Jacques Laffite
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| Nation: |
 France
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| Automobile / Formula 1 world championship | |||||||||
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| First start: | 1974 German Grand Prix | ||||||||
| Last start: | 1986 British Grand Prix | ||||||||
| Constructors | |||||||||
| 1974–1975 Williams RC • 1976–1982 Ligier • 1983–1984 Williams • 1985–1986 Ligier | |||||||||
| statistics | |||||||||
| World Cup balance: | World Cup fourth ( 1979 , 1980 , 1981 ) | ||||||||
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| World Cup points : | 228 | ||||||||
| Podiums : | 32 | ||||||||
| Leadership laps : | 283 over 1518,563 km | ||||||||
| Nation: |
France
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| DTM | |||||||||
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| First race: | Zolder 1990 | ||||||||
| Teams (manufacturers) | |||||||||
| 1990 Bigazzi ( BMW ) • 1991 Snobeck • 1992 Mass Schons ( Mercedes ) | |||||||||
| statistics | |||||||||
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| Podiums: | 4th | ||||||||
| Overall wins: | - | ||||||||
| Points: | 231 | ||||||||
Jacques-Henri Sabin Laffite (born November 21, 1943 in Paris ) is a former French racing driver who drove in Formula 1 from 1974 to 1986 . In 176 Grand Prix races he achieved six victories, seven pole positions and 228 world championship points. 1979 to 1981 he was fourth in the drivers' world championship. Laffite was also a sports car driver; In 1975 he and Arturo Merzario won the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring in an Alfa Romeo 33TT12 . He also drove in the DTM and the FIA GT3 European Championship .
Jacques Laffite is married to Bernadette and has two daughters named Camille and Marguerite ; The latter is also a racing driver.
Childhood and youth
Laffite grew up as the son of a lawyer in Paris. He spent his childhood in the French upper class and attended good schools. His interests were determined by sport. He quickly became a good tennis player, skier, and skater. In the winter of 1958 he met his future brother-in-law Jean-Pierre Jabouille . A little later, both graduated from the military together. After all, it was Jabouille who began to get enthusiastic about motorsport. Laffite initially moved more out of sympathy.
After failing high school, he worked as a mechanic for his friend Jabouille. Without much mechanical knowledge, Jabouille and Laffite always managed to get their car running. All of this was at your own expense.
Career
Beginnings as a racing driver
Jean Pierre Jabouille was soon able to record his first successes as a racing driver. In 1968 he drew the attention of the French industrialist Hubert Giraud to himself. After a visit to the workshop, he asked why Laffite did not race. When Giraud found out that Laffite was penniless, he financed him a Formula Franc racing car. However, the condition was that Laffite had to build the car himself. It took some time before he could drive his first races. Laffite took advantage of the time by attending the École Winfield racing school. Second place in a junior competition was his first success as a racing driver. This second place, however, meant a lot more. He secured Laffite a paid season in Formula 3 . So his career began much more professionally than was originally supposed.
Formula 3 and Formula Renault
After a year with a Martini chassis in Formula 3, Laffite switched to Formula Renault in 1970 . Here, however, he experienced a disaster: The completely unsafe, high-speed Formula Renault cars were driven by reckless young drivers. Laffite, who is already 27 years old, was initially unwilling to take the risk. In 1971 the situation improved significantly. He shared the cockpit with a wealthy amateur racer and after the first season of getting used to it, he got along better with the competition. Laffite achieved first victories in Albi and Paul Ricard and finished the season in fifth place in the championship. In 1972 Laffite switched to the BP Racing Team, dominated the season with twelve victories and won his first major title.
In the following year, the championship title of the international Formula 3 European Championship brought him notoriety beyond France. In 1974 he was originally supposed to start in Formula 2 for Ligier with a JS2 with a Maserati engine. However, this engagement did not come about because the Formula 1 team boss Frank Williams had become aware of the French and brought him into Formula 1.
formula 1
1974-1975: Williams
At the age of 30, Jacques Laffite made his Formula 1 debut at the Nürburgring in 1974 with the Frank Williams Racing Cars team . Frank Williams provided him with the second Iso IR1 . In the remaining four races of the season, Laffite struggled with the switch to Formula 1. Because the car was not very competitive at the time, his only success was a race that was driven to the end. For the 1975 season he stayed in the defeated Williams team, which had no chance against the dominating Ferrari , Brabham and McLaren . Nevertheless, exactly one year after his debut, Laffite achieved the first podium of his career at the Nürburgring: He was able to finish the race in second place behind Carlos Reutemann . This remained the only bright spot of the year.
