Alan Jones

Australian racing driver and journalist

Williams's first world champion

Alan Jones worked his way up through small teams, won in Austria with Shadow, and delivered the 1980 title that put Williams on the map.

Alan Jones was born in Melbourne, Australia, on November 2, 1946, the son of the racing driver Stan Jones. He went to Europe to race in the late 1960s, came back, then returned to Britain in 1970 and built a career in Formula Three and Formula Atlantic before a privately owned Hesketh brought him into Formula 1 at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix.

His early seasons were spent with small outfits: Hesketh and the Hill team in 1975, Surtees in 1976, and Shadow in 1977, where he took his first win at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix. Frank Williams signed him for 1978, the same year Jones also won the Can Am championship in a Lola.

With the Williams FW07 in 1979, Jones won four races in five late in the season and finished third. In 1980 he won five championship races, from Argentina to the United States, and beat Nelson Piquet to the title, becoming the first driver to win the championship for Williams and the second Australian champion after Jack Brabham. He won twice more in 1981, including his final Williams race at Caesars Palace, before stepping away.

Jones came back for a single race with Arrows in 1983 and raced Lola cars in 1985 and 1986, finishing his Formula 1 career at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix. Our record shows 116 starts, 12 wins, 6 pole positions, 13 fastest laps and 24 podiums across ten seasons. He is also the last Australian to win the Australian Grand Prix, taking the non championship 1980 race at Calder Park.

1 world titles, 12 wins, 6 pole positions, 116 starts.

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