Team Ligier

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Ligier
Logo Ligier.svg
Surname Team Ligier
Companies Automobiles Ligier SA
Company headquarters Abrest ( F )
Team boss FranceFrance Guy Ligier
statistics
First Grand Prix Brazil 1976
Last Grand Prix Japan 1996
Race driven 325
Constructors' championship -
Drivers World Championship -
Race wins 9
Pole positions 9
Fastest laps 9
Points 388

The Équipe Ligier , meanwhile Équipe Talbot Gitanes , was a French Formula 1 team that was founded by Guy Ligier and had its roots in the light and sports car manufacturer Automobiles Ligier . The team contested 325 Formula 1 races from 1976 to 1996 and scored nine victories. In the late 1970s, Ligier was one of the most successful racing teams, but with the beginning of the turbo era, performance declined. After a few changes of ownership, Alain Prost took over the racing team in 1996 and managed it from 1997 to 2001to be continued under the name Prost Grand Prix .

overview

History of origin

Background: Sports car racing with the Ligier JS2

Guy Ligier , born in 1930, began his sports career as a rugby player. Later he drove motorcycle races. In 1962, Guy Ligier, following the path of his role model John Surtees , switched to automobile racing. Ligier took part in rallies and endurance races and drove in Formula Junior and Formula 2 . In 1966 and 1967 he finally competed in Formula 1. In 1966 he took part in five world championship races as a private driver with a Cooper T81 , and in 1967 with a Brabham BT20 in seven races. At the German Grand Prix , Ligier was ranked sixth and earned a world championship point. From 1968 Guy Ligier devoted himself to building up the Automobiles Ligier company, which started producing sports cars in 1969. At this time he ended his active career in formula racing, but continued to regularly take part in the 24-hour races of Le Mans until 1973 . Automobiles Ligier began as a joint project between Guy Ligier and the French racing driver Jo Schlesser . Before the company could start operations, Schlesser died in an accident at the French Grand Prix in Rouen-les-Essarts . Ligier continued the project alone.

From 1969 Ligier built sports cars, some of which were tailored to racing applications, but some of which were also approved for road use. In addition to the Ligier JS2 , Ligier also built the luxury coupé SM from 1972 on behalf of Citroën . With the JS 2, the Ligier works team finished the 1975 Le Mans 24-hour race in second place overall.

Foundation of the Formula 1 team

The Formula 1 team of the Équipe Ligier was founded in December 1974. The basis for the commitment was the equipment of the former Formula 1 team Matra , which Guy Ligier took over in December 1974 with financial support from the French tobacco monopoly Société d'Exploitation Industrielle des Tabacs et des Allumettes (SEITA). The connection between Ligier and Matra was established by the French racing driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise , who had driven for both teams in recent years: he had contested long-distance races with Ligier and Formula 1 races with Matra. In addition to the equipment, Ligier also took over the entire staff of the Matra team, including the engineers Gérard Ducarouge du Paul Carillo, who designed the successful Matra MS670 long-distance car, among other things . During 1975, Ducarouge and Carillo, together with Michel Baujon, developed the first Formula 1 racing car for Ligier, the JS5 . The car was presented to the public on the SEITA premises in 1975 and then tested by Beltoise on the Paul Ricard circuit .

Changing services

The first model of the Équipe Ligier still had some technical similarities with earlier Matra constructions; In the mid-1970s, however, the team broke away from these templates. Ligier was able to win a Grand Prix in its second year of existence, in 1979 it was third and in 1980 second in the constructors' championship. There was no further increase. In the remaining years of Formula 1 involvement, the team did not get beyond several fifth places; in a few years it was not even classified for the constructors' championship. Observers believed that by the late 1970s, Ligier failed to understand why the team was so successful; therefore continuous further development was not possible. The 1980s are sometimes referred to in French motorsport literature with the words "Errare Ligierum Est".

Sport and politics

The Équipe Ligier achieved only a few sporting successes since the 1980s. Guy Ligier had good relations with French politicians, including a close friend of the French President François Mitterrand and the temporary Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy . Through these contacts, the team received financial support for many years from French state-owned companies that advertised the Ligier cars as sponsors. They included the state lottery company Française des Jeux (“Loto”) and the tobacco monopoly SEITA. The French competing teams AGS and Larrousse did not receive this support. In some cases, Guy Ligier also used his influence to get sponsors of these teams to switch to his racing team. Observers attributed the exclusion of the rival team Larrousse from the constructors' championship in 1990 to an intervention by Guy Ligier. In 1989 it was reported that, at Ligier's instigation, government agencies had prevented a sponsorship contract between the rival team AGS and the oil company Total .

