Jean-Pierre Jacques Jarier (born 10 July 1946) is a French former Grand Prix racing driver.
He drove for Formula One teams including Shadow, Team Lotus, Ligier and Tyrrell Racing. His best finish was third (three times) and he also took three pole positions. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in 1946 in Charenton-le-Pont near Paris, Jean-Pierre Jarier’s (nicknamed ‘Jumper’) initial passion was for motorbikes and he also spent time working in a garage. After racing a motorcycle several times he eventually competed in cars, in the Coupe Renault 8 Gordini series. With support from a Parisian businessman Marcel Arnold, he moved into single-seaters, achieving some good results in Formula France and then moved into F3. After finishing third in 1970’s French F3 Championship, 1971 saw him contesting European F2 with the Shell Arnold team and he took podiums at Albi and Vallelunga with them. The year also saw his F1 debut, driving his friend Hubert Hahne’s March 701 in the Oulton Park International Cup (finishing tenth) before making his World Championship debut in the Italian Grand Prix. Recalling the Monza race, he told how “I needed an international carnet to take the car to Italy and an old school friend was very adept at producing counterfeit paperwork. He forged a carnet so that I could take the car to Monza. I had no money, no mechanics and no tyres, but McLaren lent me four Goodyears that were hard enough to last the whole weekend. And although I didn’t have any mechanics, Vittorio Brambilla and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud stepped in-so I had two top-line racers as my crew. I couldn’t afford a hotel for the weekend, either, so slept in the pits.” At the end of the race “The car was still in one piece so I put it back on the trailer to return it to Hubert. I was apparently entitled to some starting money, too. When I went to collect it from the automobile club on Monday morning, I discovered that Max Mosley had claimed it as his, because I was driving a March!”
He stayed with Shell Arnold in 1972 but left halfway through the year as the team were suffering financial issues. A former contact from his garage days told him to head to Le Mans for a drive in one of Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team Ferrari Daytonas. He didn’t practise on the first evening but went out out late in Thursday’s session; “the car felt really heavy at first and I wasn’t sure how anybody could drive it, but I settled down to some ballpark lap times and ended up within a second of Sam Posey, who was sharing the sister car with Tony Adamowicz. When I passed the signalling pit I could see they were waving in an effort to slow me down!” After finishing ninth (with Claude Buchet) he was invited to drive NART’s Ferrari 712M in Can-Am races though he felt that it was because none of the Americans wanted to drive it, “because it didn’t handle and had no brakes.” He was tenth at Watkins Glen and fourth at Elkhart Lake.
Following this he was signed by March to contest F1 and F2 but F1 would be disappointing for him as he was only able to finish one GP. However, he was dominant in F2 and took the title with eight victories at Mallory Park, Hockenheim, Novellas, Rouen, Mantorp Park, Karlskoga and Pergusa plus podiums at Pau and Albi. In 1973, he described the atmosphere within the team as “magical. It ran almost like a military operation: we were totally focused on winning and felt absolutely unbeatable.” He recounted how “BMW had lent me a 3.0 CSL to drive to races. Heading to the Nürburgring, I saw a beautiful young woman by the side of the road and she was trying to hitch a lift. I thought, ‘I’m dreaming’. I stopped to pick her up, told her I was heading for Germany, and she said, ‘That’s OK, I’ll come with you’. We got to the track and checked in to my room, but the following day the race team arrived-engineers, mechanics, everyone. They were all there to win the race and I’d turned up with this fabulous girl, the most attractive you could ever wish to see. I told her she should carry on hitch-hiking, because I needed to be alone. That’s where my focus had to be, because racing was absolutely a religion as far as I was concerned. I qualified on pole and took the lead, with Patrick Depailler not far behind, but on the long straight my rear suspension broke. There was no guardrail, I spun through 180 degrees and went off backwards into the undergrowth at about 150mph. I hitched my way to the pits and afterwards thought, ‘I let that girl go, like an idiot. To do what? Lose the race, like an idiot’. But the whole March team was absolutely dedicated, under Ray Wardle and Robin Herd, and I was part of that.” In the summer he was invited by Enzo Ferrari for lunch in Maranello; “I didn’t speak much Italian, but he said he knew some beautiful female students who would help me to learn. He wanted me to drive in 1974 and said everything would be fantastic, that I’d win the world championship. I agreed, of course, but a few days beforehand I’d also signed a contract with March. I spoke to Max Mosley, told him that Ferrari wanted me and he said, ‘No, you can’t go-you’re racing for us’. Max would have released me if Ferrari had bought me out, but the old man didn’t want to do that and I certainly didn’t have any money, so they ended up signing Niki Lauda instead.”
In 1974 he was with Shadow in F1 though became team leader (sadly due to team mate Peter Revson being killed while testing at Kyalami) and his best results were third at Monaco (behind R.Peterson and J.Scheckter) and fifth in Sweden. He also competed in sports cars with the title winning Matra team and had four victories with Jean-Pierre Beltoise at Watkins Glen, Le Castellet, Brands Hatch and the Nurburgring plus one at Spa with Jacky Ickx.