1976-1982: Ligier
For 1976 season , he accepted the offer of Guy Ligier at the new French Gitanes- Ligier - Matra to pilot racing cars. The first year ended successfully, with 20 world championship points and the first pole position in Monza .
The following season got off to a miserable start for Laffite. Up until the eighth World Championship round in 1977 in Anderstorp , Sweden , he hadn't scored a single World Championship point. In Anderstorp, however, he surprisingly won his first Formula 1 Grand Prix, which made him and the Ligier team extremely popular in France. However, the season did not go on very well. Only in Zandvoort in the Netherlands was Laffite able to make a name for himself as second.
The 1978 season brought no improvement, with 19 World Championship points he finished the championship in eighth place. Two third places in Jarama and Hockenheim remained the best results of the average season. The Matra V12 engine had had its day and the new Wingcar Lotus racing cars drove away from the competition.
From 1979 Ligier drove two cars and Patrick Depailler joined the team as the second driver. Numerous changes were also made to the car, mainly initiated by the designer Gérard Ducarouge . Ligier also built a wing car and switched to V8 Cosworth engines. As it turned out, the vehicle was a successful development. At the season opener in Buenos Aires , Laffite put his racing car on pole position with a lead of over a second. In the race he drove the fastest lap and won safely with a start-to-finish victory. Laffite also won the second race of the season in Interlagos , having once again found pole position in practice and the fastest lap in the race. With Patrick Depailler's second place, Ligier achieved the first double victory in its Formula 1 history. Laffite suddenly found himself in the role of the World Cup favorite, but there were major internal problems within the team; Laffite and Depailler constantly argued about the leadership role in the team, designer Ducarouge rebuilt the chassis several times and had internal disputes with Guy Ligier which finally culminated in his dismissal in the middle of the season. In Spain, Laffite took pole position and Depailler took Ligier's third victory; Laffite captured pole position again in the next race in Zolder , and in the race itself he achieved second place. In the second half of the year, it became increasingly clear that Ligier's racing car was more of a chance hit. The superiority of the Ligier had in the meantime faded, the causes were unclear. The technicians were unable to understand the racing car and Laffite and Ligier were only mediocre. Laffite managed to get three third places, but the chance of the world title had been lost. Jody Scheckter became world champion in a Ferrari. To make matters worse, team mate Depailler also got seriously injured while kite flying . At the end of the season, Laffite only finished fourth in the drivers' standings. Although this was the best result of his career so far, the Ligier team was very disappointed about the drop in performance.
In the following year, Laffite got a new, much younger teammate in Didier Pironi . The now 37-year-old Laffite had a lot of trouble with the newcomer. In Hockenheim, Laffite took the only win of the season. With 34 World Championship points, however, he finished the championship again in fourth place and ahead of his teammate. Laffite was to remain number one in the French racing team for the 1981 season , this time in a team with his friend Jean-Pierre Jabouille. Twelve years after Laffite had worked as a mechanic for his brother-in-law, both were reunited in the Ligier team. However, only one race after Jabouille signed with Ligier suffered a serious setback. At the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix , Jabouille had a serious accident and suffered complicated broken legs. Ultimately, this meant the end of his career. Although the cockpit next to Laffite was kept free for him, after a few unsuccessful comeback attempts, Jabouille became race director of the Ligier team, which was partially taken over by the Talbot Group and renamed Talbot-Ligier .
After a difficult start to the season, Talbot-Ligier was able to improve. With only one cockpit occupied, the entire pressure of expectations of the Talbot Group weighed on Laffite. In Austria, Laffite was finally able to take the fifth victory of his career, in the pouring rain he took his second win of the season. As a result, Laffite had a theoretical chance of winning the world title before the last race in Las Vegas (Caesars Palace) , but this was hardly noticed by the media, as the three-way battle between Nelson Piquet and the two Williams drivers Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann determined the action . In the decisive race in Las Vegas, Laffite finally had no chance, Piquet won the title. He himself finished the world championship for the third time in a row from fourth.
In 1982 the Talbot-Ligier team plunged into a deep crisis. After a few good years, the team even finished second in the constructors' championship in 1980, the changes in the French auto industry had a negative impact on Talbot-Ligier's future. The best result of the season was third place in Austria. However, this race was chaotic and many favorites were canceled. In the world championship, Laffite reached 18th place. Only five points were recorded at the end of the season. Laffite returned to his old employer, Williams.
1983-1984: Williams
Even in the Williams team, Laffite could not build on old successes. Keke Rosberg had narrowly won the drivers' title with Williams the year before, but this was also due to a chaotic season in which the dominating Ferrari team lost both Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi to accidents and Rosberg won the title with just one win of the season . In 1983 the chances were very slim due to the technical upheaval. The naturally aspirated engines still used by Williams were clearly inferior to the turbo engines , although Keke Rosberg achieved a final victory with a naturally aspirated engine in Monaco . Laffite could only win 11 World Championship points this season and finished the World Championship in eleventh place.
