Jean-Pierre Jabouille, 1942-2023

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dinizintheoven
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Jean-Pierre Jabouille, 1942-2023

Post by dinizintheoven »

I don't know why it is that I take such an interest in what the Grim Reaper has been up to... but I do. Maybe it's what comes with advancing age, when I'm barely two years away from being as old as my mum was when the old git in a robe swung his scythe at her. Either way, the latest target is Jean-Pierre Jabouille, who racked up 80 years on the clock last October.

I suppose I have a special interest in his career, even though it was all done and dusted by the time I started nursery and half of it was before I was born. But when I was younger, and my mum was still alive, she went to a car boot sale and bought a Formula One Scalextric set, ostensibly because what I already shared with my brother needed more track... and, of course, it had a Formula One car in it! Just the one, mind - the March 2-4-0 had long since been lost, but the one that remained was a Renault RS01 in 1977 spec. It had very old, shiny tyres, and it slid around the plastic track like it had been greased, but I had a Scalextric F1 car and at the time I couldn't have been happier. It was replaced with a Benetton B189 that had Magnatraction and was a lot easier to control, but was always beaten by my brother's Williams FW11 that I remain convinced to this day had a more powerful motor - if we swapped cars, I'd win with the Williams. And then we'd both have a go with the Renault, for a laugh.

But somehow I doubt that the real RS01 produced much "hon hon hon hon hon" amongst its mechanics, its sponsors... and its driver. It was, of course, the car that was little more than a test hack for the Renault turbo engine, which JPJ drove heroically to absolutely no finishes and a DNQ in 1977, and did so all alone. The second season brought - gasp! - a 10th place finish at Monaco, a 13th at Jarama, and then many more instances of the Yellow Teapot grenading itself Again And Again (yes, I have been listening to Status Quo recently - deal with it). And what should then happen at Watkins Glen? JPJ unrejectified himself in one go with fourth place. One points finish, a classified 12th in the final standings for Renault, and a 12th at the new circuit in Montreal in the middle of the St. Lawrence River to end the season...

And from that point on, in two more seasons with Renault, JPJ had two matching season-long results - nine points in both years, both coming from a win. That famous day in 1979 at Dijon, in the much-improved RS10, was the first ever win in F1 for a turbo engine - and nobody cared, because his team-mate, René Arnoux, had spent half the race battling with Gilles Villeneuve for second. The other win was at the Österreichring in 1980, in the even-more-updated RS20, showing the Renault turbo had plenty of power for a circuit such as that. JPJ only saw the chequered flag three other times in those two seasons - 10th, 10th, 13th, no more points, thank you and goodnight. And we don't talk about 1981.

It was a different time. Witness what happened when Honda were floundering with their all-new turbo engine with Fernando Alonso watching his hopes of another title going up in smoke. "GP2 engine, GP2! Aaaagh..." What he'd have made of the Renault RS01 is probably not too hard to imagine. JPJ must have had the patience of a saint, though he didn't go into the project expecting to be World Champion. That he'd only previously been entered for three races and qualified for one of them meant he'd kept his expectations low. But, eventually, you'd have to say it paid off. He had more wins than such highly-rated talents as Jean Alesi, Jarno Trulli, Robert Kubica, and current drivers Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz Jr. and George Russell (though I'd expect those last two to add more wins sooner rather than later).

Au revoir to the man who put in all the donkey work to prove that turbo-charged engines in F1 worked, and were capable of victory, and thus gave us THE EIGHTIES. For that alone we should all be grateful.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/doub ... /10427404/
James Allen, on his favourite F1 engine of all time:
"...the Life W12, I can't describe the noise to you, but imagine filling your dustbin with nuts and bolts, and then throwing it down the stairs, it was something akin to that!"
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James1978
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Location: Darlington, NE England

Re: Jean-Pierre Jabouille, 1942-2023

Post by James1978 »

Yep, an unheralded legend. His most famous race is more well-known for the battle behind him, and his other win seems to have disappeared into the ether (1980 seems to have far less surviving footage than the 70s, then 1981 onwards).
"Poor old Warwick takes it from behind all throughout this season". :) (Tony Jardine, 1988)
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