Rosencruetz - Rosenkruetz

Extract from an Autosprint article in which Pietro, Didier's chief mechanic, is interviewed.

"Despite what someone might believe, after Gilles' death Didier Pironi was never the same. Someone might think that the frenchman was now cinically calm and happy, since he had gotten rid of his sworn enemy, and could now win the world championship easily. But no. No, no, no! He didn't talk to me, but I was still his chief mechanic and I could see and understand things better than anyone. After Zolder's disgrace, Didier was never the same. He suffered, he was depressed, and I'm sure of what I am saying, he was deeply saddened with how things had ended with Gilles, in such a terrible and definitive way. Yeah, I think Didier was feeling guilty, because he behaved in a very strange, peculiar, excessive way, as if he wanted to think about something else, as if he wanted to drown his troubles, forget about all the horror that had happened. No one knows that Zandvoort 1982 is a victory without smiles. Didier wins, but does not smile, does not laugh, because something inside him has broken, maybe forever. He had a new mistress, it was like he didn't want to think, he didn’t even seem enthusiastic about the championship victory that was coming. Yes, the Holland GP is a good thing... but only for you. For those who secretly see what's happening in Ferrari, it shows a specific state of mind of Didier: cold, sad, melancholic. So I think these things should be known now, because they will end in a dramatic epilogue at Hockenheim, which is an event that is like a child of Zandvoort. The day of the crash in Germany, Didier arrives at the circuit half an hour late. Something serious, unacceptable. He has a long, scruffy beard, a distant look. He comes in company of two girls with whom no one thinks he had been discussing the weather forecasts with... so, Forghieri understandably is upset with him. It rains, it's not even worth going on track, but the situation is such that Mauro wants Didier to wake up and go back on track, because it seems that his mind is somewhere else. The rest is history."

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the triple crown

Eddy Merckx, 1974 // Stephen Roche, 1987 // Annemiek van Vleuten, 2022 // Tadej Pogačar, 2024

Besides the usual plethora of ‘Forza Gilles’ and ‘Viva Villeneuve’ banners around the track, there was a very large sign that read ‘Dio Perdonna … Gilles No’ – God Forgives … Gilles Does Not, a slogan that was meant as a deification of the tifosi hero but which actually foretold of what was to unfold at Imola.

Excerpt From <Gilles Villeneuve: The Life of the Legendary Racing Driver> by Gerald Donaldson

A collection of photographs from the 1982 drivers strike

THE STEED

trying to get back into drawing again. apologies if I’m wrecking your dash.

GILLES VILLENEUVE [1950-1982]

Always There, Women in Motorsport: The fast women of la belle époque

Women's history in motorsport is rich, and that has always been the case. Most of these stories however aren’t well known and aren’t spoken about enough. Women have always been in motorsport and always will be.

Three French women, Hélène van Zuylen, Camille du Gast, and Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart are some of the fastest women from France’s La Belle Epoque (circa 1880-1914).

In 1898 Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart (1847-1933) (also known as the Duchess of Uzes) became the first woman in France to obtain her driver’s license. While getting out of the car she announced with delight that woman had just overcome a new barrier. Not long after she also became the first to be caught speeding for which she had to pay a five franc fine.

in 1926 she founded the first female Automobile Club, L'Automobile Club féminin de France (ACFF)

The Duchess of Uzes in 1927

Hélène van Zuylen (pictured on the cover image) was a French author but also the first woman to compete in an international auto race. Baron Etienne van Zuylen, her husband, was the President of the Automobile Club de France

She entered the 1898 Paris–Amsterdam–Paris using the nickname Snail, while her husband used the nickname Escargot. She successfully competed the trail and entered the Paris-Berlin race in 1901 but was stopped by technical failure.

That year Hélène, a lesbian, would meet Renée Vivien with whom she would have an affair. Vivien's letters to a confidant revealed that she considered herself married to Hélène. Most of Vivien's work is dedicated to "H.L.C.B.," the initials of Zuylen's first names.

Just over a decade before she died, Hélène van Zuylen created the Renée Vivien Prize, Honoring the woman she loved and intending to give encouragement to female writers.

Hélène van Zuylen - Nouvelle Revue internationale illustrée, December 1908

Camille du Gast (1868-1942) finished 33rd (19th in class) out of 122 participants in the 1901 Paris-Berlin race. Du Gast, achieved the results despite driving her husband's 20CV Panhard-Levassor which was not designed for racing. She had to start the race in last because she was a woman. The race did mark 2 female competitors with du Gast and van Zuylen. She loved several extreme sports such as mountaineering, parachuting and frencing.

In 1902 she competed in the Paris-Vienna race and also wanted to compete in the New York-San Francisco but was refused entry because she was a woman.

In 1903 she would start the Paris-Madrid race. Which she would enter with a proper racing car, a works 5.7-litre de Dietrich car. It was a chaotic race with 207 competitors which unfortunately saw several deaths. Camille started in 29th and gained 9 positions in the first 120 km. She had climbed up to P8 before stopping to give medical aid to a fellow driver, Phil Stead (also driving a de Dietrich) involved in a near-fatal crash.

Camille du Gast in her 30 hp De Dietrich with starting number 29 during the 1903 Paris-Madrid Race

Later one of the leading drivers at that time, Charles Jarrot said that if Camille had not stopped Stead likely would have died. After an ambulance arrived she continued the race eventually finishing 44th or 45th in the shortened race.

The French government would stop the race at Bordeaux, as over half of the field (275 cars) had either crashed or retired and several drivers and spectators had died.

Open road racing was banned, so in 1904 Camille wanted to participate in the French elimination trial for the Gordon Bennett races, as the Benz factory team offered du Gast a race seat. But the Autosport Club France (ACF) banned women from racing. Du Gast published a letter in protest but the ban was defended as the ACF could not risk a woman getting injured or killed in a racing event.

Because of this she ventured to boat racing. One of those races was caught by a big storm which saw most competitors either abandon their ship or they sank. She was rescued and later declared the winner of that race.

Eventually she had to put a halt to her adventurous life when she survived an assassination attempt by her daughter. Nothing was ever the same for her after that. From that point she devoted herself to animals. She would serve as president of the 'French Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals'

NEXT UP > More female racing drivers from the early 1900s