Alan Jones
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| Nation: |
 Australia
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| Automobile / Formula 1 world championship | |||||||||
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| First start: | 1975 Spanish Grand Prix | ||||||||
| Last start: | 1986 Australian Grand Prix | ||||||||
| Constructors | |||||||||
| 1975 Hesketh • 1975 Hill • 1976 Surtees • 1977 Shadow • 1978–1981 Williams • 1983 Arrows • 1985–1986 Lola | |||||||||
| statistics | |||||||||
| World Cup balance: | World Champion ( 1980 ) | ||||||||
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| World Cup points : | 206 | ||||||||
| Podiums : | 24 | ||||||||
| Leadership laps : | 589 over 2,847 km | ||||||||
Alan Stanley Jones , MBE (born November 2, 1946 in Melbourne ) is a former Australian racing driver . He started a total of 116 Grand Prix races in Formula 1 between 1975 and 1986 and in 1980 became the second Australian after Jack Brabham to win the world championship . Jones was also the first F1 driver to become world champion with the Williams team.
Career
In the early years of his Formula 1 career, Jones drove for teams from the second row (Hesketh, Hill, Surtees, Shadow, Williams). He first attracted attention when he won the Austrian Grand Prix in 1977 on Shadow . Completely surprised, nobody knew how to play the Australian national anthem on site. A trumpeter then announced Happy Birthday . In 1978 he moved to Williams. When Frank Williams signed a sponsorship deal with Saudi Arabian donors, Williams began its brilliant upward trend. As early as 1979 , Williams dominated the second half of the season with five wins of the season, of which Jones was responsible for four.
In 1980 he became Formula 1 World Champion, making him the first Australian to win this title since Jack Brabham (1966). In the 1981 Formula 1 season , the Williams team went again as the dominant force. Internal quarrels (allegedly Carlos Reutemann disregarded the stable management in Brazil, which should let Jones win) caused problems, so that Nelson Piquet finally wrested the world title from the Williams duo. Jones resigned at the end of the season, but tried a comeback on Lola and Arrows a few years later, which was only moderately successful.
The son from well-to-do parents has remained loyal to motor racing to this day, including founding a touring car team in his native Australia .
Controversy at the 1985 Grand Prix of South Africa
At the 1985 race in South Africa , Jones was officially absent due to illness, but Bernie Ecclestone himself promised Jones the prize money of the winner if he did not start the race. The background was the political situation in South Africa at the time and Jones' main sponsor, Beatrice .
The American human rights activist Jesse Jackson threatened at a race start of the Team Haas that he would pull thousands of African-American workers together in front of the sponsor's main building to strike. Beatrice couldn't have allowed herself to go on strike, but Jones wanted to go. Ecclestone tried to mediate on the Friday of the race weekend and offered Jones the winner's prize money if he travels back to Australia on Saturday (the last Formula 1 race that still took place on Saturday) before the race . The reason why he should not fly home until Saturday was that Ecclestone did not want the activist to triumph over a company, but wanted to avert the impending strike immediately.
The team itself was not informed of the existing departure, so it got the car ready for race day. On the Saturday after his trip home, it was announced that Jones was unable to race due to a virus. Since Jones was the only driver of the Haas, the team could not start.
Success statistics
Grand Prix victories
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Le Mans results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 |
 Porsche Kremer Racing
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Porsche 956B |
Vern Schuppan
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 Jean-Pierre Jarier
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Rank 6 | |
| 1987 |
 Toyota Team Tom's
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Toyota 87C-L |
 Eje Elgh
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 Geoff Lees
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failure | no petrol |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ iforsports.com: Former F1 champion: I was paid by Ecclestone to fake illness and miss Grand Prix (accessed August 7, 2017)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jones, Alan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jones, Alan Stanley (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian Formula 1 racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 2, 1946 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Melbourne |