Alan Jones AOWC (Australia's Outspoken World Champion)

Australia's Awebber ausie grit is leaving. a man among boys.

wonderfully politically incorrect. spoke his mind. would drive modern team pr people nuts. not only for what he said but quite likely because he would ignore then completely

 

 

wins 1980 French gp at dijon

ALAN JONES: "Knowing that Renault had backed Balestre over Spain and that the French had combined with the Italians to put the season, and my title, into jeopardy, I went to France in a fighting mood. I not only wanted badly to win that race, I wanted my win to be a personal gesture of defiance.

 

 

"I think it was my best race of the year, and certainly the most satisfying ‑ it doesn't get better than beating the Frogs at home. The Ligiers were definitely quicker, and I won the race by keeping the pressure on them. I love doing that, wearing someone down, inching up on them ‑ it's really satisfying to know that what you're doing, lap after lap, is working. After the race we flew the Union Jack above our motorhome to really rub it in."

 

 

I dearly love having a go. Nothing pleases me more. I don't like being on pole. Inside me, I think I prefer being on the second row so I can work someone over.

 

 

 

"A lot of American drivers can talk their way around a track better than they can drive around one. Americans are simply more deeply into bullshit and technology. Give them a new car perfectly set up and they'll shove it through wind tunnels and a graduate department  at a university and have the car two seconds slower in no time,"

 

 

 

 

13 JULY 1980 ‑ BRITISH GP (BRANDS HATCH): ALAN JONES (WILLIAMS)

 

ALAN JONES: "I liked Frank even before I worked for him. He was jovial and polite, and I put a high value on politeness. Civility is very important. Being civil doesn't detract from your inner combativeness or your interior strength. You don't have to be arrogant or rude to be a good fighter.

 

"The popular notion of the driver as arrogant, rude, macho and boorish, derives from Jochen Rindt and Niki Lauda, both Teutonic and both naturally aggressively offensive. They set a style: if you weren't rude and arrogant like some Hollywood stereotype of the SS officer, then you hadn't the balls to be a top racing driver."

 

1980 champion JONES (WILLIAMS)

 

Meanwhile in Las Vegas, Alan Jones ran away with the final race of his career. The forthright Australian's absence would leave a void in the quotable character department so savoured by the media, a branch of the Formula 1 circus about which Jones had strong feelings.

 

The Idiotic Media

 

ALAN JONES: "You have to handle the press and the media, because that's why the money's in the sport. I don't have much respect for them. Every writer has a favourite in the sport ‑ that is, when they're not actually paid to support a particular driver or team or sponsor. The press are like the fans. They're for someone and against someone else. There are Ferrari freaks and Lotus freaks and then a huge number of ordinary hangers‑on. We get to know them and there are few of them we take seriously.

 

"Sometimes they accuse us of being thick. I know a lot of people who thought that Ronnie Peterson was as thick as two planks, but of course nothing could be further from the truth: he was in fact highly intelligent, but just didn't care to have media people think of him that way.

"A lot of drivers are thought of as just grown‑up spoiled brats who would rather play tennis and swim or look at the birds than be made to sit down and think. A big part is played by the press: the I'm‑too‑stupid‑to‑think syndrome is an escape from the endless low‑level questions they have to face from the idiots who write about them.

"But one cannot drive well without brains. No team manager hires rock‑apes: a fool in a Formula 1 car is a threat to himself and to others. And I don't just mean a fool intellectually or a fool in the racing car. I mean a man who can't think, can't reason, can't grasp what is required of him and can't control his emotions. Constructors look for potential World Champions, and recognize that to become a World Champion, a very special kind of intelligence is required."

 When you have an accident there are huge loud noises, there are wrenches and twists. lurches, bangs, forces pulling you every which way. It's like being attacked by a gang of thugs in an alley.

 

 

The thought of quitting grows on a driver little by little. He finds himself thinking about it more and more. He sleeps a little less after each race. He enjoys driving a little less. His edge goes off, his appetite for it diminishes. Courage comes when a driver recognises that moment and quits.