70th, Ferrari's Imola Chaos: Pironi's Surprise Victory Amidst Team Dispute
Political wrangling between the governing body and the member teams of FOCA meant only 14 cars presented themselves at Imola. It hurt the fans, of course, but also the FOCA teams themselves, for Ferrari finished 1-2 – and needed those points ultimately to beat McLaren to the constructors’ title.
The fastest cars at Imola were the Renaults of Prost and Arnoux, but Gilles Villeneuve – a second and a half faster in qualifying than Ferrari team-mate Didier Pironi – took the fight to them from the beginning, and when they broke looked set fair to win his first race in Italy.
Once the Renaults were gone, Villeneuve – mindful that the Ferraris were very marginal on fuel – backed off, allowing Pironi to catch him, and even occasionally overtake. Gilles assumed he was playing to the crowd, but was concerned by fuel consumption, for whenever Didier led the pace was a couple of seconds quicker.
Towards the end, Villeneuve was in front again, slowing the pace once more, and at this stage he believed his team-mate was behaving honourably, observing the ‘Hold’ signals from the Ferrari pit.