ALAN JONES UNLEASHED

Alan Jones Unleashed

In the first instalment of Auto Action’s new Living Legends feature series, Foges went head-to-head with Australia’s last Formula 1 world champion Alan Jones.

As outspoken as ever, this opening part focuses on his title winning season in 1980 as well as his rivalries with teammate Carlos Reutemann and the late-Gilles Villeneuve, plus being nearly signed by Ferrari twice.

Here is a preview of what can be viewed in the latest Auto Action, issue #1785:

It was an interesting combination because when you joined Williams, I don’t think any of you would have foreseen the success lying ahead.

No, I don’t think so. I think you’re pretty right. Obviously, Frank will tell you that he had the confidence that given the right car and driver, he could have a world championship-winning team. I think Patrick will tell you that given the right budget and facilities, he could probably design a car that would be as good as, if not better than, any of them. And as a driver, you must have the confidence to know that if you had your arse in the right car at the right time, you’d win grands prix. So I think we all thought that way.

In 1980, you officially won five races, so statistically it looked relatively easy. Was it?

No, it was quite a difficult season. As is always the case with me, I never get anything easy and in Formula 1, anyway, it’s never really easy. There’s always some bastard to spoil the party and that was Piquet. He was keeping me more than honest. It was rocking backwards and forwards there for a little while about who had the lead in the championship. We went to Montreal with only one point separating us. So it was far from a forgone conclusion that whole year. I’d go to a race meeting thinking ‘Just let me get some more points” because I knew if Piquet won a race and I failed to get points, it was going to be extremely difficult. So it was a pretty long hard battle with him all year, really.

Moving on to ’81. Interesting year. I think you’ve said you drove better than you did in ’80?

Yep, for sure. I definitely was. I’d won the world championship, the monkey was off my back and the car was good. We had the new regulations where the skirts had to be fixed and not rubbing on the ground, or some shit like that, but Patrick made it as good as anybody’s and I was really happy with the way I was driving. I got really fit for ’81 and to say I was disappointed not to win the world championship in ’81 is an obvious statement. But I was disappointed because I knew all the ingredients were there to do it.

Pick up your copy of Auto Action #1785 to read the full interview.

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