After competing in Formula France, Jarier moved to French Formula Three, finishing 3rd overall in 1970. In 1971 he joined the Shell Arnold European Formula Two team, peaking with two 3rd-place finishes and making his Grand Prix debut at Monza when the team rented a March Engineering 701. The team dropped him midway through 1972 for financial reasons. He signed with March Engineering for 1973, receiving both a Formula Two and a Formula One seat. Formula One was difficult in the uncompetitive 721G, but Jarier stormed to the Formula Two title with eight wins. He nearly signed for Ferrari that year, but Clay Regazzoni insisted on having Niki Lauda as his teammate.
In 1974 Jarier signed with Shadow Racing Cars, becoming team leader following the death of Peter Revson. He finished 3rd at the Monaco Grand Prix and 14th overall. Alongside Formula One, Jarier led Matra's successful defence of its world sports car title, proving himself faster than Jacky Ickx at the Nürburgring and the old Spa road circuit and winning three rounds on GP circuits at Brands Hatch, Watkins Glen, and Paul Ricard.
In 1975 Jarier put his Shadow DN5 on pole position for the Argentine Grand Prix, but a component failure in warm-up prevented him from starting. He repeated the feat at the Brazilian Grand Prix and then dominated the race until a fuel metering unit failed. His only points finish that year was 4th in the shortened Spanish Grand Prix. In 1976, driving the updated DN5B, Jarier set fastest lap at the opening Brazilian Grand Prix before spinning off on James Hunt's oil while running second behind Niki Lauda. The car became uncompetitive and he failed to score points.
Jarier switched to the ATS team in 1977, driving a Penske. He scored a point in his first race, then had one-off drives for Shadow and Équipe Ligier when ATS missed the final races of the year. In sports cars he won two races in an Alfa Romeo T33 with Arturo Merzario and finished second at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Vern Schuppan in a Mirage. His second year at ATS in the in-house HS1 was less successful; he was fired after an argument with team principal Günter Schmid following failure to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix. Briefly rehired for the German Grand Prix, he again missed the grid and departed once more.
At the end of 1978 he was signed by Team Lotus to fill the seat left by the death of Ronnie Peterson. At the United States Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen, Jarier set fastest lap while running third before running out of fuel. At the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal he took pole and dominated before an oil leak ended his race.
Those performances earned him a place at Tyrrell. Over two seasons he was a regular points scorer, with his best results two 3rd places 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 for Osella from mid-season. In 1982, a full season with Osella produced the team's best-ever finish: 4th at the San Marino Grand Prix, which was boycotted by the majority of British teams. Jarier was instrumental in maintaining team morale following the death of Riccardo Paletti at the Canadian Grand Prix that year.
His final full season, 1983 with Ligier, ended without points. His blocking as a backmarker generated controversy; during the Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Patrick Tambay — who had led from the start — was held up by Jarier for two corners, allowing teammate René Arnoux to pass Tambay and Brabham driver Nelson Piquet to move from third to second. Tambay waved his fist at Jarier when he finally did pass.
Jarier returned to motorsport in 1994 to compete in the Porsche Supercup. He subsequently won the 1998 and 1999 French GT Championships. He also contributed major stunt work to the film Ronin, directed by John Frankenheimer, who also directed the 1966 film Grand Prix.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
