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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tThe beginnings of Jean-Pierre Jabouille<\/h2>\n
Only 1.5 seconds separated the short-statured Martini-Renault-Mk19 driver Ren\u00e9 Arnoux from winning the 1976 Formula 2 European Championship over his compatriot Jean-Pierre Jabouille in the Elf-2J-Renault. And this exact difference was what Michel Lec\u00e8re had to factor in at the finale in Hockenheim to hoist his teammate Jabouille, in the yellow car sponsored by \u201eFromages Switzerland,\u201c onto the championship throne. It was a tension-filled race weekend with two heats, the addition of which determined the European Championship points, and during which no less than 19 drivers had missed qualification. Such was the crowd. The spectators, of course, were less interested in who from \u201eForce de France\u201c with Arnoux and Tambay against Jabouille\/Lecl\u00e8re would take the title, but rather whether the crowd favorite \u201ePretzel Stick<\/a> would show the \u201eFrenchmen\u201c who's boss in Hockenheim. \u201eStriztel\u2019s\u201c attempt to brake Lecl\u00e8re, Arnoux, and Tambay at the entrance to the Motodrom to stay in the slipstream of the leading Jabouille failed completely. Jabouille won ahead of Arnoux, but that wasn't enough to fulfill his title ambitions. Team manager Jean Sage had calculated the following: \u201eArnoux is still leading with 48 points after this first race. If my Jean-Pierre wins the overall standings here, he'll have 53 points, but that's only enough if Arnoux finishes third in the second race.\u201c Since Lecl\u00e8re's engine was running better than Jabouille's, Michel was supposed to take the lead and win by seven seconds over Jabouille, but not with any more of a lead, otherwise the overall standings would have gone in his favor. Jabouille then only had to keep Arnoux in third place until the finish. And he succeeded \u2013 by the crucial 1.5 seconds. Thus, he won the championship by one point.<\/p>\n The tall, blond man from Paris, with Norman ancestry, an art student and highly ambitious in sports\u2014even in speed skating\u2014took his first steps in motorsports on the hill and then moved on to Formula 3. For financial reasons, he had to solve all technical problems, including engine overhauls, on his own. That\u2019s when his childhood friend Jacques Laffitte offered to help. To save money, they did without hotel comforts, making do with a modest motorhome. They also had things in common on a personal level: Jacques\u2019s longtime girlfriend and later wife, Bernadette, is the sister of Jean-Pierre\u2019s Genevi\u00e8ve. Of course, there was some family friction when Jacques and Bernadette were determined to spend three days relaxing in Biarritz, just as Jean-Pierre had a race scheduled in Nogaro. While Jacques was sunbathing on the beach, his future brother-in-law had to manage on his own. Only the expertise of a real race mechanic could help. With such professional support, \u201eThe Tall One\u201c claimed national championship titles in 1968, 1969, and 1971. Since Laffite had also started racing by then, Jacques was now his own mechanic. No more trips to Biarritz! Only the occasional fishing trip\u2014like Jean-Pierre\u2014could still be squeezed into his schedule. Jean-Pierre Jabouille had meanwhile moved up to the Alpine Renault Formula 3 team, competing internationally. This was also the case in 1972, when he shone in an A364 at the ADAC 300 km race at the N\u00fcrburgring, winning the first race in commanding fashion and setting the fastest lap with a time of 8:46.5 minutes. Incidentally, Hannelore Werner finished seventh here, and Jochen Mass came in 21st. The following year, Alpine teammate Michel Lecl\u00e8re had to contend with Jacques Laffite, who was \u201eblazing fast\u201c in a Martini-Holbay Mk.12. In 1973, Jabouille struck fear into the hearts of the competition in the 2-liter sports car class. During a test day for the \u201eSoci\u00e9t\u00e9 Renault Alpine Elf\u201c 50 years ago at Magny-Cours, he did the same to the author of these lines\u2014as a passenger in the \u201ehot seat\u201c of the A440 next to him. Michel Lecl\u00e8re also invited us for a wild lap: it ended in a spectacular series of spins.