Yet his stint at Renault was just one chapter in a long and varied motorsport career that included the design of the chassis in which he took the title at the end of a hard-fought campaign in the 1976 European Formula 2 Championship.
Jabouille, who has died aged 80 after a long illness, was an engineer by trade rather than training: he’d briefly studied modern art at the Sorbonne. His intuitive mechanical skills made him the perfect choice to lead Renault’s entry into F1 with its turbocharged 1.5-litre V6 engine, which joined the grid midway through 1977.
Gerard Larrousse, who headed up the Renault Sport operation, recalled Jabouille as a “persuasive if not always diplomatic character” whose feel for a racing car was all-important in the eventual success of the sometimes faltering Renault F1 project.
“He was able to guide our engineers in the right direction and get the best out of the car,” said Larrousse. “He had a certainty that our crazy project would be a success, and after two seasons of development that would have discouraged many, Jean-Pierre won his bet.”
The key players at the Renault Sport team established at the end of 1976 for the French manufacturer’s F1 entry with the merger of its Alpine and Gordini sporting arms were already working together in F2 in the mid-1970s. Jabouille and, initially, Larrousse drove for Equipe Elf Switzerland, while Jean Sage was team manager. Larrousse was chosen as sporting director of the new F1 team and Jabouille its first driver, with Sage taking the TM role.
As Larrousse explained, the path to success was by no means smooth. The first Renault F1 race car, the RS01, was dubbed the “yellow teapot” by the doubtful Cosworth brigade for its propensity to expel steam and smoke.
The car missed its projected debut at the French GP at Dijon, turned up for the first time at the British GP at Silverstone, and wouldn’t make the finish of a race until Monaco the following season, through which Renault Sport again ran just a single car for Jabouille. Eventually, he claimed Renault’s first F1 points late in the 1978 season at Watkins Glen.
Jabouille, pictured in discussion with Renault team manager Larrousse at the 1979 Argentine GP, led development on its turbo cars
Photo by: David Phipps
It would take until the following summer for Jabouille’s and Renault’s perseverance to pay off on home ground at Dijon. While Jabouille took victory, Rene Arnoux came…
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