Several changes of ownership

Short-term owner of the Équipe Ligier: Flavio Briatore (1994 to 1995)

In the 1990s, the Équipe Ligier experienced a number of changes of ownership. In 1992 Guy Ligier sold the racing team for allegedly 200 million French francs to the French industrialist Cyril de Rouvre , who was the owner of the AGS team from 1988 to 1990. De Rouvre was responsible for Ligier for only one year. At the end of 1993 he was embroiled in a lawsuit, as a result of which he was detained for ten months. At the turn of the year 1993/94 the racing team was without a responsible manager. In the spring of 1994, Flavio Briatore took over the Ligier team, which at the time drove with Renault engines, which were regarded as the most powerful engines in Formula 1 and had won the drivers' world championship with Williams in 1992 ( Nigel Mansell ) and 1993 (Alain Prost). At the same time, Briatore headed the Benetton team, which started with inferior eight-cylinder Ford engines until 1994 . The aim of the Ligiers takeover was to redirect the Renault engines to Benetton for the 1995 season so that Michael Schumacher had a powerful engine to defend his world championship title. Instead, Ligier received Honda engines that Briatore had taken over from Minardi . The link with Benetton led to a technology transfer in 1995; the Ligier JS41 was largely identical to the Benetton B195 , apart from a few special features in the engine environment . In 1995 the team was headed by Tom Walkinshaw , and Alain Prost took over the team the following year.

Constructions

Ligier was a so-called works team during the entire Formula 1 engagement, so he constructed the cars himself. The vehicles were each given the designation JS in memory of the racing driver Jo Schlesser who died in 1968 ; odd digits or numbers were added for further customization.

Ligier procured the engines from Cosworth or Ford, Matra, Megatron , Lamborghini , Renault and Honda. A partnership with Alfa Romeo , which was planned for 1987 , failed shortly before the start of the racing season.

Races

From 1976 Ligier participated in the Formula 1 World Championship. The team was represented in Formula 1 for 21 years. Ligier is the French team that has been involved in Formula 1 the longest.

The beginnings

1976 - debut season

Ligier's first Formula 1 car: the JS5 from 1976
Ligier JS5 from 1976

The Équipe Ligier reported in 1976 under the name Ligier Gitanes for the Formula 1 World Championship 1976. The term Gitanes referred to the cigarette brand of the same name , which was marketed in France by Ligier's financier SEITA.

Guy Ligier initially considered entering a two-driver team with Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo in the debut season . However, cost reasons forced him to initially limit himself to a car. The main reason for this was the high-priced Matra engine, which was twice as expensive as a Cosworth eight-cylinder. The driver's choice went in favor of the young Frenchman Jacques Laffite .

The car was the Ligier JS5, powered by the twelve-cylinder engine designed by Matras in 1968. The blue and white painted car was characterized by a very large air scoop over the engine, on which the picture of a dancing gypsy - a trademark of Gitanes - could be seen. The air scoop brought no technical advantage. It only served to enlarge the advertising space on the car. The Ligier JS5 is therefore sometimes referred to as the “racing billboard”.

Ligier competed in all 16 Grand Prix of the 1976 season and was able to qualify for every race. In the first two races of the year, Laffite was canceled due to a technical defect. At the first Grand Prix of the year in Brazil , Laffite had an accident during qualifying and damaged the suspension of the only operational vehicle. Guy Ligier and a mechanic repaired the car the following night in the Fittipaldi team's workshop so that Laffite could take part in the race. However, on race Sunday he retired due to a gearbox damage. In the second race of the year in South Africa , Laffite qualified for eighth place on the grid, and in the race he posted the third fastest lap time. However, it later failed due to an engine failure. The team reached the finish line for the first time at the Grand Prix of the USA West : Here Ligier scored the first world championship points thanks to a fourth place from Laffite. Laffite came third at the Belgian and Italian Grand Prix . The team's best result was Laffite's second place at the Austrian Grand Prix . In total, Ligier and Laffite scored 20 world championship points in the team's debut season. Laffite finished the year eighth in the drivers 'championship, Ligier was sixth in the constructors' championship. The Penske team , like Ligier, had reached 20 points. Since Penske was able to show a better individual result than Ligier with a win, Penske was rated fifth and Ligier sixth.

