| Jacques Laffite | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Name: | Jacques-Henri Laffite | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 21 November 1943 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Paris, Nazi-occupied France | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Children: | 2, including Margot | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives: |
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Jacques-Henri Laffite (pronounced as /fr/; 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.
Jacques-Henri Laffite was born in Paris on 21 November 1943. He attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school.[1] He was trained as a racing driver in 1968 at Winfield Racing School in France.
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 5 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.
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.
He 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, he tested a Renault R27 F1 car at the Paul Ricard circuit.[2]
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, he has a property in Creuse near Aubusson.
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 |  Automobiles Ligier | Pierre Maublanc | Ligier JS2-Maserati | S 3.0 | 195 | DNF | DNF | |
| 1973 | Automobiles Ligier | Guy Ligier | Ligier JS2-Maserati | S 3.0 | 24 | DSQ | DSQ | |
| 1974 | Automobiles Ligier | Alain Serpaggi | Ligier JS2-Maserati | S 3.0 | 310 | 8th | 5th | |
| 1977 | Renault Sport | Patrick Depailler | Renault Alpine A442 | S +2.0 | 289 | DNF | DNF | |
| 1978 |  Grand Touring Cars Inc. |  Vern Schuppan Sam Posey | Mirage M9-Renault | S +2.0 | 293 | 10th | 5th | |
| 1990 |  Joest Porsche Racing | Henri Pescarolo Jean-Louis Ricci | Porsche 962C | C1 | 328 | 14th | 14th | |
| 1993 | Jacadi Racing | Michel Maisonneuve Christophe Dechavanne | Venturi 500LM-Renault | GT | 210 | DNF | DNF | |
| 1994 | Larbre Compétition | Jacques Alméras Jean-Marie Alméras | Porsche 911 Carrera RSR | GT2 | 94 | DNF | DNF | |
| 1996 |  Team Bigazzi SRL | McLaren F1 GTR-BMW | GT1 | 318 | 11th | 9th |
(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 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BP Racing France | BMW M12 | BAR | HOC | PAU | SAL | HOC | MUG | KAR | PER | HOC | VAL | 3rd | 31 | |||||||
| Automobiles Martini | Martini Mk 16 | BMW M12 | EST | THR | HOC | NÜR | PAU | HOC | SAL | ROU | MUG | PER | SIL | ZOL | NOG | VAL | 1st | 60 | ||
| Fred Opert Racing | Chevron B35 | BMW | HOC | THR | VAL | SAL | PAU | HOC | ROU | MUG | PER | EST | NOG | NC | 0 | |||||
| Willi Kauhsen Racing Team | Hart | HOC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Fred Opert Racing | Chevron B40 | SIL | THR | HOC | NÜR | VAL | PAU | MUG | ROU | NOG | PER | MIS | EST | DON | NC | 0 | ||||
| Maublanc Racing Services | March 782 | BMW | THR | HOC | NÜR | PAU | MUG | VAL | ROU | DON | NOG | PER | MIS | HOC | NC | 0 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
* Overall race position shown. Registered WTCC points paying position may differ.(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 | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Bigazzi M Team | BMW M3 Sport Evo | ZOL 1 | ZOL 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | AVU 1 | AVU 2 | MFA 1 | MFA 2 | WUN 1 | WUN 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | NOR 1 | NOR 2 | DIE 1 | DIE 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | 7th | 107 | |||
| 1991 | Snobeck S.A. | Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo2 | ZOL 1 | ZOL 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | AVU 1 | AVU 2 | WUN 1 | WUN 2 | NOR 1 | NOR 2 | DIE 1 | DIE 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | ALE 1 | ALE 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | BRN 1 | BRN 2 | DON 1 | DON 2 | 11th | 81 | |
| 1992 | MS Racing | Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo2 | ZOL 1 | ZOL 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | WUN 1 | WUN 2 | AVU 1 | AVU 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | NOR 1 | NOR 2 | BRN 1 | BRN 2 | DIE 1 | DIE 2 | ALE 1 | ALE 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | 13th | 43 |
(key) Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap.