JacquesLaffite

Origins

Jacques Henri Sabin Laffite was born in 1943 in Paris, France, the brother-in-law of fellow F1 driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille (Laffite married Jabouille's sister; Jabouille married Laffite's sister, in one of motorsport's tighter family configurations). He came to motor racing relatively late, working as a mechanic in his twenties before saving enough money to enter Formule France in 1968. He won the French Formula Renault title in 1972, the European Formula 2 championship in 1975 with Martini-BMW, and was thirty when he made his Formula 1 debut.

Rise

He debuted at the 1974 German Grand Prix with the small Iso-Marlboro team and made the move to Williams (then Frank Williams Racing Cars) for 1975. The pivotal partnership came in 1976 when Guy Ligier signed him as the lead driver of his new Ligier-Matra Formula 1 team. Laffite would race for Ligier from 1976 to 1982, and again from 1985 to 1986, in a partnership that defined French Formula 1 through one of its most patriotically-charged eras.

Championship Years

Laffite won six Grand Prix victories: Sweden 1977 (Ligier-Matra), Argentina 1979 and Brazil 1979 (Ligier-Ford), Spain 1979 (Ligier-Ford again — three wins from the first four races of the year), Germany 1980 and Austria 1981. He finished as Formula 1 World Championship runner-up in 1979 — one point behind Jody Scheckter's Ferrari — and fourth in 1980 and 1981. The Ligier JS11 of 1979 was, briefly, the dominant car in Formula 1 — a French-designed, French-built, French-driven, French-funded Grand Prix winner that briefly made the British constructor establishment seem dispensable.

Style and Legend

Laffite was the most beloved French driver of his generation — gregarious, witty, a constant practical joker in the paddock, instantly recognisable for his flamboyant moustache and his ability to reduce technical subjects to comprehensible French radio commentary. He was not the fastest driver of the era — Villeneuve, Pironi, Arnoux all had more pure speed — but he was the most consistent and the most reliable, and the Ligier team built itself around his ability to bring the car home in the points week after week.

Beyond Racing

His Formula 1 career ended dramatically at the 1986 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, when a multi-car accident at the start sent him into the barriers and broke both of his legs. He was forty-two; the recovery took years and he never returned to single-seater racing. He moved to French sportscar racing, French touring cars, and most importantly to French Formula 1 television commentary on Canal+ and TF1, where his voice became as familiar to French Grand Prix audiences in the post-driving decades as it had been on the track in the 1970s and 1980s. He continues to commentate into his eighties, the longest-tenured French F1 broadcasting voice in history. The six wins, the 1979 runner-up finish, and the Ligier years remain the racing record; the four decades of French commentary are the cultural one.