<\/p>\n On a Matra MS 670B, the two Jean-Pierres (Jabouille and Jaussaud) finished third in the 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans. Jabouille repeated this placement the following year with Fran\u00e7ois Migault. In those years, Jean-Pierre stirred up the 2-liter sports car scene with Renault. Jabouille competed at Le Mans a total of 13 times \u2013 and only in 1989 did he not drive a French product. He finished fifth in a Sauber-Mercedes C9 along with Jean-Louis Schlesser and Alain Cudini. The highlight was his victory in 1978 in an Alpine-Renault A442. After his retirement \u2013 while leading \u2013 he was directed to the sister car that was now in front. In addition to a total of eight retirements, he secured podium places again in 1992 and 1993 with Philippe Alliot and Mauro Baldi in a Peugeot 905. While his brother-in-law Jacques Laffite had already made it into Formula 1 in 1974 (ISO-Ford FW02) \u2013 debuting at the German GP \u2013 Jean-Pierre's debut came at the 1975 French GP at Circuit Paul Ricard. Thanks to the sponsor \u201eelf,\u201c he was allowed to pilot the third Tyrrell 007\/5 and finished 12th, behind his brother-in-law in the Williams-Ford FW-04. It wasn't until 1977, with Renault's entry into Formula 1, that the now 34-year-old had his first four races in the premier class. The start at Silverstone in the Renault R.S. 01 was a debacle: third-to-last starting row \u2013 with, admittedly, ten non-qualifiers, including Clay Regazzoni \u2013 and a turbocharger failure on the 17th lap! That season ended without championship points in Watkins Glen.<\/p>\n Let's anticipate the final result of that season: only three meager points for Renault and Jabouille. While the F2 team had dominated the European Championship in 1977 with Ren\u00e9 Arnoux and Didier Pironi, the Frenchmen's turbocharged V6 engines still suffered from various teething problems. Apparently, the high altitude air of Kyalami suited the Renault turbo well, as Jabouille had landed on the third row of the grid, but on the 38th lap, the engine blew due to a leak in the cooling system. Turbocharger failure in Long Beach and a four-lap deficit in Monte Carlo led to frustration, but then came the triumph over Porsche at Le Mans for G\u00e9rard Larrousse and Jean Sage's team, where the trio of Pironi\/Jaussaud\/Jabouille covered 5044.53 victorious kilometers. Later, Didier Pironi took J.v.O. for a ride in this winning car at Le Castellet, a drive that ended with a spin at nearly 300 km\/h at the end of the Mistral straight into the catch fences. Unfortunately, after the 24-hour triumph, Renault announced: \u201eWe have solved an extreme technical challenge, and that's why Le Mans is in the past for us.\u201c They wanted to concentrate entirely on Formula 1 now. Jean-Pierre: \u201eAnd that's what Jean-Pierre Jabouille, extremely adept technically with his race car, was content to just finish the race in Interlagos in 1979 \u2013 after another engine failure in Buenos Aires \u2013 while his brother-in-law Laffi celebrated another lights-to-flag victory in the Ligier JS11. In Kyalami, he put the R.S. 02 on pole position, but unfortunately, a valve spring broke on lap 48. During practice in Long Beach, a half-shaft sheared off: Jabouille's Renault then played ping-pong with the safety barriers at 270 km\/h. Jean-Pierre escaped with bruises. However, since his new teammate Ren\u00e9 Arnoux also suffered half-shaft failures, Renault withdrew from the race for safety reasons. After three zeros, the French Grand Prix in Dijon followed \u2013 the breakthrough! A thunderclap already in qualifying, as Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Ren\u00e9 Arnoux clearly outpaced Messrs. Villeneuve, Piquet, Scheckter, and Lauda. While Gilles Villeneuve and Ren\u00e9 Arnoux \u2013 usually within a second of each other \u2013 engaged in a fierce duel for second place, Jean-Pierre pulled away with ease. Tears of joy in the Renault team: their first turbo victory in Formula 1! While Jabouille was once again \u201ebeaten up\u201c by a broken valve spring in Silverstone, Ren\u00e9 Arnoux, with failing brakes, managed to cross the finish line in second place behind Clay Regazzoni. Jabouille's pole position in Hockenheim \u201esuffocated\u201c after a spin into the Baden sand off the track. The only refreshing experience that weekend was the Formula 1 party at the \u201eDorian Gray\u201c at Frankfurt Airport. Clutch damage in Zeltweg and Zandvoort, another broken valve spring in Monza, Jean-Pierre: \u201eIt's despairing.