Jacques Laffite

Laffite was born in Paris on 21 November 1943. He attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school. In 1968 he trained as a racing driver at the Winfield Racing School at Magny-Cours. He entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice with Ligier before making his Formula One debut.

Laffite debuted in Formula One in 1974 for Frank Williams' Iso–Marlboro team. The following year he raced for the same team, now named Williams, scoring a second place at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring — his maiden podium. In 1975 he also won the European Formula Two Championship with Martini.

Laffite moved to the French Ligier team in 1976, scoring 20 points and recording a pole position at the Italian Grand Prix. He secured his first Formula One win at the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp.

The 1979 season opened with Laffite winning the first two rounds — including a grand slam at the Brazilian Grand Prix. He fought for the World Championship until the final races but finished fourth with 36 points, suffering eight retirements. He again finished fourth in both the 1980 and 1981 championships, taking a further three victories across those two seasons. In 1981 he lost the title by six points to Nelson Piquet.

During the early 1980s, Laffite made three end-of-season trips to Australia to race in the non-championship Australian Grand Prix. He failed to finish in 1981 — his car had struck a wall at the Calder Park Raceway in qualifying, though his local crew repaired it for the race — and finished second to Alain Prost in 1982 and third behind Roberto Moreno and Australian John Smith in 1983. In all three non-championship Australian drives, Laffite used a Formula Pacific or Formula Mondial Ralt RT4 with a 1.6-litre Ford I4 engine.

After finishing 17th in the 1982 championship with only five points, Laffite left Ligier for Williams. Results over the following two seasons were inconsistent, totalling 11 and five points respectively. He returned to Ligier in 1985, reaching the podium three times — in Great Britain, Germany, and Australia — for 16 points. In 1986 he scored 14 points, including two further podium finishes, before a crash at the start of the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch broke both his legs, ending his Formula One career. His final tally of 176 Grand Prix starts tied him with Graham Hill for the most at the time.

As a result of Laffite's injuries, new safety rules were introduced from the 1988 season requiring that in all cars the driver's feet must be behind the front axle line.

Laffite was a race-winner in the World Sportscar Championship with Kauhsen, as well as in the BMW M1 Procar Championship with BMW. He finished 17th in the inaugural World Touring Car Championship in 1987 driving an Alfa Romeo 75 for Alfa Corse, and raced three seasons in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft from 1990 to 1992. He entered nine editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans between 1972 and 1996. Among his other notable results: first place at the 800 km of Dijon in 1975, first at the 1000 km of Monza in 1975, and first at the 1000 km of Nürburgring in 1975.

Laffite made a one-off FIA GT3 European Championship appearance in 2008 at the Bucharest City Challenge with the AutoGT Racing Team. In October 2008, at 64, he tested a Renault R27 Formula One car at the Paul Ricard circuit.

Following his retirement from motor racing, Laffite became a presenter for TF1 from 1997 to 2012. He became widely known for his live reaction during the 1997 European Grand Prix to Michael Schumacher's collision with Jacques Villeneuve, during which he used curse words on air. He has two daughters: Camille and Margot, the latter a sports journalist covering Formula One for Canal+. Laffite is a golf enthusiast and shareholder of Dijon-Bourgogne Golf, and maintains a property in Creuse near Aubusson.

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