and helmet on display at the
Deutsches Museum Jabouille first made his mark in French
Formula Three in 1967, and continued in 1968, maintaining the car himself on his way to the runner up spot behind
François Cevert. For 1969 he was contracted as a development driver by
Alpine, having several disjointed runs in
Formula Two and
sports cars. In 1973, he co-drove a
Matra to 3rd at the
Le Mans 24 Hours, and repeated this feat in 1974, when he also won the Formula neo race at
Hockenheim, and finished as runner-up in the European 2-litre series for
Alpine. He also made his first appearances in
Formula One, failing to qualify an
Iso–Marlboro at the
French Grand Prix, and a
Surtees at the
Austrian Grand Prix. 1975 saw Jabouille sever his ties with
Alpine, and gain Elf backing to make his own
Formula Two chassis. He finished runner-up to
Jacques Laffite, but finally made his full Grand Prix debut, finishing 12th in a works
Tyrrell at the
French Grand Prix. For 1976, he concentrated on
Formula Two, finally winning the title.
Formula One Jabouille was signed up by
Formula One team
Renault to develop their new 1.5l turbocharged engine for 1977. The RS01 car debuted at the
1977 British Grand Prix, but initially the turbo engine (a first for
Formula One) was fragile and suffered from severe turbo lag, making it difficult to drive on tight circuits. However, Jabouille, who was an engineer by trade persevered and developed the RS01 throughout, recording several notable qualifying positions in 1978, and landed the marque's first points with 4th place at the
United States Grand Prix East at
Watkins Glen, a circuit particularly tough on fuel consumption- one of the Renault turbo's biggest weaknesses. 1979 saw Renault expand to run a second car for
René Arnoux. Jabouille secured Renault's first Formula One pole at the
South African Grand Prix, and then won their first victory, fittingly at the
French Grand Prix, also from pole. This was the first victory for a turbocharged car in Formula One. He took two more poles, at the
German and
Italian Grands Prix, but poor reliability meant the win was his only score. In 1980, Jabouille took two more poles and another win at the
Austrian Grand Prix. A suspension failure in the
Canadian Grand Prix caused a sizeable accident, which left him with a broken leg, just after he had signed with
Ligier for 1981. His injuries saw him sit out the first two races of the 1981 season, but it soon became clear he was not fully fit, failing to qualify for two of his four attempts, at which point he decided to retire from Formula One. Subsequently, he stayed with Ligier and became team manager in 1982. In 1984, he transferred to Ligier's joint entry with
Curb Racing in the
1984 CART series, as team manager.
Sportscars Jabouille returned to racing in the mid-1980s, driving in the
French Supertouring Championship before joining Peugeot to help develop their sports car programme at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This culminated in third places for the marque in both the 1992 and 1993 races. In 1994, he succeeded
Jean Todt as director of Peugeot Sport, but unsuccessful seasons for Peugeot as engine suppliers in Formula One with
McLaren and
Jordan saw him sacked in 1995. Following that, he ran his own sports car team in the
ISRS. ==Death==