A lot of people seem to think he was directly responsible for triggering Gilles' death, by enraging him to do that fateful qualifying lap, which to me sounds like an absolutely insane and warped way of seeing things. Even if he was in the wrong in the Imola team orders nonsense.
Aren't people strange?
I was and still am a huge fan of Gilles, watched him race back in Formula Atlantic and all of his Formula One races. And make no mistake, the memory of his death still hurts. For years I did have trouble with Zolder, whenever i thought of that track it was "that's the track that killed him". But I never had anything against Pironi. If he pushed Gilles too far, then it was Gilles's fault he allowed his judgement to be clouded.
