Australian great Alan Jones, who gave Williams its first drivers' crown in 1980, has died at the age of 80.
Formula 1 has lost one of its toughest competitors. Alan Jones, the Australian who won the 1980 world championship and gave Williams its first drivers' title, has died at 80.
Jones was a hard-nosed racer who arrived in the sport's top tier in the 1970s and made his name with a fearless, no-nonsense style. He won his first Grand Prix in Austria in 1977, then became the centrepiece of the Williams team as Frank Williams and Patrick Head built it into a front-running force. In 1980 he turned that promise into a world title, and the team took the constructors' crown the same year.
The title also made Jones a landmark figure for Australian motorsport. He followed Jack Brabham into the sport's history books, and he is remembered as the last Australian to be crowned world champion. Racing was in his blood. His father, Stan Jones, was himself a winner of the Australian Grand Prix.
After stepping away from full-time racing, Jones stayed close to the sport as a commentator and outspoken personality in Australia. His legacy rests on his grit behind the wheel and on the Williams era he helped launch, one that would go on to define a generation of F1 competition.
