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Jacques Laffite
Laffite in 2015
Born	Jacques-Henri Laffite (1943-11-21) 21 November 1943 (age 81) Paris, Nazi-occupied France
Spouses	Bernadette Cottin ​ ​(m. 1977⁠–⁠1992)​ Florence Gericot ​(m. 1993)​
Children	2, including Margot
Relatives	Jean-Pierre Jabouille (brother-in-law) Arnaud Tsamere (son-in-law)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	French
Active years	1974–1986
Teams	Frank Williams, Ligier, Williams
Entries	180 (176 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	6
Podiums	32
Career points	228
Pole positions	7
Fastest laps	7
First entry	1974 German Grand Prix
First win	1977 Swedish Grand Prix
Last win	1981 Canadian Grand Prix
Last entry	1986 British Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1972–1974, 1977–1978, 1990, 1993–1994, 1996
Teams	Ligier, Renault, Mirage, Porsche, Venturi, Larbre, McLaren
Best finish	8th (1974)
Class wins	0

Jacques-Henri Laffite (French pronunciation: [ʒak ɑ̃.ʁi la.fit]; born 21 November 1943) is a French former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1974 to 1986. 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 1975 season, scoring his maiden podium at the German Grand Prix and winning the European Formula Two Championship with Martini. He moved to Ligier in 1976, taking several podiums amongst his maiden pole position in Italy. Laffite retained his seat the following season, taking his maiden win at the Swedish Grand Prix. After a winless season in 1978, Ligier constructed the highly-competitive JS11 in response to the ground effect era. Laffite won the opening two rounds of the 1979 season—including a grand slam at the Brazilian Grand Prix—but ultimately finished the championship in fourth after suffering eight retirements. Laffite again finished fourth in the 1980 and 1981 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 1982, leaving for Williams at the end of the season. After two winless seasons with Williams, amongst further reliability issues, Laffite returned to Ligier in 1985, 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 1972 to 1996 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 1976 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 1988 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.

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.

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.

Racing record

Career summary

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.	Class Pos.
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	Steve Soper 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)

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)

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

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

* 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)

Complete Grand Prix Masters results

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

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

1. The fastest lap at the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix was initially credited to Masahiro Hasemi. This was a measurement mistake and, several days later, Fuji Speedway issued a press release to correct the fastest lap holder of the race to Laffite. This press release was promptly made known in Japan, and the Japan Automobile Federation and Japanese media corrected the record. This correction was not made well known outside Japan; thus, Hasemi is credited with the fastest lap in many record books.

See also

• Formula One drivers from France

References

1. i-dea archives (14 January 2006), '76 F1イン・ジャパン (1976 F1 World Championship in Japan), Auto Sport Archives 日本の名レース100選 (The 100 Best races in Japan) (in Japanese), vol. 001, San-eishobo Publishing Co., Ltd., p. 77, ISBN 978-4-7796-0007-4, archived from the original on 13 December 2010, retrieved 16 December 2010
2. "Motorsport competition results: 1976 F1 World Championship in Japan" (in Japanese). Japan Automobile Federation. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
3. "Archive: 1976 F1 World Championship in Japan" (in Japanese). Nikkan Sports News. 25 October 1976. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
4. "Quelques Anciens Celebres". Hattemer. Archived from the original on 18 June 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
5. Petr Gabriel (2008), Gétéčka 2007 - Boj až do konce (Fight to a finish) (in Czech and English), Albert Boskovice, p. 103, ISBN 978-80-7326-130-6, archived from the original on 5 December 2021, retrieved 5 December 2021
6. "Jacques Laffite tests Renault F1 car". ESPN F1.com. 13 October 2008. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2008.

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