fast in-lap to test his car's limits?

Whatever the case, the Canadian was flying towards the fast Tellermannbocht at over 125 miles an hour when he came up on Jochen Maas.

who was going less than 60 in that same section.

In a split second, he had to decide whether to brake or keep going flat out to pass him on the right or the left.

The speed difference between the two cars was absolutely staggering.

And then this happened.

Inevitably, Villeneuve's front wheel hit Mass' rear wheel at over 125 mph.

The Ferrari went airborne, flew towards the grass, and crashed hard into the barrier.

It was going so fast that it flipped several times before landing back on the track.

The crash was so intense that the Ferrari basically disintegrated, ending up in the middle of the track with just one wheel left.

Meanwhile, Mass' car was barely damaged, as if Villeneuve's car absorbed all the impact.

the German was able to keep going and took the right-hand corner, somehow dodging Villeneuve's car.

He stopped on the grass when he saw how bad the crash was, while two more cars barely missed the Ferrari.

And even more dramatic than the accident is the unbelievable sight.

Just 20 seconds after the incident, while marshals are trying to warn other drivers about the crash,

One of them goes over to check on Villeneuve.

He discovers something simply terrifying.

Something he could have never imagined, even in his worst nightmares.

Standing there, shocked, he doesn't know how to react or what to do.

Gilles is gone.

Where could Villeneuve possibly be?

When Villeneuve crashed into Mas' car with such force, pieces of his Ferrari flew everywhere as it broke apart.

The whole back of the car had fallen apart, and the front wing was gone too.

As for the wheels, only one stayed attached to the car.

One of those pieces that flew off was the seat, with Villeneuve still in it.

Obviously, I can't show you this, but I'll describe it in a simplified way.

The Canadian couldn't do anything.

and was thrown violently out of the car, following a trajectory similar to that of his Ferrari.

However, he landed about 50 meters away from the car, ending up in the safety barriers, without his helmet.

Villeneuve laid motionless on the spot, and drivers John Watson and Derek Warwick pulled him from the catch fencing with a blue face.

The first doctor arrived just 35 seconds after the accident.

Miraculously, Villeneuve had a pulse, but wasn't breathing.

He was then intubated and ventilated, before being transported to the circuit's medical center and later by helicopter to St. Raphael University Hospital.

Amidst the chaos on the track, Pironi himself picked up Villeneuve's helmet to take it to the Ferrari garage.

After the crash debris had been removed, qualifying resumed.

Yeah, you heard that right.

The qualifying resumed.

Unbelievable considering what had just happened.

Very different times.

Prost secured pole position, followed by Arnaud and Rosberg.

However, sporting results took a back seat as everyone had one thing on their mind.

The Canadian had sustained a serious brainstem injury, fractures with dislocation of the neck and vertebrae, and severe skull base injuries from hitting the metal fencing posts used to restrain the cars.

He was now in the hospital, being kept alive on life support.

Doctors were doing their utmost, seeking advice from specialists around the world, while Villeneuve's wife, Joan, rushed to the hospital.

There, apart from Peroni, no other driver went to see him.

After agonizing hours where nothing was clear, and whilst the world was holding its breath waiting for any update on Villeneuve's condition, at 9.12 that evening, the inevitable was confirmed.

Gilles Villeneuve had passed away.

Ferrari had lost its shining star, the driver who had made the team shine in dark times, giving everything to bring them back to the top.

The Canadian was never able to show his full potential.

What he did show was that he was a special and unique driver, both on and off the track.

He was one of the most beloved drivers, like a son to Enzo Ferrari himself.

Villeneuve would leave a massive gap in Formula One.

To drive fast, you have to risk your life.

No question about it.

Risk tolerance is the key.

The Ferrari team in Pironi immediately withdrew from the Grand Prix after Villeneuve's accident and left the circuit, trying to pull themselves together without fully comprehending what had just happened.

In the end, Villeneuve's words came true.

He never spoke to Pironi again in his life.

The Frenchman, completely broken, tried to focus on the championship to forget about it.

not knowing that this was just the start of a terrible tale, with death still chasing him.

Four races after, at Montreal, the Frenchman takes pole, but when the lights go off, things change rapidly.

