Alan Jones: Formula One's Bold Champion
Born on 2nd Nov, 1946, in Melbourne, Australia, Alan Jones passion for motor racing was in part motivated by his father’s accomplishments all over the globe as one of the country’s finest racers during the 1950s. Stan Jones, who had turned down lucrative test drive invitations from Ferrari and BRM (British Racing Motors), enthusiastically backed his son’s motor racing ambitions. It further helped matters that Alan’s father was a moneyed car merchandiser. By the age of 15, Alan Jones had been crowned kart racing champion. The Australian then embarked on a foray into single-seater racing and took Minis and Coopers in his talented stride.
Things began to look bleak for the young motorsport enthusiast’s ambitions when the Australian economy underwent a downturn and his father’s business went bust. Yet, Alan was determined not to let the setback dampen his aspirations and after scrimping sufficient money, he set about on a trip to Europe in 1967. It was a journey that would be decisive in instigating Alan’s permanent move to the continent so he could revive his race driving dreams.
With just 50 pounds in his wallet, the Australian landed in England in 1950 and set up a number of small enterprises to generate enough money to support his motor-racing career. With the scant monetary return from his business ventures, Alan set about to race on a two-bit allowance. The Australian’s subsequently sluggish march up the motor-racing ladder was in part affected by the woeful incompetence of his Formula Ford car. Alan’s advance was further frustrated by a leg injury sustained at the Brands Hatch circuit after smashing his Formula Three Lotus. To add to his mounting grievances, Jones’s father died from heart failure only shortly before a race at Silverstone in 1973. It was a massive blow for the Australian who had relied heavily on the mentorship of his dad through the thick and thin of his career. Yet Jones built from the ashes with great courage and went on to clinch a win-a career first at the 1973 Silverstone event only hours after losing his beloved father. More success followed when, the same year, Alan ended runner up at the British Formula Three competition.
In 1974, the Australian produced several assuring performances in Formula Three that instigated his elevation into Formula One for the coming year. Jones concluded the 1975 season paired with Graham Hill’s squad after notching a considerably decent fifth place at the year’s Nurburgring event. By this time, John Surtees felt confident about Jones’s considerable promise and signed him up for his squad’s 1976 campaign. Yet the move did not quite come together for the Australian after he fell out with the team principal and the relative inferiority of the Surtees car did not help matters.
Having parted ways with John Surtees team at the end of the 1976 season, Jones’s Formula One prospects appeared to be in limbo until a misfortune created the very opening he craved. When the Shadow squad’s first-choice driver Tom Pryce tragically lost his life in an accident at the 1977 South African Grand Prix, Jones was called up to fill the resulting void. The Australian managed to scrape a victory for the team at the year’s Austrian event deeper into the season and also secured a drive with Ferrari for the coming 1978 campaign. Yet when Ferrari defaulted on their word, Jones pledged his loyalty to Frank Williams’ yet undistinguished squad.
The move paid dividends for both parties and Jones concluded the 1979 season with four victories and a very respectable third position in the championship standings. And in 1980 came Jones’s biggest break when he aggressively steered the Williams FW07B past race-circuit defences across Europe and North America to be heralded the season’s World Champion. The Australian’s progress during the 1981 season was thwarted by technical complications and he decided to retire from Formula One at the end of the year. Jones comebacks to Formula One circuits in 1983 and 1985 did not quite work out the way he had hoped and the Australian returned home for good to take up the job of a F1 TV commentator.
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