He was the first driver with the Williams team to win a Formula One World Championship, becoming World Drivers' Champion in 1980.
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Alan Jones is a former Formula One driver from Australia. He was the first driver with the Williams team to win a Formula One World Championship, becoming World Drivers’ Champion in 1980 and the second Australian to do so after triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham. He competed in 117 Grands Prix, winning 12 and finishing on the podium 24 times. Jones won the Can-Am championship in 1978 while driving a Lola. Jones is also the last Australian driver to win the Australian Grand Prix, having lapped the field of primarily Formula 5000 cars while driving his Formula One Championship-winning Williams FW07B at Calder Park Raceway in 1980.
Jones raced a Brabham BT 28 adapted to BT35 standard in Formula Three in 1971 and had a relatively successful season, earning a series of tests at Silverstone in March. Despite the test’s performance, Jones was not offered a drive by March and instead drove a GRD in Formula Three in 1972. Jones was retained by GRD for the next year with a new sponsor, and only lost the 1973 championship due to a misfiring engine in the final round at Brands Hatch.
Jones started the 1974 season in Formula Atlantic but believed it was a shoddy effort, but a chance meeting with Harry Stiller resulted in a drive in the latter’s March 74. Jones made his F5000 debut for Stiller in a Chevron B24/28 owned by John MacDonald in the final round of the European Championship at Brands Hatch at the end of the season. In 1975, it was planned to compete in Formula 5000. Stiller’s initial intentions fell through, but after some time passed and Jones was practically unemployed, Stiller arranged for the purchase of a Formula One Hesketh 308 and signed Jones to drive it.
Although the weekend turned out to be one of the most terrible in Formula One history when Rolf Stommelen’s collision killed five fans, his first race was the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at the fast Montjuc circuit in the bought Hesketh. In 1976, he got his first full-time Formula One driving with John Surtees’ squad. Jones’ car was noted for its controversial Durex sponsorship, which resulted in the BBC refusing to carry Formula One races for the rest of the season. In the TS19, he had a number of strong finishes, the greatest of which was a fourth place in Japan in the season’s last race. In 1977, Jones refused to drive for Surtees, opting to sit out the season rather than stay with the team.
Jones won seven races in 1980, however the Spanish Grand Prix was eventually dropped from the championship, and the Australian Grand Prix was a non-championship race, so only five were counted in the overall standings. Throughout the season, he had a car that routinely placed on the podium, and he finished on the top ten ten times. He topped Nelson Piquet in the standings by 13 points at the end of the season, becoming Australia’s first World Champion since Sir Jack Brabham. He had an excellent chance to repeat his 1981 victory, but a contentious relationship with Carlos Reutemann resulted in a heated competition that may have damaged both drivers their championship chances. He finished fourth in the championship, four points behind Piquet, and three points behind Reutemann.
| Races | 117 |
| Wins | 12 |
| Podiums | 24 |
| Pole positions | 6 |
| Points | 199 |
Alan Jones has never been married, nor does he have any children.
The British race car driver has a net worth of around USD 9,000,000 at the age of 75. Because it’s difficult to predict spending behaviours over time, net worth estimations vary. Alan Jones’ fortune stems primarily from his prowess as a race car driver. The amount of assets that surpass liabilities is referred to as net worth. Cash, real estate, and anything else of worth are examples of assets. It’s the difference between the value of all you own and the value of nothing you own.
