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Jacques Laffite

French racing driver (born 1943)

Field	Value
image	Jacques Laffite 2015.jpg
caption	Laffite in 2015
name	Jacques Laffite
birth_name	Jacques-Henri Laffite
birth_date
birth_place	Paris, Nazi-occupied France
spouse	{{plainlist
children	2, including Margot
relatives	{{plainlist
module	{{Infobox F1 driver
embed	yes
nationality	FRA French
years	–
teams	Frank Williams, Ligier, Williams
races	180 (176 starts)
championships	0
wins	6
podiums	32
poles	7
fastest_laps	7
points	228
first_race	1974 German Grand Prix
first_win	1977 Swedish Grand Prix
last_win	1981 Canadian Grand Prix
last_race	1986 British Grand Prix
module2	{{Infobox Le Mans driver
embed	yes
years	–, –, , –,
teams	Ligier, Renault, Mirage, Porsche, Venturi, Larbre, McLaren
best_finish	8th ()
class_wins	0

Jean-Pierre Jabouille (brother-in-law)
Arnaud Tsamere (son-in-law)

Jacques-Henri Laffite (; born 21 November 1943) is a French former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from to . Laffite won six Formula One Grands Prix across 13 seasons.

Born and raised in Paris, Laffite trained as a racing driver with the Winfield Racing School at Magny-Cours in 1968. Laffite twice entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Ligier before making his Formula One debut at the 1974 German Grand Prix with Frank Williams. Laffite remained at Frank Williams through the season, scoring his maiden podium at the and winning the European Formula Two Championship with Martini. He moved to Ligier in , taking several podiums amongst his maiden pole position in Italy. Laffite retained his seat the following season, taking his maiden win at the . After a winless season in , Ligier constructed the highly-competitive JS11 in response to the ground effect era. Laffite won the opening two rounds of the season—including a grand slam at the —but ultimately finished the championship in fourth after suffering eight retirements. Laffite again finished fourth in the and championships, losing out on the latter by six points to Nelson Piquet and taking several wins across both. Laffite failed to finish 11 of 15 Grands Prix in , leaving for Williams at the end of the season. After two winless seasons with Williams, amongst further reliability issues, Laffite returned to Ligier in , scoring several podiums. At the 1986 British Grand Prix, Laffite was seriously injured in a multi-car collision that broke both of his legs. He subsequently retired from Formula One, having achieved six wins, seven pole positions, seven fastest laps and 32 podiums.

Outside of Formula One, Laffite was a race-winner in the World Sportscar Championship with Kauhsen, as well as in the BMW M1 Procar Championship with BMW. He competed in the World Touring Car Championship in 1987 with Alfa Corse, and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft from 1990 to 1992. Laffite entered nine editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from to across multiple classes. Upon retiring from motor racing, Laffite was a presenter for TF1 from 1997 to 2012.

Early years

Jacques-Henri Laffite was born in Paris on 21 November 1943. He attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school. He was trained as a racing driver in 1968 at Winfield Racing School in France.

Formula One career

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 in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.

In , Laffite moved to the French Ligier team, scoring 20 points and a pole position at the Italian Grand Prix. The next two seasons were transitional, although he managed to win his first Grand Prix at Anderstorp in the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix.

The 1979 season opened with Laffite winning the first two races. He fought for the World Championship title until the last races, but eventually placed only fourth, with 36 points. The following two seasons were similar, with two more fourth places in the Championship and a further three victories. In 1982, however, Laffite finished only 17th in the final classification, with only 5 points scored.

During the early 1980s, Laffite also made three end of season trips to Australia to race in the non-championship Australian Grand Prix. He failed to finish his first race in 1981 (he was lucky to start after his car hit the wall on the outside of the last turn of the short (1.609 km (1.000 mi)) Calder Park Raceway in qualifying, but his local crew were able to repair it for the race). He finished second to fellow Frenchman Alain Prost in 1982, and third behind Brazilian Roberto Moreno and Australian John Smith in 1983. In all of his pre-Formula One AGP drives, Laffite drove a Formula Pacific or Formula Mondial Ralt RT4 powered by a 1.6-litre Ford I4 engine.