The starting lights take longer than usual to turn green, and Pironi's car stalls.

The rest of the field gates, the two Renaults getting away, and there's all sorts of trouble on the bridge.

Pironi had stalled and several cars involved.

The car that crashes into Peroni is Riccardo Pelletti's Ocella, a 23-year-old Italian who was making his debut that year.

He was in the slipstream of Rail Boy's cell and couldn't see the Frenchman.

Pelletti, with no time to react, crashes at over 110 miles per hour into the back of Peroni's Ferrari.

With no one knowing what had just happened, suddenly, miraculously, Peroni gets out of his car and rushes over to Pelletti.

Several marshals from the medical team join him to check on the young Italian, who is still in his car.

But then...

The car has burst into flames.

Of course, it's absolutely full of fuel because at the start of the race, the tank's absolutely full.

The marshals use fire extinguishers to battle the flames and smoke for what feels like forever.

Struggling hard to put out the smoke, it takes 25 endless minutes until finally there's none left.

Immediately, they rush Paletti, unconscious, to the hospital in Montreal as fast as they can.

He was exposed to a lot of smoke and lacked oxygen for so long, they have to act very quickly.

At the hospital, doctors do everything they can to stabilize his vital signs, racing against the clock.

But after many attempts to revive him, they could only confirm the worst.

Paletti had passed away a few minutes past 2 p.m. on the 13th of June, 1982.

Just two months after Villeneuve, Formula One lost another driver, Riccardo Pelletti.

The world mourned in shock.

What was happening that year?

Why so many tragedies?

And why all of them around Pironi?

It was as if Pironi was racing against his own fate.

But this was just the start of a terrifying tale.

The 7th of August.

1982.

Pironi leads the championship with 39 points.

During the last stages of qualifying, it is raining heavily and visibility is quite low.

The Frenchman, who has the fastest lap, doesn't need to go out on track.

He isn't going to improve his previous times anyways.

And back then, the ground effect of those cars didn't just kick up a simple rooster tail spray like today, but seriously formed a wall of spray that made it nearly impossible to see.

This just blows my mind.

Considering how nowadays the FIA suspends sessions whenever three drops hit the track, we've definitely come a long way since then.

Pironi can stay in the garage like many other drivers do, but he wants to test a new rain tire from Goodyear, just like Villeneuve would have done.

And in just four laps,

Peroni smashes all time set in those conditions.

On his fifth lap, he is about to make headlines again, but for different reasons.

Peroni comes out of the last chicane at full speed, heading into the last long straight with Prost and Derek Daly ahead of him.

Suddenly, Daly realizes Prost is going much slower than him, and moves to the right to overtake.

Peroni, who is already catching up to Daly, sees him move to the right and thinks he is letting him pass.

And suddenly, Peroni's fate takes another turn.

In a split second, Pironi's Ferrari catches up to Prost much, much faster than expected.

Pironi's front left wheel hits Prost's rear right wheel and lifts off the ground.

In a crash just like Villeneuve's, Pironi's Ferrari flies up into the air, flips over and hits the ground front first, then back and somehow ends up back in place.

Once again, Formula One stops.

Quickly, PK, who is nearby, gets out of his car and goes to help Peroni.

Eddie Cheever, Prost and several other drivers also rush to help before the marshals and medical team finally arrive.

Everyone is shocked by what they see.

The medical team works for over 30 minutes to get Peroni out of the wreck.

They finally get him out and evacuated him by emergency helicopter to the University of Heidelberg clinic.

Miraculously, he is conscious, but has serious injuries to his legs.

With multiple fractures in his knees and ankles, Peroni has several surgeries to try and save his right leg.

As he fights for his life, it is confirmed that the Frenchman took pole position, but disbelief and sadness overwhelm the paddock.

Another horrific accident.

If only the story ended here.

Patrick Tambay, the new Ferrari leader, won that race, while everyone was holding onto their seats, anxiously waiting for news about Pironi.

Miraculously, over the following days, Pironi recovered remarkably well, so doctors didn't need to amputate his leg, and his life was no longer at risk.

It was incredible.

