Alan Jones (racing driver)

Infobox F1 driver


Name = Alan Jones
Nationality = flagicon|Australia Australian
Years = F1|1975 - F1|1981, F1|1983, F1|1985 - F1|1986
Team(s) = Hesketh, Hill, Surtees, Shadow, Williams, Arrows, Haas Lola
Races = 117 (116 starts)
Championships = 1 (F1|1980)
Wins = 12
Podiums = 24
Points = 199 (206)Up until F1|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.]
Poles = 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 2 November 1946) is an Australian former Formula One driver. He was the first driver to win a Formula One World Championship with the Williams team, becoming the 1980 World Drivers' Champion.

Jones is also the last Australian driver to win the Australian Grand Prix, winning the 1980 event at Calder Park Raceway, having lapped the field.

Early life

Jones was born in Melbourne, Australia and attended Xavier College. He was the son of Stan Jones, an Australian racing driver and winner of the 1959 Australian Grand Prix, 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.

Racing career

Pre Formula One

It took about six 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.

Formula One

After four 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 fifth 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 fourth in Japan being the best of them. Surtees dropped him after that year as he did not get along well with the Aussie, and Jones was racing in America when the Shadow team named him 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 the Österreichring for his maiden victory, finishing seventh 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 nine poles in ten races. (Jones missed the Laguna Seca race due to an F1 scheduling conflict. Stand-in Brian Redman finished twelfth in that race after the kill wire was crimped under a valve cover, resulting in intermittent ignition.) Of the nine races in which he competed, Jones won five (Atlanta, Mosport, Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Riverside.) He finished second 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 third at Trois-Rivieres after losing a shift fork and being stuck with only second and fifth 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.

By 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 did not do much initially to do that, a second place finish at 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 four races in the span of five events near the end of the season. Jones finished third in the championship hunt that year, and it was the springboard to an excellent 1980 campaign.

Jones won seven races in 1980, although the Spanish Grand Prix was later removed from the championship and the Australian Grand Prix was a non-championship race, so only five counted towards the Championship. Throughout the season he had a car which consistently made the podium, and he achieved ten 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 to repeat his success 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 four points behind Piquet for the championship and three 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 five years, but after a series of disappointing results he left F1 for good.

Post Formula One

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 in 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. There was speculation at the time that his exit was due more to a general lack of fitness which had left him up to ten seconds per lap off the pace in practice.Fact|date=August 2008

Personal life

Jones separated from his wife Beverley in the late 1980s. In 1996 he began a relationship with Amanda Butler Davis and in 2001 their twins, Zara and Jack, were born.

Jones also has a daughter, Camilla, who was born in 1990.

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

Career results

Complete Formula One results

() (races in bold indicate pole position; races in "italics" indicate fastest lap)

Notes