Results in the next two seasons were not much better, when he moved back to England, again to race for Williams (11 and five points, respectively). Now in his forties, Laffite returned to Ligier in 1985: in that season he was on the podium three times (Great Britain, Germany and Australia), for a total of 16 points. In 1986 he scored 14 points including two more podium finishes in the first half of the season, but he broke both legs in a crash at the start of the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch and thereafter retired from Formula One, ending his career tied with Graham Hill for the most Grand Prix starts at 176. He was the most successful driver in Ligier's history, having taken six of their nine wins.

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

Post-Formula One career

Laffite recovered from his injuries and later raced in touring cars, finishing 17th in the inaugural World Touring Car Championship driving an Alfa Romeo 75 for Alfa Corse as well as racing three seasons in the German-based DTM series.

Laffite is now a television commentator for the French network TF1, best known for his reaction to the incident at the 1997 European Grand Prix in which Michael Schumacher collided with Jacques Villeneuve, and Laffite reacted with curse words on live television.

Laffite made his 2007 FIA GT3 European Championship debut at the 2008 Bucharest City Challenge, driving for AutoGT Racing Team.

In October 2008, at the age of 64, Laffite tested a Renault R27 F1 car at the Paul Ricard circuit.

Laffite has two daughters: Camille and Margot, a sports journalist of Formula One on Canal+. He is also golf enthusiast, is a shareholder of Dijon-Bourgogne Golf.

Also deeply attached to the Creuse for Golf Fisheries and nature, Laffite has a property in Creuse near Aubusson.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points
24 Hours of Le Mans	Automobiles Ligier	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
24 Hours of Le Mans	Automobiles Ligier	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DSQ
European Formula Two	BP Racing France	10	1	1	1	5	31	3rd
Formula One	Frank Williams Racing Cars	5	0	0	0	0	0	NC
24 Hours of Le Mans	Automobiles Ligier	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	8th
European Formula Two	Automobiles Martini	14	6	5	4	7	60	1st
Formula One	Frank Williams Racing Cars	10	0	0	0	1	6	12th
World Sportscar Championship	Willi Kauhsen Racing Team	3	3	0	0	3	60	NC
Formula One	Ligier Gitanes	16	0	1	1	3	20	7th
World Sportscar Championship	Equipe Renault Elf	4	0	3	0	1	15	NC
European Formula Two	Fred Opert Racing	2	0	0	1	2	0	NC‡
Willi Kauhsen Racing Team	1	0	0	0	0
Formula One	Ligier Gitanes	17	1	0	1	2	18	10th
European Formula Two	Fred Opert Racing	3	0	0	0	0	0	NC
24 Hours of Le Mans	Renault Sport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
Formula One	Ligier Gitanes	16	0	0	0	2	19	8th
European Formula Two	Maublanc Racing Services	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
24 Hours of Le Mans	Grand Touring Cars Inc.	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	10th
Formula One	Ligier Gitanes	15	2	4	2	6	36	4th
BMW M1 Procar Championship	BMW Motorsport	4	1	1	0	2	35	7th
Formula One	Équipe Ligier Gitanes	14	1	1	1	5	34	4th
BMW M1 Procar Championship	BMW Motorsport	6	0	1	0	1	37	9th
Formula One	Équipe Talbot Gitanes	15	2	1	1	7	44	4th
Formula One	Équipe Talbot Gitanes	15	0	0	0	1	5	17th
Formula One	TAG Williams Team	13	0	0	0	0	11	11th
Formula One	Williams Grand Prix Engineering	16	0	0	0	0	5	14th
Formula One	Équipe Ligier	15	0	0	1	3	16	9th
Formula One	Équipe Ligier	9	0	0	0	2	14	8th
World Touring Car Championship	Alfa Corse	6	0	0	0	0	86	17th
Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft	Bigazzi M Team	21	1	0	3	3	107	7th
24 Hours of Le Mans	Joest Porsche Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	14th
Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft	Snobeck S.A.	21	0	2	1	3	81	11th
Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft	MS Racing	23	0	0	1	0	43	13th
24 Hours of Le Mans	Jacadi Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
24 Hours of Le Mans	Larbre Compétition	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
24 Hours of Le Mans	Team Bigazzi SRL	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	11th
FIA GT3 European Championship	AutoGT Racing	6	0	0	0	0	0	22nd
FIA GT3 European Championship	AutoGT Racing	7	0	0	0	0	0	29th
Eurocup Mégane Trophy	Oregon Team	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†

Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.
Pos.
FRA Automobiles Ligier	FRA Pierre Maublanc	Ligier JS2-Maserati	S 3.0	195	DNF	DNF
FRA Automobiles Ligier	FRA Guy Ligier	Ligier JS2-Maserati	S 3.0	24	DSQ	DSQ
FRA Automobiles Ligier	FRA Alain Serpaggi	Ligier JS2-Maserati	S 3.0	310	8th	5th
FRA Renault Sport	FRA Patrick Depailler	Renault Alpine A442	S +2.0	289	DNF	DNF
USA Grand Touring Cars Inc.	AUS Vern Schuppan
USA Sam Posey	Mirage M9-Renault	S +2.0	293	10th	5th
DEU Joest Porsche Racing	FRA Henri Pescarolo
FRA Jean-Louis Ricci	Porsche 962C	C1	328	14th	14th
FRA Jacadi Racing	FRA Michel Maisonneuve
FRA Christophe Dechavanne	Venturi 500LM-Renault	GT	210	DNF	DNF
FRA Larbre Compétition	FRA Jacques Alméras
FRA Jean-Marie Alméras	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	GT2	94	DNF	DNF
ITA Team Bigazzi SRL	GBR Steve Soper
BEL Marc Duez	McLaren F1 GTR-BMW	GT1	318	11th	9th

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3
	BAR
Ret	HOC
10	PAU
2	SAL
1	HOC
2	MUG
Ret	KAR
3	PER
7	HOC
18	VLL
3		3rd	31
	EST
1	THR
1	HOC
Ret	NÜR
1	PAU
1	HOC
1	SAL
NC	ROU
Ret	MUG
Ret	PER
1	SIL
Ret	ZOL
Ret	NOG
Ret	VLL
2	1st	60
	HOC	THR	VLL	SAL	PAU
2	HOC	ROU	MUG	PER	EST	NOG
2
	HOC
Ret
	SIL	THR	HOC
7	NÜR	VLL	PAU
10	MUG	ROU	NOG
Ret	PER	MIS	EST	DON
	THR	HOC	NÜR	PAU
11	MUG	VLL	ROU	DON	NOG
Ret	PER	MIS	HOC

Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER
Ret	AUT
NC	ITA
Ret	CAN
15	USA
Ret
	ARG
Ret	BRA
11	RSA
NC	ESP
	MON
DNQ	BEL
Ret	SWE	NED
Ret	FRA
11	GBR
Ret	GER
2	AUT
Ret	ITA
Ret	USA
DNS
	BRA
Ret	RSA
Ret	USW
4	ESP
12	BEL
3	MON
12	SWE
4	FRA
14	GBR
DSQ	GER
Ret	AUT
2	NED
Ret	ITA
3	CAN
Ret	USA
Ret	JPN
7
	ARG
NC	BRA
Ret	RSA
Ret	USW
9	ESP
7	MON
7	BEL
Ret	SWE
1	FRA
8	GBR
6	GER
Ret	AUT
Ret	NED
2	ITA
8	USA
7	CAN
Ret	JPN
5
	ARG
16	BRA
9		USW
5
	RSA
5		BEL
5		SWE
7
	MON
Ret		ESP
3		FRA
7	GBR
10	GER
3	AUT
5	NED
8	ITA
4	USA
11	CAN
Ret
	ARG
1	BRA
1	RSA
Ret	USW
Ret	ESP
Ret	BEL
2	MON
Ret	FRA
8	GBR
Ret	GER
3	AUT
3	NED
3	ITA
Ret	CAN
Ret	USA
Ret
	ARG
Ret	BRA
Ret	RSA
2	USW
Ret	BEL
11	MON
2	FRA
3	GBR
Ret	GER
1	AUT
4	NED
3	ITA
9	CAN
8†	USA
5
	USW
Ret	BRA
6	ARG
Ret	SMR
Ret	BEL
2	MON
3	ESP
2	FRA
Ret	GBR
3	GER
3	AUT
1	NED
Ret	ITA
Ret	CAN
1	CPL
6
	RSA
Ret	BRA
Ret	USW
Ret	SMR	BEL
9		DET
6	CAN
Ret
	MON
Ret		NED
Ret	GBR
Ret	FRA
14	GER
Ret	AUT
3	SUI
Ret	ITA
Ret	CPL
Ret
	BRA
4	USW
4	FRA
6	SMR
7	MON
Ret	BEL
6	DET
5	CAN
Ret	GBR
12	GER
6	AUT
Ret	NED
Ret	ITA
DNQ	EUR
DNQ
	RSA
Ret
	BRA
Ret	RSA
Ret	BEL
Ret	SMR
Ret	FRA
8	MON
8	CAN
Ret	DET
5	DAL
4
	GBR
Ret	GER
Ret	AUT
Ret	NED
Ret	ITA
Ret	EUR
Ret	POR
14
	BRA
6	POR
Ret	SMR
Ret	MON
6
	CAN
8	DET
12	FRA
Ret	GBR
3	GER
3	AUT
Ret	NED
Ret	ITA
Ret	BEL
11	EUR
Ret	RSA	AUS
2
	BRA
3	ESP
Ret	SMR
Ret	MON
6	BEL
5	CAN
7	DET
2	FRA
6	GBR
Ret	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	MEX	AUS

