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38-451: Driven by Jacques Laffite , the car won the first two races of the 1979 season and scored consistently. The Ligiers stayed in contention throughout the season, with Patrick Depailler winning a further race in Spain . The team eventually finished third behind Ferrari and Williams in the constructors' championship. Depailler was injured halfway through the season in a hang-gliding accident and

76-485: A Formula Pacific or Formula Mondial Ralt RT4 powered by a 1.6-litre Ford I4 engine . Results in the next two seasons were not much better, when he moved back to England, again to race for Williams (11 and 5 points, respectively). Now in his forties, Laffite returned to Ligier in 1985 : in that season he was on the podium three times ( Great Britain , Germany and Australia ), for a total of 16 points. In 1986 he scored 14 points including two more podium finishes in

114-407: A Matra V6 turbocharged engine, which never raced. Thanks to the political support of Ligier long-time friend François Mitterrand , in the mid-1980s, the team benefitted from a free Renault turbo engine deal. This, along with sponsorship from companies such as Loto and Elf Aquitaine , made the team more competitive, though not a frontrunner. When Renault left the sport in 1986, Ligier was left without

152-453: A Renault-powered Ligier car late into the 1994 season which convinced Renault to support Benetton along with Michael. Ligier's replacement engine supplier was Mugen-Honda, who in previous seasons with Footwork and Lotus did not initially have the best reliability. The switch to Mugen-Honda engines was not without controversy, as the contract was originally intended for the Minardi team. Though

190-499: A bona fide engine supplier. An abortive collaboration with Alfa Romeo (due to René Arnoux's harsh criticism on the Alfa Romeo engines) was followed by customer engine deals with Megatron (who provided them with rebadged BMW M12 engines), Judd and Cosworth and then works contracts with Lamborghini , Renault and Mugen-Honda . Between 1987 and 1991, the team struggled, failing to score points in 1988, 1990 and 1991, and at

228-490: A lack of points. In 1993 the team enjoyed an upswing when Guy Ligier sold the team to Cyril de Rouvre after a disappointing 1992 season when they once again failed to fulfil their potential despite being supplied with the same works Renault engines as the dominant Williams team. Surprisingly, the team was somewhat more competitive during this period, in part due to the talents of aerodynamicist Frank Dernie and engineer Loïc Bigois . They scored eight podium finishes over

266-415: A series of flaps within the venturi tunnels would open up at after a certain amount of pressure. As the solution constituted a movable aerodynamic device, the team did its best to keep the existence of the system a secret. The existence of the system was eventually discovered by F1 technical illustrator Giorgio Piola during the final race of the 1980 season at Watkins Glen. Piola was able to take photographs of

304-1120: A sports journalist of Formula One on Canal+. He is also golf enthusiast, is a shareholder of Dijon-Bourgogne Golf . Also deeply attached to the Creuse for Golf Fisheries and nature, he has a property in Creuse near Aubusson . Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) * Overall race position shown. Registered WTCC points paying position may differ. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap. Equipe Ligier Équipe Ligier ( French: [e.kip li.ʒje] )

342-583: A well-balanced car, if not on par with the Williams entries. It became a surprise winner as well, with the team taking the chequered flag with Olivier Panis at the Monaco Grand Prix , albeit in a race of heavy attrition, with only three cars finishing. It was the first "all-French" victory at Monaco since René Dreyfus in Bugatti in 1930 . This ended a nearly fifteen-year-long winless-streak for

380-518: Is a motorsport team, best known for its Formula One team that operated from 1976 to 1996 . The team was founded in 1968 by former French rugby union player Guy Ligier as a sports car manufacturer. After retiring from racing following the death of his friend Jo Schlesser , Guy Ligier decided to found his own team and had engineer Michel Têtu develop a sports car named JS1 (Schlesser's initials). The Cosworth -powered JS1 took wins at Albi and Montlhéry in 1970, but retired at Le Mans and from

418-419: The 1980 and 1981 championships, losing out on the latter by six points to Nelson Piquet and taking several wins across both. Laffite failed to finish 11 of 15 Grands Prix in 1982 , leaving for Williams at the end of the season. After two winless seasons with Williams, amongst further reliability issues, Laffite returned to Ligier in 1985 , scoring several podiums. At the 1986 British Grand Prix , Laffite

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456-568: The 1988 season that stated that in all cars the driver's feet must be behind the front axle line. Laffite recovered from his injuries and later raced in touring cars , finishing 17th in the inaugural World Touring Car Championship driving an Alfa Romeo 75 for Alfa Corse as well as racing three seasons in the German-based DTM series. He is now a television commentator for the French network TF1 , best known for his reaction to

494-541: The 1988 San Marino Grand Prix neither René Arnoux nor Stefan Johansson qualified for the race, the first time in team history that neither car made the grid. In 1990, when fellow French team Larrousse were disqualified after claiming their chassis was built by themselves, while in fact it was built by Lola Cars , Ligier moved up into 10th place in the Constructors' Championship, which gave them subsidized travel benefits, despite actually not being classified due to

