Alan Jones (Formula 1)

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Alan Jones
Nationality  Flag of Australia Australian
Formula One World Championship career
Active years 1975 - 1981, 1983, 1985 - 1986
Teams Hesketh, Hill, Surtees, Shadow, Williams, Arrows, Lola
Races 117 (116 starts)
Championships 1 (1980)
Wins 12
Podium finishes    24
Career points 199 (206)[1]
Pole positions 6
Fastest laps 13
First race 1975 Spanish Grand Prix
First win 1977 Austrian Grand Prix
Last win 1981 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Last race 1986 Australian Grand Prix

Alan Jones MBE (born November 2, 1946) is an Australian former Formula One racer. He was the first driver to win a Formula 1 championship with the Williams team.

Contents

Jones was born in Melbourne, Australia and attended Xavier College.

He was the son of Stan Jones, an Australian driver, and wanted to follow in his footsteps. The younger Jones left for Europe in 1967 to make a name for himself but met little success.

It took about 6 years before any notable results of his own, in a Formula 3 car. In 1974 he managed to land a full time Formula Atlantic ride, and his team owner parlayed it into a chance at F1 the following season, after purchasing a car from the Hesketh racing team.

After 4 races in F1 the team chose not to continue racing, but Jones did, as the race after his team disbanded he was named as an injury replacement for Rolf Stommelen on Graham Hill's racing team. He had a best finish of 5th at Hockenheim while there.

He earned his first full-time F1 drive in 1976, in John Surtees' racing team. Jones' car was mostly known for its infamous Durex sponsorship, but he managed several good finishes in it, a 4th in Japan being the best of them. Surtees dropped him after that year as he didn't get along well with the Aussie, and was racing in America when the Shadow team named Jones as a replacement for Tom Pryce, who had been killed in a freak racing accident in South Africa. He made the most of the opportunity and won at Österreichring for his maiden victory, finishing 7th in the championship.

In 1978, Jones, who was on the Williams F1 roster on alternate weekends, also signed with Haas-Hall racing, and competed in the Lola 333CS Chaparral in the Can-Am championship, taking 9 poles in 10 races. (Jones missed the Laguna Seca race due to a F1 scheduling conflict. Stand-in Brian Redman finished 12th in that race after the kill wire was crimped under a valve cover, resulting in intermittent ignition.) Of the 9 races in which he competed, Jones won 5 (Atlanta, Mosport, Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Riverside.) He finished 2nd to Elliot Forbes-Robinson at Charlotte after hitting a chicane and losing a spark plug wire, cracked up at St Jovite; lost a radiator at the Glen. He finished 3rd at Trois-Rivieres after losing a shift fork and being stuck with only 2nd and 5th gears on the tight road circuit. At that race, water-injected brakes were first used in Can-Am, developed by the Haas team and copied with varying degrees of success by others. Jones ran one Can-Am in 1979 (Mid-Ohio), where he and Keke Rosberg had fun running into each other and finishing 1-2, with Jones winning his last Can-Am start.

In 1977, he had already caught the attention of Frank Williams, who was looking to rebuild his F1 racing team. Williams Grand Prix had struggled for success in its first years and Jones was entrusted to give them their first taste of it. He didn't do much initially to do that, a second place finish in Watkins Glen being the best he could do, but he helped put the team on the F1 map in 1979 using the Williams FW07, after winning 4 races in the span of 5 events near the end of the season. Jones finished 3rd in the championship hunt that year, and it was the springboard to an excellent 1980 campaign.

Jones won 5 races in 1980, one of which was later declared non-championship so only 4 are officially recorded, and had a car which consistently made podiums, he was on 10 of them during the year. At the end of the season he had beaten Nelson Piquet by 13 points in the standings, becoming Australia's first World Champion since Sir Jack Brabham. He had a good chance at a repeat in 1981, but a very combative relationship with Carlos Reutemann led to an intense rivalry that possibly cost both drivers a chance at the championship. He finished 4 points behind Piquet for the championship and 3 behind Reutemann.

He announced his retirement after the season, which he managed to cap off with a win in Las Vegas, but came out of retirement for a one-time drive with Arrows in 1983. Two more years later, Team Haas was created and Jones was the first driver for that outfit, and he would race a full season in 1986, his first in 5 years, but after a series of disappointing results he left F1 for good.

