ALAN JONES (FORMULA 1)

'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

Early Life

Motor Racing Career

F1 Career

Personal Life

Complete Formula One results

Notes

Early Life

Alan 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.

Motor Racing Career

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.

F1 Career

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 gig in 1976, on 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 unretired 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 it ultimately failed, he left F1 for good, racing touring cars for a while before becoming a TV commentator.
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.

Personal Life

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.

Complete Formula One results

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1976

Yr	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
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
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

Notes