Villeneuve Pironi

A must watch if you love autosport and F1.

It's not only the history that makes this documentary soo good, it's very dramatic, revealling, thrilling and inspirational about life and moments we experience.

It's also not just what happened in Formula 1 or what happened between those two drivers but also about their lifes and what they left behind!

If you don't nothing about Formula 1, that's OK everything is pretty well clearly told and even some spoilers are left without in the beginning of the documentary.

Not really a spoiler: "Every minute you spent with someone.. spent it to fullest" (Joann Villeneuve)

This extraordinary film documents the friendship and rivalry of two great Formula One drivers in the early '80s, Gilles Vlleneuve and Didier Pironi, both of whom employed by Enzo Ferrari. It documents a broader conflict between selfishness, that is the basis of achievement, and commitment to social order, which is the basis of civilization. The footage is engrossing and the interviews with family and a disinterested champion driver, Alain Prost, is insightful. Even those who do not follow this sport will be engaged by the difficult moral dilemma at the core of their rivalry and by the illustration of the destructive nature of repressed emotion.

I have to admit I came to be an F1 fan after this happened. Gilles son Jacques was my first F1 passion so by default I have always been interested in the story behind Jacques.

This documentary is captivating, heartfelt & gives both sides of the sad story of both men's sadly too short lives.

There are interviews with Gilles' widow & his children, members of the Ferrari team at the time including a fabulous British lady who was the only woman & only British person in the Ferrari team. Also interviews with Didier's wife, his girlfriend and his twin sons who were born after his death. There are snippets from drivers from the period including Alain Prost.

It really is a fascinating insight into the relationship of these two great drivers.

It's an emotional rollercoaster though and brings home to you how dangerous the sport I love was and still is.

Torquil Jones and his archive research team are to be commended for sourcing some pretty amazing library footage as Gilles Villeneuve joined and dominated the Ferrari F1 team until the arrival of Frenchman Didier Pironi and then the wheels, quite literally, all came off. This is a story of a tragic rivalry that I suspect few will recall. It is a personal affair. Contributions from those close to both drivers - intimately and professionally - help us to realise just how cut-throat the business of Formula One was. I couldn't help feeling that I was being manoeuvred, though. Watch for yourself, but I definitely felt that the editorial was steering me more to one camp than the other - and I didn't particularly like that. What is clear, though, is that both men were extremely focussed, adrenalin junkies who took risk as little more than an occupational hazard, and that is well illustrated in this quickly paced documentary that immerses us in the competitiveness and dangers of a sport largely devoid of even the most basic of (modern) safety precautions. If you are at all interested in the history of the engineering, the politics and the personalities of this sport, then this is certainly worth a watch - and on a big screen if you can.