diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index e1a30d5b30..378a76eb98 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -30,8 +30,10 @@ RUN cd /tmp/src/web && yarn install -d && yarn build
 RUN assemble
 
 # The wheel install method doesn't run the setup hooks as the source based
-# installations do so we have to call zuul-manage-ansible here.
-RUN /output/install-from-bindep && zuul-manage-ansible
+# installations do so we have to call zuul-manage-ansible here. Remove
+# /root/.local/share/virtualenv after because it adds wheels into /root
+# that we don't need after the install step so are a waste of space.
+RUN /output/install-from-bindep && zuul-manage-ansible && rm -rf /root/.local/share/virtualenv
 
 RUN mkdir /tmp/openshift-install \
   && curl -L $OPENSHIFT_URL -o /tmp/openshift-install/openshift-client.tgz \
diff --git a/playbooks/zuul-stream/pre.yaml b/playbooks/zuul-stream/pre.yaml
index 3715423079..543d7ab197 100644
--- a/playbooks/zuul-stream/pre.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/zuul-stream/pre.yaml
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 - hosts: controller
   roles:
 
+    - role: ensure-pip
+
     - role: bindep
       bindep_profile: test
       bindep_dir: src/opendev.org/zuul/zuul
diff --git a/zuul/lib/ansible.py b/zuul/lib/ansible.py
index df0ed02137..f4b8fdd940 100644
--- a/zuul/lib/ansible.py
+++ b/zuul/lib/ansible.py
@@ -49,8 +49,6 @@ class ManagedAnsible:
         self.install_root = self._ansible_roots[-1]
 
     def ensure_ansible(self, upgrade=False):
-        self._ensure_venv()
-
         self.log.info('Installing ansible %s, requirements: %s, '
                       'extra packages: %s',
                       self.version, self._requirements, self.extra_packages)
@@ -76,7 +74,7 @@ class ManagedAnsible:
                                              p.stderr.decode()))
         self.log.debug('Successfully installed packages %s', requirements)
 
-    def _ensure_venv(self):
+    def ensure_venv(self):
         if self.python_path:
             self.log.debug(
                 'Virtual environment %s already existing', self.venv_path)
@@ -192,6 +190,13 @@ class AnsibleManager:
         self.default_version = default_version
 
     def install(self, upgrade=False):
+        # virtualenv sets up a shared directory of pip seed packages per
+        # python version. If we run virtualenv in parallel we can have one
+        # create the dirs but not be finished filling them with content, a
+        # second notice the dir is there so it just goes on with what it's
+        # done, and thus races leaving us with virtualenvs minus pip.
+        for a in self._supported_versions.values():
+            a.ensure_venv()
         # Note: With higher number of threads pip seems to have some race
         # leading to occasional failures during setup of all ansible
         # environments. Thus we limit the number of workers to reduce the risk