Alan Jones (racing driver)

Alan Stanley Jones, (born 2 November 1946) is an Australian former Formula One driver.

Jones attended Xavier College and is the son of Stan Jones, an Australian racing driver and winner of the 1959 Australian Grand Prix, and wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Jones initially worked in his father's Holden dealership while racing a Mini and a Cooper.

The younger Jones left for Europe in 1967, to make a name for himself, but found that he could not afford even a Formula Ford drive.

He therefore returned home but was back in the UK in 1970 and set about building his career in company with compatriot Brian McGuire.

The two men bought and sold second-hand cars and Jones was eventually able to afford a Formula Three, Lotus 41 which he intended to adapt to Formula Two specification and take back to Australia to sell, in order to finance a season of Formula Three.

However, the machine was written off in a testing accident at Brands Hatch in which Jones suffered a broken leg.

In late 1970, Jones signed with a firm for whom McGuire was working, designed to promote drivers' interests and was selected to compete in a series of races in Brazil.

However, in his first two races the engine failed and in the third the gearbox broke, which meant the opportunity ended.

For 1971, Jones campaigned a Brabham BT 28 converted to BT35 specification, in Formula Three and had a moderately successful season which led to a series of tests for March at Silverstone.

However, despite the success of the test, Jones was not offered a drive by March and for 1972, drove a GRD in Formula Three.

Jones did enough that season to be kept on by GRD for the next year with a new sponsor and only lost the 1973 championship due to a misfiring engine in the last round at Brands Hatch.

In 1974, Jones began the season in Formula Atlantic but felt it was a very amateurish effort, but a chance meeting with Harry Stiller led to a drive in the latter's March 74.

At the end of the season, Jones made his F5000 debut for Stiller in the final round of the European Championship at Brands Hatch in a Chevron B24/28 owned by John MacDonald.

It was planned to enter Formula 5000 for 1975.

However, Stiller's initial plans fell through but after some delay, during which Jones was effectively unemployed, Stiller arranged to purchase a Formula One Hesketh 308 and signed Jones to drive the car.

His first race was the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at the fast Montjuïc circuit in the purchased Hesketh although the weekend turned out to be one of the most tragic in Formula One history

when Rolf Stommelen's crash caused the death of five spectators.

After four races in Formula One the team ceased racing after Stiller moved abroad.

However, Jones was named as a replacement for the injured Stommelen in Graham Hill's team.

His best finish with Hill, in four races for the team, was fifth at the Nürburgring.

He earned his first full-time Formula One drive in 1976, in John Surtees' team.

Jones' car was known for its infamous Durex sponsorship which led the BBC refusing to cover Formula One races during the season.

He managed several good finishes in the TS19, a fourth in Japan in the final race of the season being the best of them.

Jones refused to drive for Surtees in 1977, preferring to sit out a season than continue with the team.

Jones was racing in America when he was signed by the Shadow team as a replacement for Tom Pryce, who had been killed in a freak racing accident in South Africa.

He made the most of the opportunity and won at the Österreichring for his maiden victory, finishing seventh in the championship, with 22 points.

By late 1977, he had caught the attention of Frank Williams as well as Enzo Ferrari.

Ferrari had a meeting with him at Maranello, but in the end, Gilles Villeneuve got the drive.

Williams, who was looking to rebuild his Formula One racing team.

Williams Grand Prix had struggled for success in its first years and after Williams had restarted his team in 1977, Jones was entrusted to give them their first taste of it.

Jones also won the 1978 Can-Am championship driving a Lola.

As well as Williams, he also signed with Haas-Hall for 1978, and competed in a Lola 333CS in the Can-Am series, winning the title.

Jones took nine poles in ten races but missed the Laguna Seca race due to a Formula One scheduling conflict.

Stand-in Brian Redman finished twelfth in that race after the kill wire was crimped under a valve cover, resulting in intermittent ignition.

Of the nine races in which he competed, Jones won five (Atlanta, Mosport, Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Riverside.) He finished second to Elliot Forbes-Robinson at Charlotte after hitting a chicane and losing a spark plug wire, retired through accident at St Jovite and lost a radiator at Watkins Glen.

He finished third at Trois-Rivières after losing a shift fork and being stuck with only second and fifth gears on the tight road circuit.

He was the first driver to win a Formula One World Championship with the Williams team, becoming the 1980 World Drivers' Champion and the second Australian to do so following triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham.

He competed in a total of 117 Grands Prix, winning 12 and achieving 24 podium finishes.

Jones is also the last Australian driver to win the Australian Grand Prix, winning the 1980 event at Calder Park Raceway, having lapped the field consisting mostly of Formula 5000 cars while he was driving his Formula One Championship winning Williams FW07B.