1977 and 1978

Ligier JS9

The following year Laffite won the first race for Ligier. At the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix , he was the first to cross the finish line with a lead of eight seconds over Jochen Mass ( McLaren ). In motorsport literature, this result is usually seen as the first purely French Formula 1 victory, because a French driver won in a French car powered by a French engine (the first French Grand Prix winner, however, was already Maurice Trintignant on Ferrari in Monaco 1955 , and the first victory for a French chassis was achieved by Matra in Zandvoort in 1968 with Jackie Stewart as driver). Only the Goodyear tires did not come from France.

At the end of 1977 Matra withdrew from Formula 1, so that Ligier had to use Cosworth customer engines in the 1978 season . However, this indirectly benefited the team in that the Cosworth V8 was better suited for emerging wing cars due to its design than the Matra V12 and Ligier was therefore able to keep up with the technology in the following years. Laffite, who was still the team's only driver, finished third in Spain and Germany ; these were the best results of the year. There were also fourth and four fifth places, so that Ligier finished sixth in the constructors' championship with 19 world championship points at the end of the year.

The golden years

1979

Ligier JS11 / 15

In 1979 Ligier competed with two racing drivers for the first time. In addition to Laffite, Ligier first reported Patrick Depailler , who, after breaking both legs in an accident while kite flying, was replaced by Belgian Jackie Ickx in the summer . This year the Ligier JS11 , developed by Gérard Ducarouge, was released , which consistently implemented the trend of the ground effect highlighted by Lotus . The vehicle was one of the most effective cars of the season. Laffite won the first two races of the year in Brazil and Argentina , finished second in Belgium and third three times in a row in late summer. Depailler finished second in Brazil and won the race in Spain . Ickx, who competed for the team in the last races of his Formula 1 career, achieved less, he only crossed the finish line twice in the points and dropped out in the other races.

1980

1980 turned out to be the most successful year for Ligier. The team started with the JS11 or its further development JS15 . The technical components were designed by Gérard Ducarouge, Hervé Guilpin and Paul Carillo. The aerodynamics, however, was not Ligier's own development. The team commissioned the Parisian engineering firm SERA, which also worked for Renault and Alfa Romeo. Drivers were Laffite and Didier Pironi , who had made his debut with Tyrrell two years earlier. Laffite won the German Grand Prix , Pironi the run in Belgium . There were also one (Pironi) or two second places and three third places each. With 66 points Ligier finished the year behind Williams (122 points) in second place in the constructors 'championship, Laffite and Pironi took fourth and fifth place in the drivers' championship.

1981

At the beginning of the 1981 season , Ligier entered into a relationship with the French automobile manufacturer PSA , which changed the technical basis of the team. PSA took over the French subsidiary of the Chrysler group in 1979 and has been marketing Chrysler cars under the Talbot brand since 1980 . For advertising purposes, PSA tried to make the name Talbot known in motorsport. The company hired Jochen Neerpasch as Directeur Général Competitive, who from 1980 organized rallies with the Sunbeam Lotus built in Great Britain and also promoted a Formula 1 presence for the brand. Talbot should be present in Formula 1 through the Ligier team. The racing team then signed up for 1981 as Équipe Talbot Gitanes . Part of the agreement was the takeover of French Formula 1 engines. Initially, the team relied on the well-known Matra twelve-cylinder engines, which were supposed to replace the Cosworth engine financed by competitor Ford. For the future, the use of a four-cylinder turbo engine was planned, the roots of which went back to BMW's four-cylinder engine, which Neerpasch had been involved in developing before he switched to Talbot. The takeover of the BMW engine failed due to resistance from Paul Rosche . The twelve-cylinder engine developed for the Matra factory team in 1968 produced around 30 hp more than the Cosworth engine, but was heavier and, due to its dimensions, was only partially compatible with the ground effect. The Ligier JS17 equipped with it was therefore more cumbersome and less effective than its predecessor models.

Laffite was the regular driver again in 1981. He won the Austrian and Canadian Grand Prix , was second twice and third three times. Before the last race of the season, the Las Vegas Grand Prix , Laffite had 43 world championship points. He was third in the drivers' standings and, like Nelson Piquet and Carlos Reutemann, had a chance of winning the world championship. Laffite qualified for twelfth place on the grid and crossed the finish line in sixth. Piquet finished fourth, two seconds ahead of Laffite. This result was enough for Piquet to become world driver champion. Laffite was fourth in the overall standings behind Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann. His teammates were Jean-Pierre Jarier , Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Patrick Tambay . They did not reach any world championship points, Jabouille missed the qualification twice in five appearances.