In 1984 Frank Williams was able to win a powerful turbo engine for his team with Honda . However, it took more than a year for the unit to run without errors. Again Rosberg managed a victory (in the USA), while Laffite had an even weaker season than a year earlier. With five points he only reached 14th place in the world championship. At the end of the season, Laffite was replaced by the young Briton Nigel Mansell .
The now 41-year-old Laffite faced the decision to quit. However, he decided to return to Ligier. He justified the decision with the still existing driving pleasure: "I still have so much fun driving, actually I want to drive forever."
1985-1986: Ligier
Jacques Laffite's twelfth season got off to a better start than most observers expected. Although he could no longer fight for victories, he regularly achieved placements within the points classification. At Silverstone and Hockenheim he managed to finish third with the Ligier. At the season finale in Australia he even finished second. With 16 points, he came 9th in the world championship and finished better than in the past two years at Williams.
Laffite contested his 176th Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in the UK and set Graham Hill's current record for most GP races. At the start of the race he was involved in a collision, his Ligier hit a mound head-on next to the track. The front area of the vehicle was badly damaged, so that Laffite suffered severe leg fractures and a complicated pelvic fracture. The recovery took more than half a year, so that his Formula 1 career had come to a sudden end.
Jacques Laffite achieved six wins, seven pole positions, seven fastest laps and 228 world championship points in 176 Grand Prix. During his 13-year career he only drove for two teams, a total of four years for Williams and nine years for Ligier, with whom he took all six wins. Laffite was denied the big hit, but for years he drove at the top of Formula 1. During his long career, Laffite remained the joker and the lively, lively man, as which he made his debut in Formula 1. Laffite enjoyed life to the full and, despite his innate ease, was a very professional and competitive racing driver.
Life after Formula 1
Recovered from his injuries, Laffite drove touring car races for several years , including in the DTM . There he drove for BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Today Laffite works as a television commentator for the French broadcaster TF1 . He also acts as a consultant for young French drivers. Laffite is still a frequent visitor to the pit lane at Formula 1 races. In the 2007 FIA GT3 European Championship , he drove the Morgan Aero GT3 for the French AutoGT Racing team and is currently its race director. His teammate included his daughter Marguerite Laffite , who drove for the team from 2007 to 2009.
statistics
Career stations
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Statistics in the automobile / Formula 1 world championship
Grand Prix victories
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general overview
| season | team | chassis | engine | run | Victories | Second | Third | Poles | nice Race laps |
Points | WM-Pos. |
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| 1974 | Frank Williams Racing Cars | Williams FW02 | Ford V8 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1975 | Frank Williams Racing Cars | Williams FW02 / FW04 | Ford V8 | 10 | - | 1 | - | - | - | 6th | 12. |
| 1976 | Ligier Gitanes | Ligier JS5 | Matra V12 | 16 | - | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 20th | 8th. |
| 1977 | Ligier Gitanes | Ligier JS7 | Matra V12 | 17th | 1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | 18th | 10. |
| 1978 | Ligier Gitanes | Ligier JS7 / JS9 | Matra V12 | 16 | - | - | 2 | - | - | 19th | 8th. |
| 1979 | Ligier Gitanes | Ligier JS11 | Ford V8 | 15th | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4th | 2 | 36 | 4th |
| 1980 | Equipe Ligier Gitanes | Ligier JS11 | Ford V8 | 14th | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 34 | 4th |
| 1981 | Equipe Talbot Gitanes | Ligier JS17 | Matra V12 | 15th | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 44 | 4th |
| 1982 | Equipe Talbot Gitanes | Ligier JS17 / 19 | Matra V12 | 15th | - | - | 1 | - | - | 5 | 18th |
| 1983 | DAY Williams | Williams FW08C / FW09 | Ford V8 / Honda V6T | 13 | - | - | - | - | - | 11 | 11. |
| 1984 | Saudia Williams Honda | Williams FW09 / FW09B | Honda V6T | 16 | - | - | - | - | - | 5 | 14th |
| 1985 | Equipe Ligier Gitanes | Ligier JS25 | Renault V6T | 15th | - | 1 | 2 | - | 1 | 16 | 9. |
| 1986 | Ligier team | Ligier JS27 | Renault V6T | 9 | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | 14th | 8th. |
| total | 176 | 6th | 10 | 16 | 7th | 6th | 228 | ||||
Single results
| season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | 17th |
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| 1974 |
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| 1975 |
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| DNF | 11 | NC | DNQ | DNF | DNF | 11 | DNF | 2 | DNF | DNF | DNS | ||||||
| 1976 |
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| DNF | DNF | 4th | 12 | 3 | 12 * | 4th | 14th | DNF | DNF | 2 | DNF | 3 | DNF | DNF | 7th | ||
| 1977 |
