Jean-Pierre Jarier

Jean-Pierre Jacques Jarier is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to.
Jarier contested 143 Formula One Grands Prix for March, Shadow, ATS, Ligier, Lotus, Tyrrell, and Osella. He achieved three podiums and three pole positions across 12 seasons.

Early career

Jean-Pierre Jacques Jarier was born on 10 July 1946 in Charenton-le-Pont, near Paris. After competing in Formula France, he moved up to French Formula Three, finishing 3rd overall in 1970, before moving on to the Shell Arnold European Formula Two team in 1971. He peaked with two 3rd places, and also made his Grand Prix debut at Monza when the team rented a March Engineering 701. However, the team dropped him midway through 1972 for financial reasons. For 1973 he signed to the March Engineering Formula Two team, and was also given a Formula One seat by the outfit. Formula One was difficult in the uncompetitive 721G, but Jarier stormed to the Formula Two title with eight wins.

Formula One

After his good form in the 1973 F2 European series, Jarier nearly signed for Ferrari, but their established driver Clay Regazzoni insisted on having the young Austrian Niki Lauda as his teammate. In 1974, Jarier drove a full season of Formula One, signing with the Shadow Racing Cars team. He became team leader following the death of Peter Revson, and finished 3rd at the Monaco Grand Prix on his way to 14th overall. As a sports car driver. Jarier led Matra's successful defense of its world sports car title, and proved himself the fastest driver of all on the classic road circuits, being faster than Ickx at Nürburgring and the old Spa road circuit and winning three other rounds on GP circuits at Brands Hatch, Watkins Glen and Paul Ricard.
1975 began Jarier putting his Shadow DN5 on pole position for the Argentine Grand Prix, only for a component to break in the warm-up, preventing Jarier from taking the start. He repeated the feat at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and then dominated the race until a fuel metering unit failed, ending his race. Bad luck and poor reliability would curse his season, though the Shadow team fell from the pace as well. His only points-scoring finish was for fourth place in the shortened Spanish Grand Prix.
Jarier spent 1976 with Shadow Racing Cars, qualifying third in an updated version of the previous year's car, the DN5B and setting fastest lap at the opening Brazilian Grand Prix, before spinning off and crashing on James Hunt's oil whilst running second a few seconds behind Niki Lauda in a Ferrari. Subsequently, the car became uncompetitive, and Jarier failed to score any points.
After this, Jarier's career slowed. He switched to the ATS team in 1977, driving a Penske. He scored a point in his first race for the team, and then had one-off drives for Shadow and Équipe Ligier when the German team elected to miss the final races of the year. He also dabbled in sports cars, winning two races in an Alfa Romeo T33 with Arturo Merzario, and coming second at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Vern Schuppan in a Mirage.
Jarier's second year at ATS in the in-house HS1, was less successful, and he was fired after an argument with team principal Günter Schmid after failing to qualify the car for the Monaco Grand Prix. He was briefly re-hired for the German Grand Prix, only to miss the grid again, and again argued with Schmid, leaving once more. However, at the end of the year he was signed by Team Lotus to take the seat left by Ronnie Peterson's death. He set fastest lap at the United States Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen, running third before he ran out of fuel, and then took pole and dominated at the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal before an oil leak ended his race.
These showings saw him signed by Tyrrell Racing. He was a regular points-scorer over two seasons with the team, with his best results being two 3rd places, achieved at the 1979 South African Grand Prix and the 1979 British Grand Prix.
Jarier began 1981 with a temporary assignment for Ligier, standing in while Jean-Pierre Jabouille returned to fitness, for two races at Long Beach and Rio de Janeiro. He then drove with Osella beginning midway through the season.
1982 saw a full season with Osella, with Jarier securing the team's best-ever finish with fourth at the San Marino Grand Prix. While the rest of the year would be difficult, Jarier was instrumental in keeping the team's morale up following the death of Riccardo Paletti at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The following year saw a full season with Equipe Ligier, but after a good run at Long Beach ended with a collision with Keke Rosberg, he finished the season without points, and spent most of the season making other drivers angry because of his blocking tactics as a back marker. One example of this was the Austrian Grand Prix that year. On lap 22, Ferrari driver Patrick Tambay, who had led the race from the start, was held up by Jarier for two corners. As he was being held up, Tambay's team-mate René Arnoux was able to pass Tambay on the approach to the Texaco-Schikane by boxing Tambay in behind Jarier. This also allowed Brabham driver Nelson Piquet to come from third to second by nipping past Tambay into the second of the two left-handers, which dropped Tambay to third and denied him the lead he had been preparing to re-take from Arnoux. A furious Tambay waved his fist at Jarier when he finally did pass him.

