1979 French Grand Prix

 1979 French Grand Prix

Racing data
8th of 15 races of the 1979 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	LXV Grand Prix de France
Date:	July 1, 1979
Place:	Dijon Prenois
Course:	Stade Automobile de Dijon-Prenois
Length:	304 km in 80 laps of 3.8 km
Weather:	cloudy but dry
Spectator:	~ 120,000
Pole position
Driver:	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault
Time:	1: 07.19 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	René Arnoux	Renault
Time:	1: 09.16 min
Podium
First:	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault
Second:	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari
Third:	René Arnoux	Renault

The 1979 French Grand Prix took place on July 1st at the Stade Automobile de Dijon-Prenois near Dijon and was the eighth race of the 1979 World Automobile Championship .

The winner Jean-Pierre Jabouille won the home race with a chassis, engine, tires and fuel from domestic production. At this GP, a 1500 cc turbo engine won for the first time against the three-liter naturally aspirated engine that had been established in 1966, which was also evident on the track through multiple mutual overtaking in the fight for second place. While the winner drove relatively safe in front, but was hardly remembered, Villeneuve in the Ferrari and Arnoux in the second Renault Turbo fought a gripping duel. In a readers' poll of the motorsport magazine Motorsport aktuell in December 2010, this Grand Prix was voted the best Formula 1 race of all time .

Reports

background

As in previous years, the Swedish Grand Prix was actually planned for mid-June. However, since the two Swedish Formula 1 racing drivers Ronnie Peterson and Gunnar Nilsson had died after an accident and illness, the interest of the spectators and sponsors there decreased so much that the race was canceled. As a result, there was a break of more than a month between the Monaco Grand Prix and the subsequent World Championship round in France.

This interruption was often used for test drives in order to collect further experience with the wing car technology, which is still relatively new for most teams , and to modify the racing cars accordingly. Some personnel changes also occurred during this time, after the field of participants had remained surprisingly constant for the conditions at the time during the first half of the season, although the Concorde Agreement did not yet exist at that time.

James Hunt had surprisingly announced his withdrawal from Formula 1 after the Monaco GP. His successor at Walter Wolf Racing was Keke Rosberg , who up to this point had not yet competed in the 1979 season. Patrick Depailler , who found himself in a promising position at Ligier , had broken both legs in an accident while paragliding and was therefore out for the rest of the season. His place was taken by Jacky Ickx , who was last on the list of participants at the Swedish Grand Prix in 1978 and who thus made another Formula 1 comeback after almost a year of interruption, after having already played between the Monaco Grand Prix in 1977 and 1978 had not contested any Grand Prix appearances for almost a year. Derek Daly decided due to persistent failure to successfully Ensign Racing in the Formula 2 return. Patrick Gaillard was signed as a substitute on the occasion of his home Grand Prix.

Arturo Merzario , Héctor Rebaque and Bruno Giacomelli , who had not taken part in the Monaco GP, returned to the field.

training

After several setbacks in recent events, Renault caused a sensation at the home race of all places, with Jean-Pierre Jabouille setting the fastest training time, followed by his team-mate René Arnoux . Gilles Villeneuve in a Ferrari 312T4 and Brabham driver Nelson Piquet formed the second row in front of their respective teammates Jody Scheckter and Niki Lauda .

run

Since the ATS Racing Team canceled its participation in the race at short notice despite successful qualification by Hans-Joachim Stuck , the actually unqualified Elio de Angelis was allowed to move up into the starting field.

Villeneuve initially took the lead from Jabouille and Scheckter, while Arnoux fell back to ninth after a bad start. By the 10th lap, however, he fought his way back to fourth place and by the 15th lap back to third place. Once again , he demonstrated the competitiveness of the new Renault RS10 .

Due to handling problems, Villeneuve dropped to second place behind Jabouille on lap 47. On the 78th lap he was overtaken by Arnoux and it seemed as if Renault would be able to celebrate the first victory in team history as a one-two. On the penultimate lap, however, Arnoux had engine problems. Villeneuve was able to catch up again and so there was one of the most remarkable wheel-to-wheel duels in Formula 1 history between the two opponents during the last lap, which Villeneuve narrowly won and crossed the finish line around two tenths of a second before Arnoux .

Jean-Pierre Jabouille secured the first victory of a turbo-powered vehicle in Formula 1. Alan Jones , Jean-Pierre Jarier and Clay Regazzoni finished fourth to sixth behind Villeneuve and Arnoux .

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Martini Racing Team Lotus	1	Mario Andretti	Lotus 80	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Carlos Reutemann	Lotus 79
Candy Tyrrell team	3	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell 009		G
	4th	Jean-Pierre Jarier
Parmalat Racing Team	5	Niki Lauda	Brabham BT48	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	G
	6th	Nelson Piquet
Marlboro Team McLaren	7th	John Watson	McLaren M28C	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	8th	Patrick Tambay
ATS Wheels	9	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS D2		G
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	11	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari 312T4	Ferrari 015 3.0 F12	M.
	12	Gilles Villeneuve
Fittipaldi Automotive	14th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi F5A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Equipe Renault Elf	15th	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault RS10	Renault EF1 1.5 V6 t	M.
	16	René Arnoux
Samson Shadow Racing Team	17th	Jan Lammers	Shadow DN9	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Interscope Shadow Racing Team	18th	Elio de Angelis
Olympus Cameras Wolf Racing	20th	Keke Rosberg	Wolf WR8		G
Team Ensign	22nd	Patrick Gaillard	Ensign N179		G
Team Merzario	24	Arturo Merzario	Merzario A3		G
Ligier Gitanes	25th	Jacky Ickx	Ligier JS11		G
	26th	Jacques Laffite
Albilad-Saudia Racing Team	27	Alan Jones	Williams FW07		G
	28	Clay Regazzoni
Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows A2		G
	30th	Jochen Mass
Team Rebaque	31	Hector Rebaque	Lotus 79		G
Autodelta	35	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo 177	Alfa Romeo 115-12 3.0 F12	G