532-588: The 1996 Japanese Grand Prix . At the end of the season the team was sold to Alain Prost and became Prost Grand Prix in 1997 . The team traditionally used numbers 25 and 26. In 2004, Ligier returned to motorsport after acquiring Automobiles Martini . Tico Martini had designed a Formula 3 chassis that was introduced at the 2004 Paris Motor Show as the Ligier JS47, but with the F3 market cornered by Dallara ,

570-888: The Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft from 1990 to 1992 . Laffite entered nine editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1972 to 1996 across multiple classes. Upon retiring from motor racing, Laffite was a presenter for TF1 from 1997 to 2012. Jacques-Henri Laffite was born in Paris on 21 November 1943. He attended the Cours Hattemer , a private school. He was trained as a racing driver in 1968 at Winfield Racing School in France. Laffite debuted in Formula One in 1974 for Frank Williams ' Iso–Marlboro team. The following year he raced for

608-796: The Winfield Racing School at Magny-Cours in 1968. Laffite twice entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Ligier before making his Formula One debut at the 1974 German Grand Prix with Frank Williams . Laffite remained at Frank Williams through the 1975 season, scoring his maiden podium at the German Grand Prix and winning the European Formula Two Championship with Martini . He moved to Ligier in 1976 , taking several podiums amongst his maiden pole position in Italy . Laffite retained his seat

646-566: The following season , taking his maiden win at the Swedish Grand Prix . After a winless season in 1978 , Ligier constructed the highly-competitive JS11 in response to the ground effect era . Laffite won the opening two rounds of the 1979 season—including a grand slam at the Brazilian Grand Prix —but ultimately finished the championship in fourth after suffering eight retirements. Laffite again finished fourth in

684-622: The JS2 road car, finishing second overall at Le Mans in 1975 . Guy Ligier then switched his efforts into Formula One. Following the acquisition of the Matra F1 team's assets, Ligier entered Formula One in 1976 with a Matra V12 -powered car, and won the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix with Jacques Laffite . This is generally considered to have been the first all-French victory in the Formula One World Championship as well as

722-518: The Ligier team, the longest of any uninterruptedly existing team between two wins (some teams like Renault, Honda or Mercedes had much longer periods between two wins, but did not exist as a Grand Prix team for most of their respective periods between two wins, and teams with a name change (Tyrrell/BAR/Honda/Brawn/Mercedes-AMG and Jordan/Midland/Spyker/Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin have longer streaks). The Ligier name last appeared in Formula One at

760-680: The Tour Automobile de France. For 1971, Ligier had the JS1 developed into the JS2 and JS3 . The JS2 was homologated for road use and used a Maserati V6 engine, while the JS3 was an open-top sports-prototype powered by a Cosworth DFV V8 engine. The JS3 won at Montlhéry in 1971 but failed to finish the minimum distance at Le Mans. Therefore, it was retired, and Ligier installed the Cosworth DFV in

798-529: The constructors' championship in 1980 ahead of Brabham , and the JS11 evolved into the JS17 for 1981. The JS11 was used as a primary test car for Michelin to experiment with their tyres. In all the JS11 took five wins, seven pole positions and scored 127 points in its career. To solve the issues with the increased downforce, Gérard Ducarouge came up with a solution, dubbed the "clapet" (French for "valve"), where in

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836-527: The engine was less reliable than the previous Renault engine, the 1995 season turned out to be surprisingly successful for the team while allowing them to score points on a more consistent basis combined with securing 2 podiums for the season, Martin Brundle securing 3rd place at Belgium and Olivier Panis securing 2nd at the last race of the season in Australia. The Mugen-Honda -powered JS43 turned out to be

874-465: The first Formula One victory for a French-licensed team and a French engine. The deal with Matra ceased in 1979 and Ligier built a Cosworth -powered wing-car , the Ligier JS11 . The JS11 began the season winning the first two races in the hands of Laffite. However, the JS11 faced serious competition when Williams and Ferrari introduced aerodynamically modified cars. The rest of the season

912-477: The first half of the season, but he broke both legs in a crash at the start of the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch and thereafter retired from Formula One, ending his career tied with Graham Hill for the most Grand Prix starts at 176. He was the most successful driver in Ligier's history, having taken six of their nine wins. As a result of Laffite's injuries, new safety rules were enforced from

950-584: The first two races. He fought for the World Championship title until the last races, but eventually placed only fourth, with 36 points. The following two seasons were similar, with two more fourth places in the Championship and a further three victories. In 1982 , however, Laffite finished only 17th in the final classification, with only 5 points scored. During the early 1980s, Laffite also made three end of season trips to Australia to race in

