Was Jacques Laffite good?

Question

He has been the commentator here in France since before I came here. Sort of the expert of the show, since he's a former F1 driver. Was he good?

Answer 1

He wasn't bad, but he wasn't ever going to be a world-beater either. As Frank Williams once said: "If you give him the right car he'll win races for you, but if the car is no good, then he won't take it any faster than it wants to go". This was pretty much proved in the period 1979-1984, Laffite's winning performances in the good Ligier of 1979-81; getting beaten soundly by Eddie Cheever in the average 1982 Ligier (should be taken in the context of Cheever still being a rising star at that point, but Jacques was the team leader); then getting thrashed by Rosberg at Williams in 1983-84.

Laffite was probably only the sixth best French driver of his era; I'd place Prost, Arnoux, Pironi, Jarier & Tambay above him, he was better than Depailler & Jabouille though.

He probably contributed more than anybody to the fall of the Ligier team. Pironi once said that "Jacques had too much power at Ligier, the team went in the wrong direction, got lost, went around in circles, went back to the start again". Sums it up really...too many opinions with too little knowledge (that's what I call "a French problem"...but I am a little biased, having lived there for a few years up until my "escape" last year...).

I'm glad to have moved from France, I don't have to listen to Laffite's ramblings and rantings on French TV any more. The French commentary team are incompetent (Laffite is their "expert", so that says it all...Franck Montagny talks a lot more sense when they have him on), and they spend most of the race talking about things and missing what's happening on the track! Laffite seems to be of the impression that he would have gone on to a wonderful finish to his F1 career if the fates hadn't struck him down, and that he was better than any of today's drivers (nothing strange about that in F1 drivers, it's also Jackie Stewart's position...at least Stewart is probably correct in his assumption, unlike Laffite).