Jean Pierre Jabouille, 1st F1 driver to win in the turbocharger era, passes away

Jean-Pierre Jabouille, former Renault driver and the first F1 racer to win a race with a turbocharged car, sadly passed away on February 2nd, 2023, at the age of 80. Though he was not one of the most successful drivers in the sport, his engineering skills allowed Renault to develop their turbocharged engine and win two races.

Jabouille started his career as a racing driver back in 1967 in the Formula Three championship and continued to progress through the ranks. He made his F1 debut in 1974 with Sir Frank Williams Racing Cars (Currently known as the Williams F1 team) and Surtees, where he was not even able to qualify for the race.

In 1977, he was signed by Renault to work on their new 1.5-liter turbocharged engine. Being the first turbo engine in the sport, it was extremely fragile and suffered severe turbo lags. However, the French racing driver was also an engineer and helped the team develop the engine. Jabouille eventually won two races in 1979 and 1980 with a turbocharged Renault.

Since Jabouille was such a valuable asset to Renault at the time, the Alpine F1 team issued a statement in his honor. The statement read:

“BWT Alpine F1 Team is incredibly saddened to learn of the passing of Jean-Pierre Jabouille. A humble racing driver, brilliant engineer, and a pioneer of our sport. Jean-Pierre was a true racer.”

“He spearheaded Renault’s journey into F1 in 1977 with his resilient and dare to do attitude. He was Renault’s first Grand Prix winner in 1979, a landmark moment in Renault’s journey in Formula 1. His determination and dedication to succeed inspired many, and these values remain central to the current team in its now blue colours of Alpine.”

“We are where we are today because of Jean-Pierre and his legacy lives on. We’d like to extend our most sincere condolences to his family and close friends. Merci pour tout, Jean-Pierre.”

---

Alpine reveals the advantage they have to compete with top teams in the 2023 F1 season

Alpine technical director Matt Herman shared how the French team has an advantage over other teams, which will allow them to focus on fighting top teams. Alpine can easily focus on itself and create power units that suit its chassis now that Red Bull has stopped taking power units from Renault.

In an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, Herman said:

"I think there is a massive advantage, and there is no distraction. Having lived through being a works team and supplying others working on the engine side where we would have supplied others, there is always an element of distraction and things you always have to compromise to make sure your product can fairly interact with other chassis. With us, we don't have any of that."

With Pierre Gasly as their new driver alongside Esteban Ocon, Alpine will be aiming high and trying to challenge the top teams next season.