1979 French Grand Prix
   HOME
*





1979 French Grand Prix
The 1979 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 1 July 1979 at Dijon. It marked not just the first victory of a forced-induction car in Formula One since the Alfa Romeo 159's victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1951, but also the first victory of a turbocharged car in Formula One, with Renault overcoming the reliability problems that had initially plagued their car. For Jean-Pierre Jabouille it was a victory on home soil, driving a French car (Renault), on French tyres (Michelin), powered by a French engine (Renault), burning French fuel (Elf). Jabouille was the first Frenchman to win the French Grand Prix since Jean-Pierre Wimille in 1948. The race featured one of the fiercest battles ever for second place, between Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve and Renault driver René Arnoux, who on several occasions during the final laps touched wheels and swapped positions. The fight is often cited as one of the most memorable pieces of racing in Formula One. Villeneuve, wh ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Dijon-Prenois
Dijon-Prenois is a motor racing circuit located in Prenois, near Dijon, France. The undulating track is noted for its fast, sweeping bends. Opened in 1972, Dijon-Prenois hosted the Formula One French Grand Prix five times, and the Swiss Grand Prix in 1982. The non-championship 1975 Swiss Grand Prix was also held at Dijon. The circuit currently hosts the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or, and last hosted the FFSA GT Championship in 2018. History Planned in 1967, work commenced in December 1969. The track was part of a plan to make Dijon an automotive centre. It was the brainchild of rugby-player and wrestler François Chambelland (sometimes assumed to be the masked wrestler l'Ange Blanc), and was developed with the aid of racers Jean-Pierre Beltoise and François Cevert, as well as motoring journalist .Furet, p. 13 In spite of lack of support from the city government and a chronic lack of funds, the track was declared open on 26 May 1972, with Guy Ligier making the first timed lap around ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Jean-Pierre Jarier
Jean-Pierre Jacques Jarier (born 10 July 1946) is a French former Grand Prix racing driver. He drove for Formula One teams including Shadow, Team Lotus, Ligier, Osella and Tyrrell Racing. His best finish was third (three times) and he also took three pole positions. Early career Jarier was born at Charenton-le-Pont, near Paris. After competing in Formula France, he moved up to French Formula Three, finishing 3rd overall in 1970, before moving on to the Shell Arnold European Formula Two team in 1971. He peaked with two 3rd places, and also made his Grand Prix debut at Monza when the team rented a March Engineering 701. However, the team dropped him midway through 1972 for financial reasons. For 1973 he signed to the March Engineering Formula Two team, and was also given a Formula One seat by the outfit. Formula One was difficult in the uncompetitive 721G, but Jarier stormed to the Formula Two title with eight wins. Formula One After his good form in the 1973 F2 European seri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Carlos Reutemann
Carlos Alberto "Lole" Reutemann (12 April 1942 – 7 July 2021) was an Argentine racing driver who raced in Formula One from to , and later became a politician in his native province of Santa Fe, for the Justicialist Party, and governor of Santa Fe in Argentina. As a racing driver, Reutemann was among Formula One's leading protagonists between 1972 and 1982. He scored 12 Grand Prix wins and six pole positions. In 1981 while driving for Williams he finished second in the World Drivers' Championship by one point, having been overtaken in the last race of the season. Reutemann also finished in third overall three times for three separate teams, for Brabham, for Ferrari, and for Williams. To date, he was the last Argentine driver to win a Grand Prix. In terms of race wins, his final Ferrari season in 1978 was his most successful with four wins, but he fell short to the consistency of the Lotus team with Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson and was not in championship con ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Team Lotus
Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar, and sports car racing. More than ten years after its last race, Team Lotus remained one of the most successful racing teams of all time, winning seven Formula One Constructors' titles, six Drivers' Championships, and the Indianapolis 500 in the United States between 1962 and 1978. Under the direction of founder and chief designer Colin Chapman, Lotus was responsible for many innovative and experimental developments in critical motorsport, in both technical and commercial arenas. The Lotus name returned to Formula One in 2010 as Tony Fernandes's Lotus Racing team. In 2011, Team Lotus's iconic black-and-gold livery returned to F1 as the livery of the Lotus Renault GP team, sponsored by Lotus Cars, and in 2012 the team was re-branded completely as Lotus F1 Team. 195 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Héctor Rebaque
Héctor Alonso Rebaque (born 5 February 1956) is a Mexican former racing driver who raced in Formula One and CART IndyCar in the 1970s and 1980s. He also ran for his own Formula One team called Rebaque in 1978 and 1979. Racing career Rebaque participated in 58 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 5 June 1977. He scored a total of 13 championship points. He also ran his own Formula One team, Rebaque, in 1978 and 1979; usually he raced Lotuses but for the last three races in 1979 he fielded his own car designed by Penske which he called the HR100. In the middle of , he substituted for Ricardo Zunino as team mate to Nelson Piquet at Brabham, where he stayed throughout the 1981 season achieving his best Formula One results, finishing 10th in the Championship. He also drove in the 1982 CART IndyCar season for Forsythe Racing including the 1982 Indianapolis 500 where he finished 13th after a pit fire on lap 151. He won his final CART race, which was the firs ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

