Jean-Pierre Jarier
Jean-Pierre Jarier
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Jean-Pierre Jarier

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Jean-Pierre Jarier

Jean-Pierre Jacques Jarier (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃pjɛʁ ʒaʁje]; born 10 July 1946) is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1971 to 1983.

Jarier contested 143 Formula One Grands Prix for March, Shadow, ATS, Ligier, Lotus, Tyrrell, and Osella. He achieved three podiums and three pole positions across 12 seasons.

Jean-Pierre Jacques Jarier was born on 10 July 1946 in Charenton-le-Pont, near Paris. After competing in Formula France, he moved up to French Formula Three, finishing 3rd overall in 1970, before moving on to the Shell Arnold European Formula Two team in 1971. He peaked with two 3rd places, and also made his Grand Prix debut at Monza when the team rented a March Engineering 701. However, the team dropped him midway through 1972 for financial reasons. For 1973 he signed to the March Engineering Formula Two team, and was also given a Formula One seat by the outfit. Formula One was difficult in the uncompetitive 721G, but Jarier stormed to the Formula Two title with eight wins.

After his good form in the 1973 F2 European series, Jarier nearly signed for Ferrari, but their established driver Clay Regazzoni insisted on having the young Austrian Niki Lauda as his teammate. In 1974, Jarier drove a full season of Formula One, signing with the Shadow Racing Cars team. He became team leader following the death of Peter Revson, and finished 3rd at the Monaco Grand Prix on his way to 14th overall. As a sports car driver. Jarier led Matra's successful defense of its world sports car title, and proved himself the fastest driver of all on the classic road circuits, being faster than Ickx at Nürburgring and the old Spa road circuit and winning three other rounds on GP circuits at Brands Hatch, Watkins Glen and Paul Ricard.[citation needed]

1975 began Jarier putting his Shadow DN5 on pole position for the Argentine Grand Prix, only for a component to break in the warm-up, preventing Jarier from taking the start. He repeated the feat at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and then dominated the race until a fuel metering unit failed, ending his race. Bad luck and poor reliability would curse his season, though the Shadow team fell from the pace as well. His only points-scoring finish was for fourth place in the shortened Spanish Grand Prix.

Jarier spent 1976 with Shadow Racing Cars, qualifying third in an updated version of the previous year's car, the DN5B and setting fastest lap at the opening Brazilian Grand Prix, before spinning off and crashing on James Hunt's oil whilst running second a few seconds behind Niki Lauda in a Ferrari. Subsequently, the car became uncompetitive, and Jarier failed to score any points.

After this, Jarier's career slowed. He switched to the ATS team in 1977, driving a Penske. He scored a point in his first race for the team, and then had one-off drives for Shadow and Équipe Ligier when the German team elected to miss the final races of the year. He also dabbled in sports cars, winning two races in an Alfa Romeo T33 with Arturo Merzario, and coming second at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Vern Schuppan in a Mirage.

Jarier's second year at ATS in the in-house HS1, was less successful, and he was fired after an argument with team principal Günter Schmid after failing to qualify the car for the Monaco Grand Prix. He was briefly re-hired for the German Grand Prix, only to miss the grid again, and again argued with Schmid, leaving once more. However, at the end of the year he was signed by Team Lotus to take the seat left by Ronnie Peterson's death. He set fastest lap at the United States Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen, running third before he ran out of fuel, and then took pole and dominated at the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal before an oil leak ended his race.

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