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1
MNZ	JAR
Ret	DIJ
ovr:9
cls:5
NUR
ovr:9
cls:7
SPA
ovr:12
cls:9
BNO
ovr:10
cls:8
SIL
ovr:10
cls:8
BAT	CAL	WEL	FJI

Overall race position shown. Registered WTCC points paying position may differ.

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Pos.	Pts	nowrap	Bigazzi M Team	nowrap	BMW M3 Sport Evo	7th	107	nowrap	Snobeck S.A.	nowrap	Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo2	11th	81	nowrap	MS Racing	nowrap	Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo2	13th	43
1990	ZOL
1
6	ZOL
2
4	HOC
1
Ret	HOC
2
DNS	NÜR
1
3	*NÜR
2*
Ret	AVU
1
4	AVU
2
Ret	MFA
1
7	MFA
2
Ret	WUN
1
14	WUN
2
Ret	*NÜR
1*
1	*NÜR
2*
8	NOR
1
8	NOR
2
Ret	DIE
1
18	DIE
2
4	NÜR
1
2	NÜR
2
6	HOC
1
14	HOC
2
5
1991	ZOL
1
21	ZOL
2
Ret	HOC
1
5	HOC
2
9	NÜR
1
5	NÜR
2
6	AVU
1
15	AVU
2
21	WUN
1
4	WUN
2
5	NOR
1
13	NOR
2
8	**DIE
1**
3	DIE
2
Ret	NÜR
1
3	*NÜR
2*
3	ALE
1
DNS	ALE
2
DNS	HOC
1
12	HOC
2
12	BRN
1
13	BRN
2
Ret	DON
1
5	DON
2
7
1992	ZOL
1
9	ZOL
2
14	NÜR
1
18	NÜR
2
10	WUN
1
8	WUN
2
6	*AVU
1*
9	AVU
2
4	HOC
1
7	HOC
2
6	NÜR
1
11	NÜR
2
9	NOR
1
11	NOR
2
11	BRN
1
Ret	BRN
2
13	DIE
1
18	DIE
2
8	ALE
1
10	ALE
2
8	NÜR
1
Ret	NÜR
2
Ret	HOC
1
Ret	HOC
2
DNS

Complete Grand Prix Masters results

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap.

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	nowrap	Team GMF	nowrap	Delta Motorsport GPM	nowrap	Nicholson McLaren 3.5 V8
2005	RSA
Ret

Other results

800 km of Dijon: 1st, 1975
1000 km of Monza: 1st, 1975
1000 km of Nürburgring: 1st, 1975
500 km of Monza: 1st, 1988 (class win)
500 km of Nürburgring: 1st, 1988 (class win)
3 hours of Zhuhai: 1st, 1994

Notes

References

i-dea archives. (14 January 2006). "'76 F1イン・ジャパン (1976 F1 World Championship in Japan)". San-eishobo Publishing Co., Ltd..
"Motorsport competition results: 1976 F1 World Championship in Japan". [[Japan Automobile Federation]].
(25 October 1976). "Archive: 1976 F1 World Championship in Japan". [[Nikkan Sports.
"Quelques Anciens Celebres". Hattemer.
Petr Gabriel. (2008). "Gétéčka 2007 - Boj až do konce (Fight to a finish)". Albert Boskovice.
(13 October 2008). "Jacques Laffite tests Renault F1 car". ESPN F1.com.
"Jacques Laffite Results". Motorsport Stats.
"Jacques Laffite". [[Motor Sport (magazine).
"Jacques Laffite (F)". 24h-en-piste.com.
"Jacques Laffite". [[Automobile Club de l'Ouest]].
Small, Steve. (2000). "Grand Prix Who's Who". Travel Publishing.
"Jacques Laffite race results". TouringCars.net.

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