The decline

1982

Jacques Laffite in the Ligier JS19

In 1982 the Équipe Gitanes Talbot could not build on the successes of the previous year. It was the first year since 1979 that Ligier couldn't win a race. Drivers were Laffite and Eddie Cheever . Cheever achieved the best result of the year at the USA East Grand Prix in Detroit with second place, plus two third places. One of the low points was the Dutch Grand Prix , where Cheever missed out on qualifying. Laffite only crossed the finish line four times, two of them in the points. He finished third in Austria and sixth in Detroit. Ligier scored a total of 20 championship points and finished the season in eighth place in the constructors' championship. At the end of the year PSA broke the connection to the racing team, and the previous regular driver Jacques Laffite migrated to Williams after seven years with the team.

1983

In 1983 Formula 1 was in a state of upheaval. It became apparent that turbo engines would dominate Grand Prix racing in the future. Seven engine manufacturers - Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ferrari, Hart , Honda, Renault and TAG-Porsche - equipped 10 of the 16 Formula 1 teams with turbo engines. Along with Arrows , Osella , RAM , Theodore Racing and Tyrrell, Ligier was one of the racing teams that still relied on naturally aspirated Cosworth engines in 1983. They were inferior to the turbo teams. Ligier used Jean-Pierre Jarier and Raul Boesel as pilots . This year, for the first time in the history of the racing team, the Ligier drivers did not score any points. The best result was two seventh places, there were 15 cancellations during the year.

1984

Ligier's first turbo vehicle: The JS23 from 1984 (here at the US Grand Prix)

For the 1984 Formula 1 season , Ligier received turbo engines from Renault free of charge. The emergency vehicle was the Ligier JS23 , which had been designed under the direction of Michel Beaujon. Ligier changed both drivers: the number one driver was Andrea de Cesaris , who came from Euroracing (Alfa Romeo) and had experience with turbo vehicles. The second car was driven by debutant François Hesnault , who finished second in the French Formula 3 championship last year . Switching to turbo engines proved problematic; the JS23 did not meet expectations. The Ligier technicians did not understand the complex turbo technology; many failures were due to technical defects in the engine environment. A major problem was fuel consumption. The Ligier drivers had to fail several times before the end of the race without fuel. This also applied to the San Marino Grand Prix , in which de Cesaris was in the points before he retired. De Cesaris scored only three championship points, Hesnault none. Ligier finished the ninth Formula 1 season in 10th place in the constructors' championship.

1985

In the 1985 season Ligier continued the relationship with Renault. The race car, the JS25 , was a further development of the previous year's model. Jacques Laffite returned to Ligier at the start of the season. He finished two thirds in the middle of the season and finished second in the last race of the year in Australia . Next to him, Andrea de Cesaris started again, who only crossed the finish line once in the first eleven races. The majority of the failures were due to driving errors by the Italian, who was sometimes referred to in the specialist press as the “Mozart of Destruction”. At the Grand Prix of Austria on the Austria ring accident de Cesaris spectacular. In the Texaco chicane he went off course and hit the green on the side at high speed. The car initially started sliding, and after coming into contact with a side barrier, it overturned several times. The car eventually came to a stop with the underbody down. It was completely destroyed, but De Cesaris did not suffer any injuries. He could unbuckle himself and walked the way back to the box . Guy Ligier took the rollover as an opportunity to dismiss de Cesaris: “I can no longer pay the repair bills this man gives me!” At the Italian Grand Prix he was replaced by Philippe Streiff , who won the last race of the year in Australia came in third (behind his second-placed team-mate Laffite). Ligier scored a total of 23 championship points in 1985; the team finished the season in sixth place in the constructors' championship.

1986

In 1986 , the Ligier and Renault alliance entered its third and final year. The team reported René Arnoux and Jacques Laffite. Arnoux, who had been dismissed from Scuderia Ferrari the previous year for allegedly insufficient performance, drove all races for Ligier in 1986. His best results were three fourth places at the Brazilian , Great Britain and Germany Grand Prix . Laffite finished third in Brazil and second in the USA . The British Grand Prix was Laffite's 176th race. In practice, he qualified for 19th place on the grid. At the start of the race, there was an accident in the back of the field in which ten drivers were involved. Thierry Boutsen lost control of his Arrows A8 , came off the track to the left and rebounded after making contact with the crash barriers. Stefan Johansson unintentionally pushed Jacques Laffite off the track during an abrupt evasive attempt, so that he crashed head-on into the guardrails. Laffite suffered severe broken legs in this race, which took several months to heal. The accident meant the end of his Formula 1 career. Ligier replaced Laffite with Philippe Alliot , who scored a world championship point in seven races. At the end of the year Ligier was fifth in the constructors' championship with 29 points.

