Jacques Laffite

Former F1 driver


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Name = Jacques Laffite
Nationality = flagicon|France French
Years = F1|1974 - F1|1986
Team(s) = Iso Marlboro, Ligier, Williams
Races = 180 (176 starts)
Championships = 0
Wins = 6
Podiums = 32
Poles = 7
Fastest laps = 6
Points = 228
First race = 1974 German Grand Prix
First win = 1977 Swedish Grand Prix
Last win = 1981 Canadian Grand Prix
Last race = 1986 British Grand Prix

Jacques-Henri Laffite (born 21 November 1943) is a French former racing driver who competed in Formula One from F1|1974 to F1|1986. He achieved six grand prix wins, all while driving for the Ligier team. He is now a TV commentator on french television TF1.

Career

Born in Paris, 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 2nd place in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.

In F1|1976 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 eventually placed only 4th, with 36 points. The following two seasons were similar, with two more 4th places in the Championship and a further 3 victories. In 1982, however, Laffite finished only 17th in the final classification, with only 5 points scored.

Results in the next two seasons weren't much better, when he moved back to England, again to race for Williams (11 and 5 points, respectively). Now in his forties, Laffite returned to Ligier in 1985: in that season he was on the podium three times (Great Britain, Germany and Australia), for a total of 16 points. In 1986 he scored 14 points including two more podium finishes in the first half of the season, but he broke both legs in a crash during the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, and therefore retired from Formula One. He was the most successful driver in Ligier's history, having taken six of their nine wins.

Laffite recovered from his injuries and later raced in touring cars. He is now a television commentator.

Jacques Laffite was one of the three people (along with Jacky Ickx and Johnny Servoz-Gavin) believed most likely to be the unidentified driver in director Claude Lelouch's classic 1976 short film "C'était un rendez-vous". It has since emerged that the driver was in fact Lelouch himself.

Victories

*1977: Sweden
*1979: Argentina, Brazil
*1980: Germany
*1981: Austria, Canadian

Complete Formula One World Championship results

() (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in "italics" indicate fastest lap)