Alan Jones (racing driver)

For other people named Alan Jones, see Alan Jones (disambiguation).

Alan Jones

Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Australian
Active years	1975 - 1981, 1983, 1985 - 1986
Teams	Hesketh, Hill, Surtees, Shadow, Williams, Arrows, Lola
Entries	117 (116 starts)
Championships	1 (1980)
Wins	12
Podiums	24
Career points	199 (206)
Pole positions	6
Fastest laps	13
First entry	1975 Spanish Grand Prix
First win	1977 Austrian Grand Prix
Last win	1981 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Last entry	1986 Australian Grand Prix

Alan Jones MBE (born November 2, 1946) is an Australian former Formula One racer. He was the first driver to win a Formula 1 championship with the Williams team.

Career

Alan 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. 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. 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 gig in 1976, on 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.

He 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 unretired 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 it ultimately failed, he left F1 for good, racing touring cars for a while before becoming a TV commentator.

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.

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Team	WDC	Points
1975	Hesketh	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP ret	MON ret	BEL ret	SWE 11	NED 13	FRA 16	GBR 10	GER 5	AUT	ITA	USA				Hill	17th	2
1976	Surtees	BRA	SAF	USW NC	ESP 9	BEL 5	MON ret	SWE 13	FRA ret	GBR 5	GER 10	AUT ret	NED 8	ITA 12	CAN 16	USA 8	JPN 4		Surtees	15th	7
1977	Shadow	ARG	BRA	SAF	USW ret	ESP ret	MON 6	BEL 5	SWE 17	FRA ret	GBR 7	GER ret	AUT 1	NED ret	ITA 3	USA ret	CAN 4	JPN 4	Shadow	7th	22
1978	Williams	ARG ret	BRA 11	RSA 4	USW 7	MON ret	BEL 10	ESP 8	SWE ret	FRA 5	GBR ret	GER ret	AUT ret	NED ret	ITA 13	USA 2	CAN 9		Williams	11th	11
1979	Williams	ARG 9	BRA ret	RSA ret	USW 3	ESP ret	BEL ret	MON ret	FRA 4	GBR ret	GER 1	AUT 1	NED 1	ITA 9	CAN 1	USA ret			Williams	3rd	40 (43)
1980	Williams	ARG 1	BRA 3	RSA ret	USW ret	BEL 2	MON ret	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 3	AUT 2	NED 11	ITA 2	CAN 1	USA 1				Williams	1st	67 (71)
1981	Williams	USW 1	BRA 2	ARG 4	SMR 12	BEL ret	MON 2	ESP 7	FRA 17	GBR ret	GER 11	AUT 4	NED 3	ITA 2	CAN ret	LVS 1			Williams	3rd	46
1983	Arrows	BRA	USW ret	FRA	SMR	MON	BEL	USE	CAN	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	EUR	RSA			Arrows	NA	0
1985	Lola	BRA	POR	SMR	MON	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA ret	BEL	EUR ret	RSA DNS	AUS ret		Lola	NA	0
1986	Lola	BRA ret	ESP ret	SMR ret	MON ret	BEL 11	CAN 10	USA ret	FRA ret	GBR ret	GER 9	HUN ret	AUT 4	ITA 6	POR ret	MEX ret	AUS ret		Lola	12th	4