1987

Ligier JS 29
Emergency solution for 1987: BMW engines from Megatron

1987 appeared with AGS and Larrousse two other French teams in Formula 1. For Ligier 1987 was a year of transition, which was characterized by crises and emergency solutions.

At the end of the 1986 season, Renault temporarily withdrew from Formula 1. This ended the engine deliveries for the previous customer teams Lotus, Tyrrell and Ligier. For 1987 Ligier entered into a connection with Alfa Romeo, which had used a quasi-works team in Formula 1 until 1985 and since then has provided older eight-cylinder turbo engines ( Tipo 890T ) for the Italian Osella team. Alfa Romeo had developed a new turbo engine with four cylinders ( Tipo 415T ) since 1984 , of which the first prototypes were built at the end of 1986. Ligier was to use this engine exclusively in 1987.

In the last week of January and the first week of February 1987, Ligier undertook test drives in Paul Ricard with the new JS29 , which was equipped with Alfa Romeo's 415T engine, and a week later Arnoux drove the car in Jerez . There he destroyed the JS29 in an accident that was triggered by a failure of the brake system. During further test drives in Imola there was a scandal at the end of March: René Arnoux publicly criticized Alfa Romeo's lack of commitment; According to his account, only an Alfa mechanic was present during the tests. Alfa Romeo took this statement as an opportunity to terminate the contract with Ligier without notice. The background to Alfa Romeo's decision has not been fully clarified. Observers attribute the withdrawal mainly to internal company reasons: Alfa Romeo was taken over in 1986 by the Fiat group, which was already involved in Formula 1 through Scuderia Ferrari. A second engagement with another, independent engine was not desirable for financial reasons.

Ligier had no engine supplier two weeks before the first race of the season. With financial support from the French Ministry of Sports, Guy Ligier managed to take over some Megatron engines at the beginning of April . They were older BMW M12 engines that had been prepared by Heini Mader Racing Components in Switzerland. Arrows also used comparable engines in 1987. In the first weeks of April Ligier converted the JS29 to the BMW engine. With the approval of FISA , it skipped the first race of the season in Brazil . The first JS29B appeared at the second race of the season in Imola , and the second car was ready for the third race.

The season brought few successes. René Arnoux finished five times and achieved a world championship point; his team-mate Piercarlo Ghinzani didn't score. Ligier finished the season in 11th place in the constructors' championship.

Transitional period - waiting for Renault

Ever since it was known that Renault was preparing a ten-cylinder engine for Williams and the new naturally aspirated Formula 1 era, Guy Ligier sought an engine contract with the French state-owned company. Renault's agreement with Williams stipulated that the British team would receive the engines exclusively for three years; From 1992 it was possible to deliver to customer teams. Ligier bridged the waiting time with various customer engines from British and Italian manufacturers. The team achieved little with them; only once (1989) was it classified in the constructors' championship.

1988

At the beginning of the 1988 Formula 1 season , Ligier switched to naturally aspirated engines from Engine Developments . The development of the eight-cylinder engines was financed by Leyton House, the sponsor of the March team, as well as by Williams ; in addition to them, Ligier was the third user of these low-performance engines compared to the Cosworth DFZ. Ligier competed with René Arnoux and Stefan Johansson, who had driven for the top teams McLaren and Ferrari in previous years. In total, the drivers crossed the finish line nine times, but never achieved the points. They missed qualification eight times. At the end of the year Ligier was not classified for the constructors' championship.

1989

In 1989 only naturally aspirated engines were permitted again for the first time. With 20 teams, more racing teams started in Formula 1. Ligier switched to Cosworth eight-cylinder engines, which, like Tyrrell's engines , were prepared by Langford & Peck in Great Britain . For the first time since 1986, Ligier reported exclusively French pilots: The JS33 was driven by René Arnoux and Olivier Grouillard . Again, the team achieved little: Arnoux missed qualifying for seven of 16 Grand Prizes. Grouillard qualified for 12 races but only crossed the finish line four times. The mere fact that Arnoux finished fifth at the Canadian Grand Prix and Grouillard was sixth in France prevented Ligier from slipping into the group of pre-qualifiers in the second half of the season. Ligier did not achieve more than these three world championship points in 1989. The team was ultimately in 14th place in the constructors' championship.

