ALAN JONES

Alan Stanley Jones MBE (born 2 November 1946 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), is a former racing driver who won the World Championship in 1980.  Jones made his F1 début, aged 28, at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix for Hesketh. After a few races, Jones moved to Graham Hill's team to replace the injured Rolf Stommelen, scoring his first points with fifth place in Germany.

In 1976, Jones moved to the team of another Champion of the 1960s, John Surtees. Jones managed three point-scoring finishes, including fourth at the Japanese Grand Prix. The next year, after originally declining an F1 seat, he joined Shadow replacing the late Tom Pryce. In a breakthrough season, Jones scored his first victory at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix.

In 1978 Jones moved to Williams. In 1979 Williams became one of the front runners in the second half of the year. Jones took four wins, maximising his points total for the second half of the season, and claiming third in the title race. 1980 turned out to be an excellent year for Jones. Starting with a victory in Argentina, Jones took five total wins (also including the final two races) and five other podiums to become F1 World Champion by a margin of thirteen points over Nelson Piquet.

Jones suddenly retired from F1 ahead of the 1982, and comeback in 1983, signing a deal with Arrows fpr the last 2 races. He made a full-time comeback to F1 late in 1985 when Team Haas was created and Jones became the first driver for the team. In 1986, Jones only managed two points finishes, and he retired from F1 for good.

Activity: 1975 - 1986
Grand Prix: 117
Drivers Championships: 1 (1980)
Victories: 12
Podiums: 24
Pole Positions: 6
Fastest Laps: 13
Career Points: 206