Considering just how bad the accident was, Pironi started a tough journey to recover from his injuries.

undergoing about 30 surgeries.

It took him up to four years to walk again using a cane.

By 1986, he tried returning to Formula One with AGS and Ligier, but quickly realized his racing career was over.

Still passionate about speed, he turned to powerboat racing, where he found the thrill of speed once again.

However, in another twist of fate, as if it hadn't forgotten about Peroni, on the 23rd of August, 1987, during an offshore race on the Isle of Wight, the Frenchman suffered another dramatic accident.

Peroni had seen and experienced everything in his life.

Tragic accidents.

drama, and a constant physical and mental struggle, which turned him into one of the world's strongest men.

Peroni, on his Colibri 4, was leading the race when it hit a big wave from an oil tanker.

The boat went flying, flipping over and capsizing in the water.

Help came quickly, but Peroni and his two crew members, journalist Bernard Giroux and his buddy Jean-Claude Gurnard, were stuck under their seatbelts, so getting out would be even tougher.

The boat didn't have any protective systems, either.

The impact had been so strong that nothing could be done, and both Peroni and his friends tragically lost their lives.

In the end, it was like Peroni had been fighting for years against a fate he just couldn't escape from.

While the world grieved this loss, it kept wondering what Peroni could have achieved without his 1982 accident.

He likely would have clinched that championship that season, maybe even more.

Despite being separated by the Imola accident, Villeneuve and Peroni's stories ended in a similar way, leaving us to always ponder what could have been.

The accidents of Villeneuve, Pelletti and Peroni during 1982 had a massive impact on improving the safety regulations.

The introduction of turbos, skirts, and wings made the cars faster, but it also made racing even more dangerous, as safety technologies really weren't that good yet.

So, their crashes showed the need to improve cockpits, seatbelts, and other parts to protect drivers' lives in similar accidents.

pushing the FIA to take action, fast.

Jean-Marie decided to get rid of the whole thing with ground effects.

The future was turbocharged.

As for Villeneuve, although he never became a world champion, he never needed a title to be remembered as one of the best drivers ever.

His charisma off-track, his distinctive driving style, and his fearless attitude towards speed made him truly unique and unforgettable.

Enzo Ferrari, who saw him as a son, would never forget him, keeping a special place in his heart from which he would never recover.

I look back and I see my loved ones.

And among my loved ones, I see the face of this great man.

Gilles Villeneuve.

It's been over four decades, and the Canadian driver is still one of the most remembered.

In 1982, right after his passing, during the Canadian GP, they renamed Montreal Circuit, Île Notre-Dame, to the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit, in his honour.

Le Canada accueillait à son tour à Montréal le championnat du monde de Formule 1 sur le circuit de l'Île Notre-Dame, rebaptisé circuit Gilles Villeneuve, en l'honneur du pilote disparu.

Salut Gilles is right there at the finish line.

Zolder only hosted one more F1 race in 1984, after which the Belgian Grand Prix moved exclusively to Spa-Francorchamps.

In that final race, Michel Alboreto won, driving a Ferrari with the number 27, the same number Gilles Villeneuve had on his last lap.

As always, the races had to go on, but the world doesn't forget Gilles Villeneuve, the prince without a crown.

Five months after Peroni's death, his wife, Catherine Gaux, gave birth to twins, Gilles and Didier Peroni, in honor of the heroes of this story.

Gilles studied engineering and has worked for teams like Mercedes, achieving great success, to be honest.

On the other hand, Jacques, Villeneuve's son, is a popular figure in the paddock.

He followed his dad's path, moving up from lower racing leagues until he reached Formula One in 1996 with Williams.

By just his second year, after being one of the best rookies ever seen, Jacques became world champion, achieving the dream his dad couldn't.

Their friendship and rivalry will always be remembered as one of those epic stories in Formula One, even though it didn't end the way anyone wanted.

Despite their short time on the track, we saw what they were capable of.

They say Ferrari makes legends out of its drivers.

But when Ferrari was struggling, it was Villeneuve and Pironi who made the team legendary.

I know, this story doesn't have a very happy ending.

But if you want to watch something that is a bit more joyful, make sure to watch this video.

And as always, thank you for watching.