The other possibility is Gérard Gamand (who in fact devoted a large amount of space in his excellent magazine AutoDiva to the Pironi-Dolhem story a few years back). It was a little-known fact but the pair were half-brothers and cousins.

He even did some F2 races.In the meantime Didier had made friends with Claude Vigreux, a talented motorcycle racer, but early in 1967, Vitreux was killed in a freak bike accident at Mettet in Belgium. He was baptised Louis-Jose. In November 1985, he launched his own stable in off-shore races. He said: "I think Gilles was stunned somebody had out-driven him and that it just caught him so much by surprise.

The boat flipped and Pironi and his two crew members were killed. There’s nothing to suggest that it will though. Né à Villecresnes, Didier se passionne pour l'automobile en même temps que son cousin José Dolhem. Severely injured in the legs during his accident in 1982, he came close to amputation. He also secured four In 1986, after he was able to walk with both legs unaided, it looked as if Pironi would make a comeback when he tested for the After Pironi's death, his girlfriend Catherine Goux gave birth to twins. I can’t absolutely remember the context now, other than a vague recollection that it was a response to some comment by the interviewer about the supposed hot-headed temperament of Latin drivers, Pironi’s point being that he was considered to be the very opposite of a hot-headed driver. He participated in three Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 7 July 1974, and scoring no championship points. He had two runs in a Ligier and understood that his F1 career was finished. He was killed in qualifying.Pironi split with his wife soon after the wedding (she ended up as Alain Delon’s partner) and Didier became involved in an affair with the 25-year-old movie star Veronique Jannot. Things went well early in 1987 and won a race at Arendal in Norway.

I believe Villeneuve had gone off track on the previous lap letting him through, so that when the Renault expired the Frenchman was ahead.Yes the replay shows the cars being given the ‘slow’ instruction but Imola was notoriously heavy on fuel and the turbo cars were thirsty beasts. All those classic F3, F2 and Le Mans cars…….Pironi knew exactly what he was doing that afternoon in Imola, not to mention the effect it would have on Gilles.I suppose these days they would call it mind games… They were never going to do that… Pironi knew he had Piccinini in his pocket and whilst the old man came down firmly on Gilles side that’s as far as it went.Sometimes it seems these men were made of steel then. December 14, 2016 by Joe Saward Frenchmen Didier Pironi and Louis-José Dolhem both raced in Formula 1, Dolhem with Surtees in 1974 and Pironi with Tyrrell (1978–1979), Ligier (1980) and Ferrari (1981–1982).

His Surtees team-mate Helmuth Koinigg crashed in the race and was beheaded. They were named Didier and Gilles.Eight months after Didier’s death José was flying a Mitsubishi Marquise from Paris Le Bourget to Montpellier. Dolhem was born in Paris. A euro centric race series will never be as popular as home grown US World Championships or race series. He ran into Alain Prost’s Renault. I just haven’t had time to address the questions in it.The drive and endeavour to get to the bottom of the current stories is impressive enough, the time you take to share your deep and obvious passion for the history of the sport lifts things to a new level. He married and he and his wife had a son, Jose.