Later life

Following this, Jarier retired from motorsport, but was tempted back to drive in the Porsche Supercup in 1994. This led to several sports car drives, winning the 1998 and 1999 French GT Championships. Jarier contributed major stunt work to the film Ronin, directed by John Frankenheimer, who also directed the 1966 Grand Prix.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
1970	French Formula Three	Ecurie Meubles Arnold	?	1	?	?	?	32.2	3rd
1971	European Formula Two	Shell-Arnold Team	7	0	0	0	2	10	8th
1971	Formula One	Shell-Arnold Team	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1972	European Formula Two	Shell-Arnold Team	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1972	Can-Am	North American Racing Team	2	0	0	0	0	11	13th
1972	24 Hours of Le Mans	North American Racing Team	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	9th
1973	European Formula Two	STP March Racing Team	12	7	4	4	9	78	1st
1973	Formula One	STP March Racing Team	8	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1973	Formula One	March Racing Team	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1974	Formula One	UOP Shadow Racing Team	14	0	0	0	1	6	14th
1974	24 Hours of Le Mans	Équipe Gitanes	1	0	0	1	0	N/A	DNF
1975	Formula One	UOP Shadow Racing Team	13	0	2	1	0	1.5	18th
1975	24 Hours of Le Mans	Gitanes Automobiles Ligier	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1976	Formula One	Shadow Racing Team Lucky Strike Shadow Racing Tabatip Shadow Racing	16	0	0	1	0	0	NC
1976	European Formula Two	Fred Opert Racing	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC‡
1977	Formula One	ATS Racing Team	10	0	0	0	0	1	19th
1977	Formula One	Ambrosio Tabatip Shadow Racing	1	0	0	0	0	1	19th
1977	Formula One	Ligier Gitanes	1	0	0	0	0	1	19th
1977	24 Hours of Le Mans	Grand Touring Cars Inc.	1	0	0	0	1	N/A	2nd
1978	Can-Am	Shadow Racing Team	8	0	0	0	0	15.5	28th
1978	European Formula Two	Maublanc Racing Services	4	0	0	0	1	0	NC‡
1978	Formula One	ATS Racing Team	3	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1978	Formula One	John Player Team Lotus	2	0	1	1	0	0	NC
1978	24 Hours of Le Mans	Equipe Renault Elf Sport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1979	Formula One	Team Tyrrell Candy Tyrrell Team	12	0	0	0	2	14	11th
1979	BMW M1 Procar	BMW Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	2	27th
1979	24 Hours of Le Mans	Jean-Pierre Jarier	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1980	Formula One	Candy Tyrrell Team	14	0	0	0	0	6	13th
1980	BMW M1 Procar	BMW Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1981	Formula One	Équipe Talbot Gitanes	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1981	Formula One	Denim Osella	7	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1981	Macau Grand Prix	Theodore Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1981	24 Hours of Le Mans	BASF Cassetten Team GS Sport	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1982	Formula One	Denim S.A.I.M.A. Osella	13	0	0	0	0	3	20th
1983	Formula One	Équipe Ligier Gitanes	15	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1984	24 Hours of Le Mans	Porsche Kremer Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
1985	French Supertouring Championship		?	2	?	2	4	122	6th
1985	24 Hours of Le Mans	Porsche Kremer Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	9th
1986	European Touring Car Championship	JMS Racing	3	0	0	0	0	10	NC
1987	European Touring Car Championship	Elkron France	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1988	24 Hours of Le Mans	Takefuji Schuppan Racing Team	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	10th
1993	Porsche Supercup	Roock Racing Team	?	1	0	0	1	59	10th
1994	Porsche Supercup		?	1	?	?	1	0	NC
1995	BPR Global GT Series	Larbre Compétition	7	0	0	0	4	124	8th
1995	24 Hours of Le Mans	Larbre Compétition	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1996	BPR Global GT Series	Roock Racing Team	8	0	0	0	0	11	104th
1996	24 Hours of Le Mans	Roock Racing Team	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1997	FFSA GT Championship	Sonauto Levallois	10	2	3	5	8	191	3rd
1997	FIA GT Championship	Roock Racing Team	1	0	1	0	0	0	NC
1997	24 Hours of Le Mans	Société Chéreau	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1998	FFSA GT Championship	Sonauto Levallois	11	6	5	8	10	270.5	1st
1998	FIA GT Championship	Sonauto Levallois	1	0	0	0	1	4	31st
1998	24 Hours of Le Mans	Larbre Compétition	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1999	FFSA GT Championship	Sonauto Levallois	12	3	3	4	9	337	1st
1999	FIA GT Championship	Larbre Compétition	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1999	24 Hours of Le Mans	Larbre Compétition	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
2000	FFSA GT Championship	Team ART	12	2	1	2	8	335	2nd
2000	FIA GT Championship	Team ART	3	0	0	0	0	2	32nd
2001	FIA GT Championship	Team ART	10	0	0	0	0	2	36th
2002	FIA GT Championship	Team ART	7	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2003	FFSA GT Championship	Red Racing	7	0	0	0	2	54	27th

^‡ Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points.