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	1: 07.19	203.602 km / h	01
02	René Arnoux	Renault	1: 07.45	202.817 km / h	02
03	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1: 07.65	202.217 km / h	03
04th	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 08.13	200.793 km / h	04th
05	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	1: 08.15	200.734 km / h	05
06th	Niki Lauda	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 08.20	200.587 km / h	06th
07th	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1: 08.23	200.498 km / h	07th
08th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	1: 08.55	199.562 km / h	08th
09	Clay Regazzoni	Williams-Ford	1: 08.65	199.272 km / h	09
10	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 08.80	198.837 km / h	10
11	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 08.95	198.405 km / h	11
12	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	1: 09.35	197.260 km / h	12
13	Carlos Reutemann	Lotus Ford	1: 09.36	197.232 km / h	13
14th	Jacky Ickx	Ligier-Ford	1: 09.68	196.326 km / h	14th
15th	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1: 09.97	195.512 km / h	15th
16	Keke Rosberg	Wolf-Ford	1: 10.15	195.011 km / h	16
17th	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1: 10.59	193.795 km / h	17th
18th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 10.61	193.740 km / h	18th
19th	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	1: 10.70	193.494 km / h	19th
20th	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	1: 10.92	192.893 km / h	20th
21st	Jan Lammers	Shadow Ford	1: 11.14	192.297 km / h	21st
22nd	Jochen Mass	Arrows Ford	1: 11.40	191.597 km / h	22nd
23	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS Ford	1: 11.75	190.662 km / h	DNS
24	Hector Rebaque	Lotus Ford	1: 11.97	190.079 km / h	23
25th	Elio de Angelis	Shadow Ford	1: 12.23	189.395 km / h	24
DNQ	Patrick Gaillard	Ensign-Ford	1: 13.00	187.397 km / h	-
DNQ	Arturo Merzario	Merzario-Ford	1: 14.95	182.522 km / h	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	80	0	1: 35: 20.42	01	1: 10.23
02	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	80	0	+ 14.59	03	1: 10.46
03	René Arnoux	Renault	80	0	+ 14.83	02	1: 09.16
04th	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	80	0	+ 36.61	07th	1: 10.44
05	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	80	0	+1: 04.51	10	1: 10.88
06th	Clay Regazzoni	Williams-Ford	80	0	+1: 05.51	09	1: 10.83
07th	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	79	0	+ 1 lap	05	1: 10.84
08th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	79	0	+ 1 lap	08th	1: 11.71
09	Keke Rosberg	Wolf-Ford	79	0	+ 1 lap	16	1: 12.12
10	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	78	0	+ 2 rounds	20th	1: 12.33
11	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	78	0	+ 2 rounds	15th	1: 11.52
12	Hector Rebaque	Lotus Ford	78	0	+ 2 rounds	23	1: 12.65
13	Carlos Reutemann	Lotus Ford	77	0	DNF	13	1: 11.38	accident
14th	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	77	0	+ 3 rounds	19th	1: 13.22
15th	Jochen Mass	Arrows Ford	75	0	+ 5 rounds	22nd	1: 14.55
16	Elio de Angelis	Shadow Ford	75	0	+ 5 rounds	24	1: 13.01
17th	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	75	0	+ 5 rounds	17th	1: 12.94
18th	Jan Lammers	Shadow Ford	73	0	+ 7 rounds	21st	1: 13.30
-	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	71	0	DNF	11	1: 12.77	Suspension damage
-	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	54	0	DNF	18th	1: 12.39	Engine failure
-	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	52	0	DNF	04th	1: 11.13	accident
-	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	52	0	DNF	12	1: 12.68	Brake defect
-	Jacky Ickx	Ligier-Ford	45	0	DNF	14th	1: 13.33	Engine failure
-	Niki Lauda	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	23	0	DNF	06th	1: 12.58	Lathe operator

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jody Scheckter Ferrari 30 (34) 02  Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 26th 03  Jacques Laffite Ligier 24 04th  Carlos Reutemann lotus 20 (25) 05  Patrick Depailler Ligier 20 (22) 06th  Mario Andretti lotus 12 07th  Jean-Pierre Jarier lotus 9 08th  Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 9 09  Didier Pironi Tyrrell 8th

Item driver constructor Points 10  John Watson McLaren 8th 11  Alan Jones Williams 7th 12  Clay Regazzoni Williams 7th 13  René Arnoux Renault 4th 14th  Riccardo Patrese Arrows 2 15th  Jochen Mass Arrows 1 16  Niki Lauda Brabham 1 17th  Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 60 02  Ligier 46 03  lotus 37 04th  Tyrrell 17th 05  Williams 14th

Item constructor Points 06th  Renault 13 07th  McLaren 8th 08th  Arrows 3 09  Fittipaldi 1 10  Brabham 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Readers' choice: Best F1 race of all time: GP France 1979. Motorsport-aktuell.com, December 23, 2010, accessed on November 27, 2012 . 
2. ↑ "Training" ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on August 24, 2012) 
3. ^ "Report" (accessed on August 24, 2012)
4. ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on August 24, 2012) 

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website