PARIS: Formula One driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille, who won the Renault team’s first ever grand prix in the 1970s, has died aged 80, his family told AFP on Thursday.
French driver Jabouille competed in 49 F1 races between 1975 and 1980, winning his home French Grand Prix in 1979 and the Austrian Grand Prix the following season.
The native of Paris also finished third in the Le Mans 24 Hour race on four occasions.
He acted as the Ligier team’s technical director before heading Peugeot Sport and establishing his own endurance team, Jabouille-Bouresche Racing.
Equipped with a degree in engineering he was at the heart of the then new but fragile turbo-charged engines, equally at home on the track as in the garage.
His 1979 debut win, from pole, was the first for a turbo-powered car, and it proved a sweet moment as he failed to finish no fewer than 37 races.
As well as his two wins he also claimed six pole positions.
Refecting on his win at the Dijon circuit in 1979 he told AFP in 2018: “I was thinking of only finishing the race. I knew we had a chance if we could get to the end.
“It was a very proud moment because it’s hard to win in F1. A relief also because I was often in the lead and each time, we had a reliability issue.”
His F1 career hit a wall - literally - when in Canada in 1980 his Renault’s suspension packed up with the resulting crash leaving him with a broken leg. -AFP
