Jacques Laffite

JacquesHenri Laffite born 21 November 1943 is a French former racing driver who competed in Formula One from 1974 to 1986 He achieved six Grand Prix wins all while driving for the Ligier team From 1997 to 2013 Laffite was a presenter for TF1 JacquesHenri Laffite was born in Paris on 21 November 1943 He attended the Cours Hattemer a private school Laffite debuted in Formula One in 1974 for Frank Williams IsoMarlboro 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 nonchampionship 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 1609 km 1000 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 preFormula One AGP drives Laffite drove a Formula Pacific or Formula Mondial Ralt RT4 powered by a 16litre Ford l4 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 The race was stopped and restarted without Laffite who was thus classified as a nonstarter and ended his career tied with Graham Hill for the most Grand Prix starts He was the most successful driver in Ligiers history having taken six of their nine wins As a result of Laffites injuries new safety rules were enforced from the 1988 season that stated that in all cars the drivers 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 Germanbased DTM series Source Article Jacques Laffite from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30