The JS17 initially featured conventional suspension but the team adopted a hydro-pneumatic lowering system during the season, though it did not function effectively until the Belgian Grand Prix. The switch to the Talbot-Matra MS81 engine — a newly developed V12 producing approximately 510 bhp at 12,500 rpm, engineered by Georges Martin — was the season's most significant technical change. Martin progressively developed the unit during the year, raising the rev ceiling to 13,000 rpm by the final round. Six JS17 chassis were constructed in total, the last introduced at the Italian Grand Prix.
For 1982 all four surviving chassis were rebuilt and stiffened as the JS17B. Matra had aimed to introduce a turbocharged V6 for that season but the project did not materialise, and the team continued with the MS81 in naturally aspirated form. The JS17B was one of the heavier cars on the grid in 1982.
Jean-Pierre Jabouille, a race winner with Renault, was paired with regular Ligier driver Laffite for 1981. Jabouille had not fully recovered from injuries sustained the previous year, however, and Jean-Pierre Jarier stood in for the opening races. Laffite scored the car's first points at the Brazilian Grand Prix, finishing sixth.
Once the hydro-pneumatic suspension was operational from the Belgian Grand Prix onward, performance improved substantially. Laffite finished second in Belgium, third at Monaco, and second from pole at the Spanish Grand Prix. Jabouille stepped down from race duties after Spain, shifting to a technical advisory role; Patrick Tambay replaced him for the remainder of the season without contributing to the points tally.
Laffite's most significant results came in Austria — a win from fourth on the grid, with fastest lap — and in Canada, where he won again. These two victories placed him in championship contention heading into the Las Vegas finale, where a mid-race tyre stop dropped him from second to sixth and ended his title challenge. He finished the year fourth in the Drivers' Championship with 44 points, while Ligier also placed fourth in the Constructors' standings.
American Eddie Cheever joined Laffite for 1982. Racing the updated JS17Bs, neither driver finished the first three rounds. After the team joined the FOCA boycott of the San Marino Grand Prix, Cheever finished third at Zolder, with Laffite ninth. The new JS19 was introduced at Monaco but proved uncompetitive, and the team reverted to the JS17B for several subsequent rounds. Cheever took second place at Detroit, with Laffite classified sixth in the same race.
The JS17B's final race appearance came in Britain, where Cheever qualified 24th and retired with an oil leak. The JS17B's contribution to the team's 1982 points total — which reached 20 overall and placed Ligier eighth in the Constructors' Championship — amounted to 11 points through Cheever's two podiums and Laffite's sixth at Detroit.
The JS17 marked the end of Ligier's most competitive period. The team's fourth-place Constructors' finish in 1981 was respectable, and Laffite's two wins kept the French national effort visible in a championship increasingly dominated by turbocharged machinery. The Matra V12 programme concluded with this car, and subsequent Ligier designs moved toward the Ford and Renault engines that characterised the mid-1980s.