\u201c Brake failure in Montreal, water in the electrics during the wet race in Watkins Glen: Jean-Pierre was stuck with his nine points from Dijon.<\/p>\n Although Jean-Pierre Jabouille's victory at the \u00d6sterreichring in 1980 was an excellent recommendation for a move to Ligier-Talbot, his otherwise dismal point tally \u2013 a clean zero \u2013 couldn't disguise the fact that Renault no longer wanted to grant him number one status in the team. After all, the six-years-younger Ren\u00e9 Arnoux had scored 29 points. Jean Sage: \u201eOn the Wednesday before Imola, after heated discussions with our management, we managed to push through a contract extension and presented it to Jean-Pierre. However, four days later, he asked for the contract to be terminated.\u201c The stated goal of team director G\u00e9rard Larrousse to aim for the title in 1980 had, of course, come to nothing. At Ligier, henceforth called \u201eTalbot Gitanes,\u201c Didier Pironi had departed for Ferrari. Jabouille couldn't resist the offer from G\u00e9rard Ducarouge, constructor and team boss of the other, more successful French team, for 1981: \u201eThey offered me double the amount of Renault's offer, and besides, I was excited to drive with my old friend and brother-in-law Jacques in the same team.\u201c Then came the Canadian GP with a tragic accident. On the 25th lap, a suspension broke on Jabouille's Renault R. E. 23. The Renault, without braking, hurtled head-on into a wall of tire stacks and guardrails at 160 km\/h. Jabouille remained trapped in the wreckage for over 30 minutes with open leg fractures before he could be taken to the hospital for emergency surgery. Jacques Laffite, who had run out of fuel two laps before the finish, immediately rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, TAG boss Mansour Ojjeh organized Jabouille's repatriation to Paris in his private Boeing 707.<\/p>\n![\"Jean-Pierre](\"https:\/\/slickpix.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Jean-Pierre-Jabouille-curbs-historischer-motorsport-magazin-Vor-dem-F2-Titelkampf-1976-in-Hockenheim-150x150.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tWith friend Jacques Laffite as mechanic<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tJean-Pierre Jabouille with a win and podium finishes at Le Mans<\/h2>\n
Jabouille's Passion Play 1978<\/h3>\n
\n\u201cdesperate need:\u201e Broken oil line in Anderstorp and out of the rankings in Zolder with a 14-lap deficit. Jean-Pierre: \u201cThe only thing that brings us joy here is our new race transporter.\" Engine failures in Brands Hatch and Le Castellet. It was particularly frustrating at home in France, as the engine sputtered already in the formation lap. A switch to the perfectly intact reserve car, starting from
\nThe pit lane was empty because Jackie Stewart had previously filmed with this monoposto. Sage: \u201eDismantling the camera and adjusting the pedals from little Stewart to tall Stewart would have taken a good 30 minutes.\u201c Engine failure also in Hockenheim and a gearbox defect on the \u00d6sterreichring! Alongside Niki Lauda in the second row in Monza and a broken valve spring in the race! Jean-Pierre's morale was severely tested, as the turbo engine also died in Zandvoort. Only in Watkins Glen did they get three points. Full of hope and trust in his team, Jean-Pierre later told me on-site for \u201erallye racing\u201c: \u201eJochen, after all these breakdowns, we've also learned a lot. Our goal is the first victory for a turbo engine in Formula 1, and you'll experience it soon.\u201c<\/p>\n![\"Jean-Pierre](\"https:\/\/slickpix.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Jean-Pierre-Jabouille-curbs-historischer-motorsport-magazin-Hatte-1978-im-Renault-R.S.-02-noch-viele-Probleme-gehabt-150x150.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tJean-Pierre Jabouille \u2013 The glorious day!<\/h2>\n
Jabouille's second and final victory<\/h3>\n
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