Jarier grew up in a suburb of Paris where his parents owned a small hotel. He soon broke off his business studies when his interest in motorsport came to the fore. After starting out in motorcycle racing, he switched to car racing in 1967 and won the Formula 2 European Championship in a March - BMW in 1973 . Between 1971 and 1983 he contested a total of 135 Grand Prix in Formula 1 for the teams March, Shadow , ATS , Lotus , Tyrrell , Osella and Ligier , in which he achieved a total of 31.5 world championship points as well as three pole positions and fastest race laps . However, he did not manage to win a Grand Prix.
His career in Formula 1, spanning a total of twelve years, was marked by inconsistency and a good deal of bad luck. He missed out on a possible Ferrari contract for 1974 because, to Enzo Ferrari's annoyance, he prematurely went public with this news. Great performances alternated regularly with dull performances, but he pursued his preference for culinary delights and beautiful women unmoved, much to the annoyance of some team bosses. "Godasse de plomb", as he was called by his French compatriots, performed his best in the mid-1970s in the American UOP Shadow team, where he repeatedly lost possible Grand Prix victories due to technical defects. When he, who had already been celebrated as the "coming world champion", was kicked out at the end of 1976 because of a lack of performance and differences with the team leadership at Shadow, his star slowly began to decline. Another highlight of his career made his commitment by Lotus to replace the fatally injured Ronnie Peterson at the end of season 1978. Jarier dominated with superior Lotus 79 the Canadian Grand Prix , when he was brought again by a technical failure to secure victory. After that, the experienced Formula 1 mercenary was still hired by teams such as Tyrrell, Ligier and Osella due to his experience, but he was no longer able to make a leap into a real top team. A broken rib during testing prevented his commitment to Williams for the 1982 season. After a disastrous 1983 season in the French Ligier team, he left Formula 1 and then drove to 2002 touring car and sports car races in French and international championships, preferably with Porsche .
In addition to his racing career, he ran a media company in Monaco as well as management for young racing drivers . He also sat behind the wheel for film stunts, for example in the films Ronin and Taxi . In 1985 he survived a helicopter crash in south-west France almost unharmed, while the aircraft was torn to pieces on impact.
statistics
Statistics in the automobile / Formula 1 world championship
France
Vern Schuppan
Mike Thackwell
Jesús Pareja