988-510: The incident at the 1997 European Grand Prix in which Michael Schumacher collided with Jacques Villeneuve , and Laffite reacted with curse words on live television. Laffite made his 2007 FIA GT3 European Championship debut at the 2008 Bucharest City Challenge, driving for AutoGT Racing Team. In October 2008, at the age of 64, he tested a Renault R27 F1 car at the Paul Ricard circuit. Laffite has two daughters: Camille and Margot ,

1026-493: The mid season. Although the chassis flexing issues had been solved, the car was still producing so much downforce that the suspension and wheelhubs were coming under direct loading and therefore stress fractures developed. This was due to the immense pressure exerted on the suspension arms and the wheels by the ground effect, causing them to fail under hard braking. This effectively cost Ligier the chance to fight with Williams and Brabham for both titles. The team finished second in

1064-425: The next four years, contrasting sharply with their failure to secure a single top three position between 1987 and 1992 . In the last years Ligier had little public support and lacked funds. In 1994 , de Rouvre sold the team to Flavio Briatore and Tom Walkinshaw . Other organisations bidded to purchase Ligier, including Alain Prost and a consortium consisting of Hughes de Chaunac and Philippe Streiff , with

1102-512: The non-championship Australian Grand Prix . He failed to finish his first race in 1981 (he was lucky to start after his car hit the wall on the outside of the last turn of the short (1.609 km (1.000 mi)) Calder Park Raceway in qualifying, but his local crew were able to repair it for the race). He finished second to fellow Frenchman Alain Prost in 1982 , and third behind Brazilian Roberto Moreno and Australian John Smith in 1983 . In all of his pre-Formula One AGP drives, Laffite drove

1140-606: The same team, now named Williams , scoring a second place in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring . In 1976 Laffite moved to the French Ligier team, scoring 20 points and a pole position at the Italian Grand Prix . The next two seasons were transitional, although he managed to win his first Grand Prix at Anderstorp in the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix . The 1979 season opened with Laffite winning

1178-515: The support of the similarly Renault-powered Williams F1 team , who intended to turn Ligier into a 'junior' team. In 1995, Ligier switched from the Renault engines as they had been passed/sold on to the Benetton team, the reason given was because Flavio Briatore had purchased the team and had persuaded Renault to switch the supplies to the defending champions in light of Michael Schumacher testing

Ligier JS11 - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-486: The system after one of the two cars entered by Ligier was being repaired after a shunt. The JS11 appeared in the toy line and cartoon Transformers as the Autobot Mirage . To escape possible royalties and most likely dodge regulations in various countries regarding tobacco livery on toys, the "Gitanes" logo on Laffite's JS11 was changed to "Citanes". In Italy, the logo was changed furthermore to "Ligier", which

1254-523: Was also the character's Japanese name. Jacques Laffite Jacques-Henri Laffite ( French pronunciation: [ʒak ɑ̃.ʁi la.fit] ; born 21 November 1943) is a French former racing driver and broadcaster , who competed in Formula One from 1974 to 1986 . Laffite won six Formula One Grands Prix across 13 seasons. Born and raised in Paris , Laffite trained as a racing driver with

1292-433: Was less successful for the French marque. The JS11 and its successors made Ligier one of the top teams through the early 1980s. Despite substantial sponsorship from Talbot (known officially as Talbot Ligier in the 1981 and 1982 seasons) and public French companies – mainly SEITA , Gitanes and Française des Jeux – the competitiveness of the team began to decline around 1982 . Around this time, they were testing

1330-455: Was producing. As a result, the chassis began to flex and the skirts would then be lifted off the ground, ruining the ground effect suction. This was an issue that hampered the team throughout the season, and it could not be solved in time for Laffite to properly challenge the Ferraris of Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve, and later the all-dominant Williams of Alan Jones. For 1980, the JS11

1368-488: Was replaced by Jacky Ickx , but he struggled to keep pace with the car and his teammate and left at the end of the season, having scored only a handful of points. However, the car soon proved to have problems, starting at the fourth race of the season at Long Beach in the United States. The car was in fact so efficient at producing downforce that the aluminium chassis simply could not handle the amount of downforce it

1406-695: Was seriously injured in a multi-car collision that broke both of his legs. He subsequently retired from Formula One, having achieved six wins, seven pole positions, seven fastest laps and 32 podiums. Outside of Formula One, Laffite was a race-winner in the World Sportscar Championship with Kauhsen , as well as in the BMW M1 Procar Championship with BMW . He competed in the World Touring Car Championship in 1987 with Alfa Corse , and

1444-532: Was updated with improved aerodynamics and better ground effects. The team took on Didier Pironi in place of Depailler. Again the car was fast and competitive, but the Brabham BT49 and the Williams FW07 proved to be the cars to beat, with Alan Jones taking the world championship. Even so, the team still scored two wins, and would surely have taken more but for several suspension and tyre failures in

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