Watch: When a Ferrari driver ignored team orders and gave fans a spectacular battle for the win at the F1 Imola GP

The 1982 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola is remembered as one of the most controversial moments in F1 history as Ferrari drivers Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi battled it out for the win in front of their Tifosi.

It had been a tough start to the season for the Prancing Horse up until Imola, as they had not scored many points and were behind Renault and McLaren in the championship. Although it was a rather ordinary race, in the final laps, fans witnessed a spectacle of brilliant racing between teammates and were treated to a photo finish across the line.

Villeneuve was leading Pironi heading into the final stages of the race, but the Frenchman ignored team orders to slow down. He passed the Canadian in the final laps but Villeneuve retained the lead soon after. Believing that they would hold the position until the end as per team orders, Villeneuve was left shocked when in the final lap Pironi went past him on the inside line going into the Tosa corner, and crossed the finish line inches in front of his teammate.

“It’s been tougher than any other year" - Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz recently stated that the 2023 season has been tougher than anyone could have expected, especially after the season Ferrari had in 2022.

Speaking to The Race, Sainz said:

“It’s been tougher than any other year. Expectations were…I felt like 2022 was a bit of a comeback finally to the top for Ferrari. And I feel like we all expected to at least be fighting at a similar level. Not only me, but the whole team had this hope, this expectation. And suddenly finding yourself more than half a second adrift from the Red Bull was tough to handle."

“You suddenly need to reset, need to go back to the drawing board, and make sure you keep everyone motivated. The amount of work that is going on right now in Maranello with the development plan is huge. Trying to get the whole factory aligned and motivated on the next step is the most challenging.”

The Ferrari driver added:

“It’s not an easy car. At the moment, we are struggling a bit with unpredictability, with a very tricky car, which makes putting laps together in quali, race pace, changing conditions, tire wear, and wind, very, very tricky to predict and very tricky to adapt to."

It will be interesting to see if Ferrari can make the necessary adjustments during the season and finish behind Red Bull once again.