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| NC | DNF | DNF | 9 * | 7th | 7th | DNF | 1 | 8th | 6th | DNF | DNF | 2 | 8th | 7th | DNF | 5 * | |
| 1978 |
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| 16 * | 9 | 5 | 5 | DNF | 5 * | 3 | 7th | 7th | 10 | 3 | 5 | 8th | 4th | 11 | DNF | ||
| 1979 |
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| 1 | 1 | DNF | DNF | DNF | 2 | DNF | 8th | DNF | 3 | 3 | 3 | DNF | DNF | DNF | |||
| 1980 |
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| DNF | DNF | 2 | DNF | 11 | 2 | 3 | DNF | 1 | 4th | 3 | 9 | 8th* | 5 | ||||
| 1981 |
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| DNF | 6th | DNF | DNF | 2 | 3 | 2 | DNF | 3 | 3 | 1 | DNF | DNF | 1 | 6th | |||
| 1982 |
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| DNF | DNF | DNF | 9 | DNF | 6th | DNF | DNF | DNF | 14th | DNF | 3 | DNF | DNF | DNF | |||
| 1983 |
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| 4th | 4th | 6th | 7th | DNF | 6th | 5 | DNF | 12 | 6th | DNF | DNF | DNQ | DNQ | DNF | |||
| 1984 |
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| DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | 8th | 8th | DNF | 5 | 4th | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | 14th | ||
| 1985 |
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| 6th | DNF | DNF | 6th | 8th | 12 | DNF | 3 | 3 | DNF | DNF | DNF | 11 * | DNF | 2 | |||
| 1986 |
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| 3 | DNF | DNF | 6th | 5 | 7th | 2 | 6th | DNF | INJ | INJ | INJ | INJ | INJ | INJ | INJ |
| Legend | ||
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| colour | abbreviation | meaning |
| gold | - | victory |
| silver | - | 2nd place |
| bronze | - | 3rd place |
| green | - | Placement in the points |
| blue | - | Classified outside the point ranks |
| violet | DNF | Race not finished (did not finish) |
| NC | not classified | |
| red | DNQ | did not qualify |
| DNPQ | failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify) | |
| black | DSQ | disqualified |
| White | DNS | not at the start (did not start) |
| WD | withdrawn | |
| Light Blue | PO | only participated in the training (practiced only) |
| TD | Friday test driver | |
| without | DNP | did not participate in the training (did not practice) |
| INJ | injured or sick | |
| EX | excluded | |
| DNA | did not arrive | |
| C. | Race canceled | |
| no participation in the World Cup | ||
| other | P / bold | Pole position |
| SR / italic | Fastest race lap | |
| * | not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered |
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| () | Streak results | |
| underlined | Leader in the overall standings | |
Le Mans results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
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| 1972 |
Team Ligier
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Ligier JS2 |
Pierre Maublanc
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failure | Engine failure | |
| 1973 |
Automobiles Ligier
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Ligier JS2 |
Guy Ligier
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Disqualified | ||
| 1974 |
Automobiles Ligier
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Ligier JS2 |
Alain Serpaggi
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Rank 8 | ||
| 1977 |
Renault Sport
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Alpine A442 |
Patrick Depailler
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failure | Engine failure | |
| 1978 |
Gran Touring Cars Inc.
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Mirage M9 |
Vern Schuppan
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Sam Posey
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Rank 10 | |
| 1990 |
Joest Racing
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Porsche 962C |
Henri Pescarolo
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Jean-Louis Ricci
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Rank 14 | |
| 1993 |
Jacadi Racing
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Venturi 500LM |
Michel Maisonneuve
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Christophe Dechavanne
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failure | Engine failure |
| 1994 |
Porsche Flymo Mobil Alméras
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Porsche 911 Carrera RSR |
Jean-Marie Alméras
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Jacques Alméras
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failure | accident |
| 1996 |
Team Bigazzi SRL
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McLaren F1 GTR |
Marc Duez
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Steve Soper
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Rank 11 |
literature
- Oliver Buss among others: Rennsport - Geschichte, No. 72 , 1999
- Gerhard Melchert among others: Formula 1 History , Martin Kelter Verlag, Hamburg 2002
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Laffite, Jacques |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Laffite, Jacques-Henri Sabin (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French racing car driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 21, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris , France |