Alan Jones

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

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.

Early life
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. The younger Jones left for Europe in 1967 to make a name for himself but met little success.

Pre Formula One
It took about six years before any notable results of his own, in a Formula Three car. In 1974 he managed to land a full time Formula Atlantic ride, and his team owner parlayed it into a chance at Formula One the following season, after purchasing a car from the Hesketh racing team.

Formula One
His first race was the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at the fast Montjuïc circuit in his purchased Hesketh, and the weekend was to be one of the most tragic in Formula One history. After four races in Formula One the team chose not to continue racing, but Jones did, as the race after his team disbanded he was named as an injury replacement for Rolf Stommelen on Graham Hill's racing team. He had a best finish of fifth at Nürburgring while there.

He earned his first full-time Formula One drive in 1976, in John Surtees' racing team. Jones' car was mostly known for its infamous Durex sponsorship, but he managed several good finishes in it, a fourth in Japan being the best of them. Surtees dropped him after that year as he did not get along well with the Aussie, and Jones was racing in America when the Shadow team named him 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.

In 1978, Jones, who was on the Williams F1 roster on alternate weekends, also signed with Haas-Hall racing, and competed in the Lola 333CS Chaparral in the Can-Am championship, taking nine poles in ten races. (Jones 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, cracked up at St Jovite; lost a radiator at the Glen. He finished third at Trois-Rivieres after losing a shift fork and being stuck with only second and fifth gears on the tight road circuit. At that race, water-injected brakes were first used in Can-Am, developed by the Haas team and copied with varying degrees of success by others. Jones ran one Can-Am in 1979 (Mid-Ohio), where he and Keke Rosberg had fun running into each other and finishing 1–2, with Jones winning his last Can-Am start.

By 1977, he had already caught the attention of Frank Williams, who was looking to rebuild his Formula One racing team. Williams Grand Prix had struggled for success in its first years and Jones was entrusted to give them their first taste of it. He did not do much initially to do that, a second place finish at Watkins Glen being the best he could do, but he helped put the team on the Formula One map in 1979 using the Williams FW07, after winning four races in the span of five events near the end of the season. Jones finished third in the championship hunt that year, and it was the springboard to an excellent 1980 campaign.

Jones won seven races in 1980, although the Spanish Grand Prix was later removed from the championship and the Australian Grand Prix was a non-championship race, so only five counted towards the Championship. Throughout the season he had a car which consistently made the podium, and he achieved ten during the year. At the end of the season he had beaten Nelson Piquet by 13 points in the standings, becoming Australia's first World Champion since Sir Jack Brabham. He had a good chance to repeat his success in 1981, but a very combative relationship with Carlos Reutemann led to an intense rivalry that possibly cost both drivers a chance at the championship. He finished four points behind Piquet for the championship and three behind Reutemann.

He announced his retirement after the season, which he managed to cap off with a win in Las Vegas, but came out of retirement for a one-time drive with Arrows in at the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch where he qualified and finished third and at the United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach where he qualified a fine 12th but retired after 58 laps through driver fatigue.

Jones wasn't seen in Formula One during but he made a full time comeback late in  when Team Haas was created and Jones was the first driver for that outfit, the team making its debut at the Italian Grand Prix. Jones was joined at Haas in by former Ferrari and Renault works driver Patrick Tambay. The comeback was unsuccessful more due to the Ford V6 engine's lack of power than any lack of skill from Jones and he retired from Formula One for good following the season.

Post Formula One
Jones post Formula One career was initially spasmodic in nature. Briefly in demand for his services as a Touring Car co-driver, he raced occasionally in his home country's biggest endurance race, the Bathurst 1000 but success was elusive. In 1982 he attempted his first full season of racing, driving a Porsche 935 to dominate the 1982 Australian GT Championship. Soon after he made his first failed comeback to Formula One. After returning to Australia again he formed his own Touring Car team, combining the resources of V8 Ford driver Bob Morris and rotary Mazda racer Barry Jones into a single two-car team but results were mixed and the exercise dissipated by the end of the season. 1984 brought a top six finish at Le Mans 24 Hour and a top four finish at the Bathurst 1000. Quickly snapped up as the lead driver in the newly formed factory supported Alfa Romeo touring car team for the 1985 season, he abandoned his first serious Australian Touring Car Championship campaign to make his second Formula One comeback with the Haas Lola team.

After returning home again in 1987 his career did not pick up again until a competitive third placing at the 1988 Bathurst 1000 saw him signed up as full time number two driver to Tony Longhurst in his Ford Sierra team, which was brutally fast but disappointingly fragile and results were again elusive. The team switched to BMWs in 1991, which saw the return of reliability at the cost of speed. Jones took the occasional podium result. A switch to Glenn Seton Racing mid-season in 1992 brought improved results and race wins and he finished runner up to his team leader Glenn Seton as their V8 Ford Falcons dominated the 1993 Australian Touring Car Championship. The team's dominance faded over the next few years. The 1995 Bathurst 1000 looked to be a high point with a memorable 1–2 finish for their two cars fading into just a second for the car Jones shared with Allan Grice. By this point the team was sundering apart and Jones took the major sponsor to form a new team with engineering brothers Ross and Jim Stone as partners, known commercially as Pack Leader Racing. Initially fast, the partnership was fading by 1997 and the Stones bought Jones out, rebadging the team as Stone Brothers Racing. Jones returned to race with Tony Longhurst's team again in 1998 by this time his form was fading. From 1999 onwards he no longer raced full-time, driving just the endurance races as a hired gun. His final race was with Dick Johnson Racing, driving into a seventh placed finish at the 2002 Bathurst 1000.

He became a commentator with Channel Nine as part of their Formula One coverage in Australia in the late 1980s, a role which lasted over a decade until a change of network. Jones has since become involved in the Australian franchise of the A1 Grand Prix as Team Director. He attempted to race in the Grand Prix Masters World Series at Kyalami in November 2005 but had to pull out before qualifying due to neck pains. There was speculation at the time that his exit was due more to a general lack of fitness which had left him up to ten seconds per lap off the pace in practice.

Personal life
Jones separated from his wife Beverley in the late 1980s. In 1996 he began a relationship with Amanda Butler Davis and in 2001 their twins, Zara and Jack, were born.

Jones also has a daughter, Camilla, born in 1990.

Jones's adopted son Christian now races in various forms of motorsport.

His eldest daughter, Emma, has two daughters (born 2001 and 2004), making Jones a grandfather.

Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key) (races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans Results
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of the winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).

CART
(key)