| Renault played an important part in Jean-Pierre
Jabouille’s career, the Frenchman ensuring his place in Formula
One history by achieving Renault’s first ever Grand Prix win
in 1979.
Twice he finished runner-up in French F3 before moving on to race
sports cars and then Formula 2 – in 1976 Jabouille took a
hugely satisfying European Formula 2 title victory in a Renault-powered
ELF 2J which he designed and also developed himself. Renault’s
long term ambition was to enter Formula One with a turbocharged
1.5-litre car and against the normally-aspirated 3-litre machines
it looked as though it would be an impossible task.
In late 1976 the F1 project was moved from the Dieppe-based Alpine
factory to Renaultsports’s HQ at Viry-Chatillon near Paris
where the Alpine A500, as it was known, evolved into the Renault
RS01. Jabouille was the driver as the car was unveiled to the world’s
press in May 1977 and in July of that year the car was raced for
the first time at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Often showing
potential throughout the 1978 season, the car ultimately had too
many reliability issues but once Renault had won Le Mans the Formula
One project was given top priority.
In 1979 a two-car Renault team was entered into the Formula One
World Championship with Rene Arnoux partnering Jabouille. By the
time of the French Grand Prix the new ‘ground-effect’
RS10 Renault was a pace-setter with both cars on the front row of
the grid. Jabouille took Renault’s first ever F1 victory before
repeating that success in the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix. He broke
his leg, however, in that year’s Canadian GP and after returning
to racing with Ligier in 1981 he retired after failing to qualify
at Monaco.
Renault F1 Victories:
Dijon-Prenois, France (1979) and Osterreichring, Austria (1980) |