1990

Ligier JS33B (Philippe Alliot at the US Grand Prix 1990)

In 1990 Ligier used slightly revised vehicles from the previous year (Ligier JS33B), which in turn were powered by Ford engines. The car's aerodynamics were ineffective, and the self-designed gearbox proved to be prone to failure over the course of the season. The team registered Nicola Larini and Philippe Alliot as pilots . The choice of driver was mostly viewed with skepticism in the trade press; Observers did not trust either of them to perform well. Alliot crossed the finish line nine times, but never reached the points in any race and also failed to qualify once. In the United States , he was banned from participating in the race because some Ligier mechanics were trying to repair Alliot's car outside the pit lane. In Germany , Alliot was disqualified because marshals pushed him after an accident. Larini finished thirteen times. With two seventh places at the end of the season, he achieved the team's best results of the year. The French rival team Larrousse, which was equipped with Lamborghini engines, achieved eleven points and a podium position this season. Due to the lack of success, Ligier was subject to the pre-qualification from the race in Germany, but curiously, was already exempted from it two races later, as the Onyx team, which was not part of the pre-qualifiers, ceased operations at the Belgian Grand Prix and Ligier was then able to move up again

1991

Ligier JS35 from 1991

The 1991 season began for Ligier with a political decision that had significant financial implications. The reason for this was a reporting error on the part of the Larrousse rival team: Gérard Larrousse's racing team - unlike Ligier - did not design and build its own cars, but instead commissioned the British racing car manufacturer Lola Cars to design and manufacture them since 1987 . Regardless, since 1987 Larrousse has regularly not indicated Lola, but rather himself as the designer. On February 15, 1991, FISA stated that the Larrousse team was not classified due to this reporting error in the previous season. This decision resulted in the loss of the 11 world championship points earned in the previous year and meant that Larrousse was subject to pre-qualification in the 1991 season. Two days later, FISA revised its decision to the effect that pre-qualification was not required; the withdrawal of the world championship points was otherwise confirmed. As a result, Ligier subsequently moved up to tenth place in the constructors' championship, so that the team from Vichy was now entitled to reimbursement of transport costs regardless of the fact that it had not achieved any championship points in 1990. Gérard Larrousse put the financial damage to his team at 6 million French francs . Observers attributed FISA's intervention to an initiative by Guy Ligier.

There was also a further redistribution from Larrousse to Ligier at the engine level. Ligier received twelve-cylinder engines from Lamborghini for 1991, which had been designed by Mauro Forghieri and had been used by Larrousse since 1989. Instead, Larrousse had to use Ford customer engines. Ligier could not benefit from the powerful engines. The drivers Érik Comas and Thierry Boutsen did not score any championship points, Comas even missed qualifying three times. Ligier was again not classified in the constructors' championship, while Larrousse finished eleventh with two points.

1992

Ten-cylinder engine from Renault (here: RCS2)

In the 1992 Formula 1 season , Ligier was given access to Renault's ten-cylinder engine. The team used the RCS3 engine that Williams had used the previous year. The RCS4 expansion stage, which Williams received during the 1992 season, was not passed on to Ligier by Renault. Mecachrome prepared the engines . For the engine, Frank Dernie and Gérard Ducarouge designed the JS37, a completely new vehicle that, according to the pilots, had a number of deficits: They criticized the aerodynamics, the suspension and the dampers. Érik Comas and Thierry Boutsen soon gave the clumsy JS37 the name “the tank”.

At the beginning of 1992, the three-time Formula 1 world champion Alain Prost, who had taken a sabbatical year after his disappointing previous season at Ferrari , considered investing in Ligier financially. In order to sound out the potential of the racing team, he carried out some tests with the JS37 in Le Castellet in February. He found that the Ligier-Renault was "definitely not a dead dog" and certified Dernie to have done a good job. Ligier tried to sign Prost instead of Comas for the races, but Prost refused.

The Renault engines did not bring the expected progress. In the first half of the season, most of the drivers qualified in the back of the starting field, in Belgium Comas missed the qualification. The Ligier drivers finished in less than half of all races. They only reached four points in the points. Both Ligier drivers were considered prone to accidents. Comas alone destroyed four monocoques in accidents during the season. At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Comas and Boutsen collided and then dropped out. Comas came in sixth twice and fifth once, while Boutsen only crossed the finish line once in fifth. With six points Ligier finished eighth in the constructors' championship at the end of the year.