John Watson (racing Driver)
John Marshall Watson, (born 4 May 1946) is a British former racing driver and current commentator from Northern Ireland. He competed in Formula One, winning five Grands Prix and was third in the 1982 championship. He also competed in the World Sportscar Championship finishing second in the 1987 championship. After his retirement from motorsport, he became a commentator for Eurosport's coverage of Formula One from 1989 to 1996. He currently commentates on the GT World Challenge Europe and commentated on the 2022 Miami F1 Grand Prix for F1TV. Early Formula One career John Watson was born in Belfast and educated at Rockport School, Northern Ireland. Watson's Formula One career began in 1972, driving a customer March-Cosworth 721 for Goldie Hexagon Racing in a non-Championship event: the World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch. Watson's first World Championship events came in the 1973 season, in which he raced in the British Grand Prix in a customer Brabham-Ford BT37, an ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formula One team after Ferrari, having won races, 12 Drivers' Championships and 8 Constructors' Championships. McLaren also has a history of competing in American open wheel racing, as both an entrant and a chassis constructor, and has won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) sports car racing championship. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. Founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, the team won its first Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, but their greatest initial success was in Can-Am, which they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972 and Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and 1976. Af ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Patrick Tambay
Patrick Daniel Tambay (25 June 1949 – 4 December 2022) was a French racing driver, commentator, and politician, who competed in 123 Formula One races between 1977 and 1986, securing five pole positions and winning twice. Between 1977 and 1981, he raced for an assortment of teams including Surtees, Theodore, Ligier, and McLaren with mixed results; he additionally won two Can Am championships under Carl Haas in 1977 and 1980. Tambay was hired by Scuderia Ferrari after his close friend Gilles Villeneuve died during the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix; he took his maiden victory four races later in Germany. His second and final victory came the following year in emotional circumstances at Imola. In 1984, Tambay moved to Renault and ended his F1 career at Haas Lola. Tambay competed in various forms of motorsport following his departure from Formula One, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the World Sportscar Championship, and the Dakar Rally. Racing career Early in his career, Tamba ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Walter Wolf Racing
Walter Wolf Racing was a Formula One constructor active from 1977 to 1979, which won the first race the team entered. It was owned and run by Canadian Walter Wolf. The team was based in Reading, UK but raced with the Canadian licence. History 1975–77 In 1975, the Austrian naturalized Canadian businessman Walter Wolf had started to appear at many of the F1 races during the season. A year later, he bought 60% of Frank Williams Racing Cars while agreeing to keep Frank Williams as manager of the team. Simultaneously Wolf bought the assets of Hesketh Racing and bought some equipment from Embassy Hill, both teams having recently withdrawn from F1. The team was based in the Williams facility at Reading but used most of the cars and equipment once owned by Hesketh Racing. The Hesketh 308C became known as the Wolf–Williams FW05 and soon afterwards Harvey Postlethwaite arrived as chief engineer. Jacky Ickx and Frenchman Michel Leclère were hired to drive. The team, however, was n ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Keke Rosberg
Keijo Erik Rosberg (born 6 December 1948), known as "Keke" (), is a Finnish former racing driver and winner of the Formula One World Championship. He was the first Finnish driver to compete regularly in the series, as well as the first Finnish champion. He is the father of 2016 Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg. Early life Rosberg was born on 6 December 1948 in Solna, Sweden, where his father studied veterinary science. Rosberg's father Lars Rosberg and mother Lea Lautala were both natives of Hamina, Finland. The family moved back to Finland in the spring of 1950, originally settling in Lapinjärvi and later moving to Hamina, Oulu and Iisalmi. Formula One career Minor teams: 1978–1981 Rosberg had a relatively late start to his Formula One career, debuting at the age of 29 after stints in Formula Vee, Formula Super Vee, Can-Am, Formula Atlantic, Formula Pacific and Formula Two, then "feeder" series to Formula One. He raced for Fred Opert, his American patron. His f ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Jacques Laffite
Jacques-Henri Laffite (; born 21 November 1943) is a French former racing driver who competed in Formula One from to . He achieved six Grand Prix wins, all while driving for the Ligier team. From 1997 to 2013, Laffite was a presenter for TF1. Early years Jacques-Henri Laffite was born in Paris on 21 November 1943. He attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school. Formula One career Laffite debuted in Formula One in 1974 for Frank Williams' Iso–Marlboro team. The following year he raced for the same team, now named Williams, scoring a second place in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. In Laffite moved to the French Ligier team, scoring 20 points and a pole position at the Italian Grand Prix. The next two seasons were transitional, although he managed to win his first Grand Prix at Anderstorp in the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix. The 1979 season opened with Laffite winning the first two races. He fought for the World Championship title until the last races, but eve ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]