Former French racing driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille, architect of Renault’s first victory in Formula 1, died on Thursday at the age of 80, we learned from his family who did not specify the causes of his death.
Jabouille only has two victories in fifty F1 races to his name. But he had more often than not been forced to retire due to the difficulties encountered in the development of the turbo engine, a revolutionary technology in F1 at the time.
The “big blonde”
Born in Paris on October 1, 1942 into a wealthy background and holder of an engineering degree, his track record also includes a European Formula 2 championship title won in 1976. Jabouille made his rather anonymous debut in F1 in 1974 without qualify and contested his first race in 1975.
It is his association with Renault that will allow the man nicknamed “the tall blond” by the press to establish himself in the queen discipline of motorsport, not without starting by attracting, above all, jeers. The French manufacturer was then the only one betting on the 1500cc six-cylinder turbocharged engine, while the others ran “classic” V8 or V12 3000cc engines.
After making its racing debut in mid-1977, the Renault RS01 was quickly nicknamed “the yellow teapot” because of its color but above all its propensity to cause its engine to explode in a cloud of white smoke. But Jabouille doesn’t care. He persisted, worked with the engineers and believed in the potential of the single-seater. He will experience a series of 13 retirements before finally being able to score his first points at the United States Grand Prix in October 1978 with a 4th place.
Renault at the top
René Arnoux joined him at Renault in 1979 and in July, on the Dijon-Prenois circuit, he climbed for the first time, just like Renault, on the top step of the podium. The irony is that history will be remembered more for the duel between Arnoux and Canadian Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) for 2nd place than for Jabouille’s victory.
“I was only thinking about finishing the race, he told AFP in 2018. I knew we had a chance if we made it to the end. It was a great pride because it’s hard to win in F1. A relief also because I had often been in the lead and, each time, I had experienced reliability problems. »
“We are what we are today thanks to Jean-Pierre and his legacy lives on,” said Alpine, which brings together Renault’s racing activities, in a press release on Thursday.
broken legs
It will then be necessary to wait for the Austrian GP more than a year later to see Jabouille win again, and for the last time, in F1, not without having retired again… 14 times between his two triumphs. If turbo technology became the norm in F1, Jabouille gave up his place at Renault to Alain Prost after breaking both legs at the end of the 1980 season. He joined Ligier the following season but quickly realized that the consequences of his injuries prevent him from returning to the highest level and decides to leave F1.
This will not prevent him from declaring in another interview with AFP in 2019 that “Right now, we go out, we go for a walk in the grass and we come back. We have made enormous progress in terms of material absorption and we should put barriers around the circuits so that the car is slightly damaged in the event of going off the road without risk for the driver”.
Jabouille will then return to his first love, endurance, with Peugeot. Already rich with two third places at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1973 and 1974 with Matra, he obtained two more in 1992 and 1993 with the Lion brand. He then took over the management of Peugeot-Sport until 1995, before creating his own endurance team, Jabouille-Bouresche Racing.