VILLENEUVE PIRONI

Torquil Jones / Italy, United Kingdom / 2022 / 95 min

Formula 1 legends Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi were team-mates at Ferrari before becoming deadly rivals. A full-blooded drama – and an absolute must for anyone with petrol in their blood.

It sounds like a classic Hollywood movie, but is just as much of a Greek tragedy. The story of Formula One legends Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi is an epic, fast-paced drama about the two Team Ferrari teammates who raced side-by-side towards the top of the world, but ended up as deadly rivals after a controversial final lap at the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix. Both wanted to be number one. And with personalities as different as night and day, it didn’t take more than a few seconds to sow bad blood between the two friends. ‘Villeneuve Pironi’ is a film about high ambitions, spiritual brotherhoods and, above all, motorsport on a level that approaches art. Told through interviews with the two men’s families and with a gold mine of footage from the 80s, this is an experience of the highest order. The undisputed maestro of motorsport, Enzo Ferrari, looks on in sunglasses and slicked-back hair in a film that oozes burnt tyres and broken friendships. And where tragedy can lurk around the next bend.