Jean-pierre Jabouille, 1942-2023

Jean-pierre Jabouille, the last of Formula One’s engineer-drivers, who introduced the turbocharger to the sport and delivered its first wins, has died aged 80. A graduate of the Renault R8 Gordini onemake series, Jabouille quickly progressed to F3, standing out by maintaining his own car rather than relying on a team, as well as finishing second in the 1968 French Championship. Alpine signed him as a development driver in 1969, giving him access to more powerful machinery and the occasional works drive in F2 and sports-prototypes. He joined rival Matra for 1974, finishing third at Le Mans. Although he struggled in early one-off F1 drives, he impressed Renault by designing and building his own F2 car and driving it to second place in the 1975 European Championship. Renault amalgamated Alpine and Gordini under the Renault Sport brand in 1976, and hired Jabouille to both devise and race a turbocharged F1 car. The resulting Renault RS01 emerged for 1977, and proved unreliable, but Renault and Jabouille persisted. By 1978 they were known for rapid qualifying pace, and the team scored its first points. At the 1979 French GP, the Frenchman in an all-french thoroughbred became the first driver to win an F1 race with a turbocharger. He only managed one more win – Canada 1981 – before a crash ended his career and he was replaced by Alain Prost. Jabouille drew on his engineering skills to further his career, managing the Ligier team in both F1 and CART in the early Eighties. However, by 1991 he was fit enough to take the wheel again, as both driver and development engineer on the Peugeot 905 Group C car in the wake of Jean Todt’s departure. Under Jabouille, the 905 won the 1992 World Sports Car Championship, and two consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours, with Jabouille himself driving third-place finishers on both occasions.