The last few years - Ligier as a pawn

In the summer of 1992, Guy Ligier was ready to sell his racing team. In September 1992 he conducted sales negotiations with Ron Dennis , McLaren's team principal. For Dennis Ligier was primarily of interest because of the Renault engines, because McLaren was facing the loss of its long-term engine partner Honda and for the 1993 season was dependent on customer engines from Ford, which were clearly inferior to the factory engines in terms of their performance. Negotiations with Dennis failed in October 1992. A month later there was a change of ownership with purely French participants: Cyril de Rouvre, who had owned 20 percent of the shares in Ligier since spring 1991, took over the racing team with effect from November 24, 1992 Completely. This ended the Guy Ligier era.

1993

In 1993 Ligier experienced a sporting improvement. The Ligier JS39 designed by Gérard Ducarouge was more competitive than its predecessor. The engagement of Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell as regular drivers had a beneficial effect on the team: Brundle and Blundell exchanged extensive information on technical and driving details and thus advanced the further development of the car. Blundell crossed the finish line twice ( South Africa and Germany ), Brundle once ( Spain ) in third place. Together with a few other places in the points, Ligier scored 23 points this year, more than since 1986 - there had also been podium finishes for the last time this year. Ligier was fifth in the constructors' championship. Fourth-placed Scuderia Ferrari had only scored five points more.

1994

After Ligier's team boss de Rouvre was arrested in France in December 1993, the team had no effective management. Media reports described the team as "abandoned". In the period before the start of the season, there was not enough money to develop a new car. The team therefore drove in the 1994 season with the JS39, which was now designated as the B version. In May 1994 Flavio Briatore bought the racing team, who reappointed Frank Dernie as technical director and made Tom Walkinshaw team boss. Walkinshaw held 15 percent of the shares in Ligier that year. On the driver side, Ligier again concentrated on French drivers: in addition to the veteran Éric Bernard , the team signed the debutant Olivier Panis . Aside from his home race , Panis crossed the finish line at every Grand Prix. At the German Grand Prix he achieved the best positioning of a Ligier since 1986 with second place. Bernard finished third at the German Grand Prix, but was mostly overshadowed by his teammate over the course of the season. Before the third last race of the year, Bernard was fired; Johnny Herbert took over his cockpit, although he only competed one race for Ligier before moving to Benetton. Franck Lagorce drove the last two races for Ligier, who retired once and finished eleventh. In 1994 Ligier was sixth in the constructors' championship with 13 points.

1995: "Fabriqué en France"?

Martin Brundle in the Ligier JS41 at the 1995 British Grand Prix
Prototype of the Ligier JS41: The Benetton B195

For the 1995 Formula 1 season , Ligier passed the Renault engines on to the Benetton team led by Flavio Briatore. The French team was replaced by Mugen-Honda . In the summer of 1994, Mugen entered into a relationship with Minardi, which was to exclusively use the Japanese ten-cylinder engines from 1995. In autumn 1994 "the old privateer Briatore Mugen convinced that Ligier also needed a competitive engine". Since Mugen could not afford to equip two teams, an engine delivery to Minardi was excluded. Minardi then had to use Cosworth customer engines. Giancarlo Minardi led a lawsuit against Ligier and Mugen in the spring of 1995, which was resolved out of court “à la façon Briatore”: Through a company belonging to him, Briatore acquired some of Cosworth's claims against Minardi from 1993. To enforce these claims, Briatore left on On Friday morning before the French Grand Prix, the equipment of the Minardi team was seized so that Minardi could not take part in free practice. In the hours that followed, the parties agreed that Minardi would withdraw the lawsuit. In return, the team received the pre-trial compensation of $ 3.5 million; At the same time, Minardi's leasing rates from 1993 were largely waived.

The Ligier JS41 served as the emergency vehicle in 1995 , which, according to general opinion, was a copy of the Benetton B195 . During the year there were some protests against the use of the car, but the FIA found enough differences between the two cars that the Ligier JS41 was considered a rule-compliant in-house design. Both Ligier then bore the inscription "Fabriqué en France" (made in France) on the rear wing.

The JS41 was considered the best Ligier in 15 years. With him Olivier Panis could usually fight for points. Panis crossed the finish line seven times; his best result was second place in the final race in Australia . In the second cockpit, Martin Brundle and Aguri Suzuki , who had joined the team at Honda's request , took turns . Brundle finished third and fourth, Suzuki only scored one world championship point. At the Japanese Grand Prix , Suzuki had a serious accident in training and suffered neck injuries. He declared his immediate withdrawal from active motorsport. With 24 points Ligier was fifth in the constructors' championship in 1995.