He raced in the Australian Touring Car Championship after leaving F1 but never achieved the same type of results that he used to in F1. He became a commentator with Channel Nine as part of their F1 coverage into Australia. Jones has since become involved in the Australian franchise of the A1 Grand Prix as Team Director. He attempted to race in the Grand Prix Masters World Series at Kyalami in November 2005 but had to pull out before qualifying due to neck pains.

Jones separated from his wife Beverley in the early 1990s. In 1996 he began a relationship with Amanda Butler Davis and in 2001 their twins, Zara and Jack, were born.

Jones' adopted son Christian, now races in various forms of motorsport.

(key)

Yr Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WDC Points[1]
1975 Custom Made Harry Stiller Racing Hesketh 308B Ford V8 ARG
BRA
RSA
ESP
Ret
MON
Ret
BEL
Ret
SWE
11
17th 2
Embassy Racing with Graham Hill Hill GH1 Ford V8 NED
13
FRA
16
GBR
10
GER
5
AUT
ITA
USA
1976 Durex Team Surtees Surtees TS19 Ford V8 BRA
SAF
USW
NC
ESP
9
BEL
5
MON
Ret
SWE
13
FRA
Ret
GBR
5
GER
10
AUT
Ret
NED
8
ITA
12
CAN
16
USA
8
JPN
4
15th 7
1977 Shadow Racing Team Shadow DN8 Ford V8 ARG
BRA
SAF
USW
Ret
ESP
Ret
MON
6
BEL
5
SWE
17
FRA
Ret
GBR
7
GER
Ret
AUT
1
NED
Ret
ITA
3
USA
Ret
CAN
4
JPN
4
7th 22
1978 Williams Grand Prix Engineering Williams FW06 Ford V8 ARG
Ret
BRA
11
RSA
4
USW
7
MON
Ret
BEL
10
ESP
8
SWE
Ret
FRA
5
GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
AUT
Ret
NED
Ret
ITA
13
USA
2
CAN
9
11th 11
1979 Albilad-Saudia Racing Team Williams FW06 Ford V8 ARG
9
BRA
Ret
RSA
Ret
USW
3
ESP
Ret
BEL
Ret
MON
Ret
FRA
4
3rd 40 (43)
Williams FW07 Ford V8 GBR
Ret
GER
1
AUT
1
NED
1
ITA
9
CAN
1
USA
Ret
1980 Albilad-Williams Racing Team Williams FW07B Ford V8 ARG
1
BRA
3
RSA
Ret
USW
Ret
BEL
2
MON
Ret
FRA
1
GBR
1
GER
3
AUT
2
NED
11
ITA
2
CAN
1
USA
1
1st 67 (71)
1981 TAG Williams Racing Team Williams FW07C Ford V8 USW
1
BRA
2
ARG
4
SMR
12
BEL
Ret
MON
2
ESP
7
FRA
17
GBR
Ret
GER
11
AUT
4
NED
3
ITA
2
CAN
Ret
LVS
1
3rd 46
1983 Arrows Racing Team Arrows A6 Ford V8 BRA
USW
Ret
FRA
SMR
MON
BEL
USE
CAN
GBR
GER
AUT
NED
ITA
EUR
RSA
NA 0
1985 Team Haas (USA) Ltd Lola THL-1 Hart S4 BRA
POR
SMR
MON
CAN
USA
FRA
GBR
GER
AUT
NED
ITA
Ret
BEL
EUR
Ret
RSA
DNS
AUS
Ret
NA 0
1986 Team Haas (USA) Ltd Lola THL-1 Hart S4 BRA
Ret
ESP
Ret
12th 4
Lola THL-2 Ford S4 SMR
Ret
MON
Ret
BEL
11
CAN
10
USA
Ret
FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER
9
HUN
Ret
AUT
4
ITA
6
POR
Ret
MEX
Ret
AUS
Ret

  1. ^ a b Up until 1990, not all points scored by a driver contributed to their final World Championship tally (see list of pointscoring systems for more information). Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Jody Scheckter
Formula One World Champion
1980
Succeeded by
Nelson Piquet
Awards
Preceded by
John Watson
Hawthorn Memorial Trophy
1979-1981
Succeeded by
John Watson
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