OBSCURE F1 A-Z: JEAN-PIERRE JABOUILLE

In this 26 part series of posts I will be going through the alphabet and for each letter, a profile piece on an obscure driver - some you may have heard of before some you may never knew even sat in an F1 car let alone raced one. I have chosen a driver for each letter choosing them based on their surnames.

Jabouille raced in Formula One for a total of seven years, over two stints the first in 1974-75, the Frenchman then returned to the sport in 1977 up to his final season in 1981. During this time Jabouille raced for Williams or as it was known in the 70's Frank Williams Racing Cars, Surtees, Tyrrell, Renault and Ligier. Jean-Pierre entered a total of 55 races starting just 49 of them.

His F1 debut came at the 1974 French Grand Prix where he failed to qualify which meant he was unable to enter the race around the first and final race at the Dijon Circuit. One year later he left Formula One to concentrate his time on Formula Two to win the title.

In his seven years of Formula One Jabouille achieved;

0 Fastest Laps

6 Pole Positions

21 Career Points

2 Podiums

2 Wins

His first win came at his home race - the 1979 French Grand Prix. Where he put his Renault on pole and after 80 laps finished 14.5 seconds clear of the Ferrari of Gilles Villeneuve and just 14.8 seconds ahead of his teammate Rene Arnoux who finished in third place. This win earned Jabouille just nine championship points.

His second and final win in Formula One came one year later at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix where he finished just eight tenths of second placed Alan Jones in the Williams - this closely fought battle once again meant the Frenchman only took home nine points.

His final F1 appearance came at the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix by which point he was driving for the Ligier team a race which he failed to finish due to a brake failure 51 laps into the 80 lap race his teammate Jacques Laffite finished second that race just two tenths of race winner Gilles Villeneuve in the Ferrari.