1996

Ligier JS43

In the run-up to the 1996 Formula 1 season , there were some political disputes about future ownership. Tom Walkinshaw, minority owner of the team, initially intended to take over the racing team completely in 1996. After differences of opinion with Flavio Briatore, Walkinshaw ultimately focused on the Arrows team, which he bought from Jackie Oliver in March 1996 . Walkinshaw took technical staff to Arrows, including race director Tom Dowe and designer Frank Dernie. Briatore then deployed its own staff, including Cesare Fiorio , who after an unsuccessful engagement at Forti Corse was now the race director of the French team. In August 1996, Briatore became the sole owner of the Équipe Ligier.

The racing car for 1996 was the Ligier JS43 , which used the monocoque of last year's car but had its own aerodynamics.

Olivier Panis achieved fast lap times with the JS43, but the car was unreliable. Panis was out seven times during the season. He proved the team’s competitiveness at the Monaco Grand Prix , which he won four seconds ahead of David Coulthard (McLaren). It was the ninth and last victory of a Ligier in a Formula 1 race. Panis' team-mate was Pedro Diniz , who made his Forti debut the year before. Diniz, who had good connections to Brazilian sponsors, was considered a classic paydriver . He failed ten times and reached two sixth places. At the end of the season Ligier was sixth in the constructors' championship.

From 1997 Alain Prost continued to run the racing team as the Prost Grand Prix .

literature

  • Patrice Burchkalter, Jean-Francois Galeron: Tout sur la Formule 1 1991 . Surèsnes 1991, ISBN 2-87-636-067-5 (French)
  • Patrice Burchkalter, Jean-Francois Galeron: Formula 1 - A complete guide to 1992 . Surèsnes 1992, 2-87-636-107-8 (Eng.)
  • Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing . Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
  • David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906-2001 . 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
  • David Hodges: Racing cars from AZ after 1993 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
  • Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 . 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).
  • auto course . Yearbook 1988–1989 (French edition). ISBN 2-85120-308-8 .
  • Alan Henry: Auto course 1992/93 . London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 .

Web links

Commons : Ligier  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 332.
  2. ↑ E.g. Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, S: 335.
  3. ↑ a b Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 132.
  4. ^ Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 324.
  5. ↑ a b Burchkalter, Galeron: Tout sur la Formule 1 1991. p. 108.
  6. ↑ Motorsport aktuell, issue 5/1989, p. 7.
  7. ^ Message in L'Humanité magazine of January 22, 1994.
  8. ↑ The even numbers denoted Ligier's road vehicles.
  9. ↑ Renault F1 was involved for a total of 17 years (1977 to 1985 and 2002 to 2009), Larrousse eight years (1987 to 1994), Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS) six years, Automobiles Martini half a year (1978).
  10. ↑ Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 133.
  11. ^ Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1. p. 332.
  12. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, p. 305.
  13. ↑ Dirk Ramackers: We almost everything would have turned out differently. History of the BMW turbo engine in Oldtimer Markt, issue 7/2013, p. 71.
  14. ↑ On the whole: Cimarosti: Das Jahrhundert des Rennsports, pp. 308, 310.
  15. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, p. 338.
  16. ↑ Lehbrink / Schlegelmilch: McLaren Formula 1, p. 99.
  17. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 10/1987, p. 7.
  18. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 15/1987, p. 23.
  19. ↑ a b Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 340.
  20. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 17/1987, p. 4.
  21. ↑ Overview of the engines used in 1989 and their tuners on the website www.research-racing.de (accessed on June 3, 2013).
  22. ↑ See Hodges: Rennwagen from AZ after 1945, p. 135.
  23. ↑ Cf. Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 341.
  24. ↑ a b c Henry: Autocourse 1992/93, p. 77.
  25. ↑ Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 136.
  26. ↑ a b Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, p. 440.
  27. ↑ a b Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 342.
  28. ↑ Cimarosti: The century of racing, S: 440th
  29. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, p. 453.
  30. ↑ Formulation in Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 454: "Ce vieux forban de Flavio Briatore a réussi à convaincre le motoriste nipponaise (...) que ligier mérite vraiment un bon moteur"
  31. ^ Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 454
  32. ↑ On the whole: Cimarosti, pp. 474 and 481; Hodges, Grand Prix Cars from AZ 1906-2001, p. 179
  33. ^ Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1st 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000
  34. ↑ Motorsport aktuell, issues 3/1995 and 22/1995 ff.
  35. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, p. 479.