Alan Jones MBE (born November 2, 1946) is an Australian former racing driver. He was the first driver to win a Formula One World Championship with the Williams team.
Early Life
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.
Racing Career
Pre Formula One
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.
Formula One
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.
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 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. There was considerable discussion at the time that his exit was due more to a general lack of fitness.
Personal Life
Jones separated from his wife Beverley in the late 1980's. 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' adopted son Christian, now races in various forms of motorsport.
Some pictures of Alan Jones
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1 comment:
its guilty to hear about alanjones.
be proud to hav him in ur site.
bye..
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