Continuing with the team for the following two seasons, 1975 began well when he put his Shadow DN5 on pole position in Argentina, but a component broke in the warm-up and he was unable to make the start. He took pole in Brazil and was dominating it until his race ended due to a fuel metering unit failing and his only points-scoring finish was a fourth place in the Spanish Grand Prix. During the year the DN5 Ford evolved into the DN7 Matra and after it was tested by Jean Pierre at Silverstone it made its race debut for the Austrian GP. Motor racing writer Denis Jenkinson commented on Matra’s return into GP racing, writing “Particularly pleasing was to see the enthusiasm with which JPJ was tackling the job of driving the DN7. It was not a half-hearted attempt, with one eye cocked over the Cosworth powered DN5 standing in the paddock, or a dickering between the two cars. As far as Jarier was concerned there was only one car for him and that was the DN7. With that approach in the cockpit the Shadow Matra V12 project could get somewhere.” He qualified thirteenth for the race though retired when the fuel injection system malfunctioned on lap 10. In between the Austrian and Italian races, a non championship Swiss GP was held at Dijon, and he put his Shadow on pole but after leading the first 23 laps he had to retire due to gearbox problems. At the season’s final GP, at Watkins Glen, both he and team mate Tom Pryce qualified well (fourth and seventh) but both drivers were back in Cosworth powered DN5s for the race.
1976 saw him qualify third and set fastest lap in the season opening Brazilian race, but he spun off on an oil patch leaked from James Hunt’s car while running second a few seconds behind Niki Lauda’s Ferrari. Despite finishing most of the season’s races, his best result would be seventh at Long Beach. He later spoke of his team mates Peter Revson and Tom Pryce with affection, declaring “I always felt Peter was hugely underrated. He was probably wealthier than the rest of the paddock put together, as the Revlon heir, but he wasn’t racing because he was rich-he was doing it because he was extremely talented. And I got on well with Tom-a very quick driver and a nice guy. The only thing I didn’t like was that he and (team manager) Alan Rees often used to speak to each other in Welsh. My English was pretty good at the time-I’d understand if people were using slang, or even talking to each other in Cockney, but I couldn’t do Welsh!”
For 1977 he was with ATS, driving a Penske, and he took a point for them with sixth place in his debut at Long Beach. Late in the season he had one off races with Shadow and Equipe Ligier at Watkins Glen and Fuji when ATS missed the final two races. In sports cars, he and Arturo Merzario had victories with their Alfa Romeo T33 at Dijon, Monza and Le Castellet, he was second in a Mirage GR8 at Le Mans with Vern Schuppan and at the end of the year took victory in a Porsche 911 Carrera in the 6Hour Dakar. Returning to ATS in 1978, he only drove in a handful of races and eventually contested the final two rounds with Lotus, alongside Mario Andretti. “I paid my own air fare to America, made my way to the Glen Motor Inn-where all the drivers were staying, as if they were part of the same rugby team-and sat in the car for the first time the following morning. We hadn’t done a seat fitting and I was very uncomfortable.” Qualifying eighth, he had to pit with a puncture then raced back to third before running out of fuel but had also set the race’s fastest lap. In Canada he qualified on pole and, after building up a big lead in the race, seemed on course for the win until an oil leak ended his race.
In 1979 he signed with Tyrrell although had nearly taken up an offer of a lead driver role by Paul Newman in his Can-Am team. There were retirements from the first races in Brazil and Argentina but he then finished third at Kyalami, behind G.Villeneuve and J.Scheckter. He went on to score points in the next two races at Long Beach and Jarama while the second half of the season saw notable results, with fifth and sixth in France and Italy plus a podium finish at Silverstone behind C.Regazzoni and R.Arnoux. His second season with them was not as successful with his best results being fifth places finishes in Zolder, Brands Hatch and Zandvoort.
Leaving Tyrrell at the end of the season, he stood in for an injured Jean-Pierre Jabouille at Ligier for the opening two races of the season. In the second half of the year he signed with Osella and there were some respectable performances for the small, underfunded team. 1982 saw a full season with Osella and he achieved the team’s best-ever finish with fourth at San Marino. Unfortunately the remainder of the year would be difficult plus the team’s morale was hit hard with the death of Riccardo Paletti at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The following year saw him with Equipe Ligier but it would be a frustrating season for him and the team and the first eight races only saw one finish, with ninth in France. A strong run at Long Beach ended with a collision with Keke Rosberg and although he finished several of the final races his best result was seventh in Austria.
During his F1 racing years, he had also contested a number of non championship races and with Shadow took third and fifth in the International Trophy at Silverstone in 1974 and 1976. Racing with Tyrrell, he finished fifth with their 009 at Imola in 1979 and the following season was fourth in the 010 at Jarama.
His final GP came at South Africa in 1983 with Ligier and he then spent many years in sports cars racing, competing in the World Endurance Championship, World Sports-Prototype Challenge, Porsche Supercup, International GT Series and the FIA GT Championship and in 1998 and 1999 he was French GT Champion. He drove a variety of cars and although mostly associated with Porsches, there were four seasons with a Chrysler Viper plus occasional drives in a BMW 325, 528 and 635 CSI, a Mercedes 190E, a Holden Commodore and a Lister Storm. He had driven at Le Mans alongside his F1 campaigns and after leaving F1 continued racing there, in Porsche 956B, 962C and 911 GT2s with Kremer Racing, Takefuji Schuppan Racing Team, Larbre Competition, Roock Racing and Societe Chereau.
He was also involved as a stunt driver in 1998’s movie ‘Ronin’ (directed by John Frankenheimer who also directed the 1966’s ‘Grand Prix’) and 80 automobiles were supposedly destroyed during filming.
