On 27 April 1975, Alan Jones sat on the Montjuïc Park grid for his first Formula 1 start. He was 28 years old, driving for Hesketh, and taking his first step in a World Championship career that would eventually lead to the 1980 title with Williams. The race he was about to start was one of the most troubled afternoons Formula 1 has ever produced.
The debut
Jones had come to Hesketh through the well-worn route of a driver with talent, limited backing and the determination to make something happen. The British team, run with a cheerful flamboyance that rather disguised how seriously it took the racing, gave Jones his opportunity at Montjuïc. It was not the most straightforward circumstances in which to begin a Formula 1 career.
Alan Stanley Jones
- Races (starts):116
- Wins:12
- Podiums:24
- Pole positions:6
- Fastest laps:13
- Driver of the Day:0
- World titles:1
- Points (total):206
Data source: F1DB (GitHub)
The Spanish Grand Prix that day was already carrying tension before the start. The drivers had raised serious concerns about the condition of the barriers around the circuit. Emerson Fittipaldi had withdrawn in protest. The race went ahead regardless.
Jones started. He was classified in twelfth place when the race was stopped after 29 laps following Rolf Stommelen’s rear wing failure and the accident that killed four spectators. A points finish was beyond him that day, but he was there, he finished, and he had his first World Championship start on the record.
The career that followed
What makes the Montjuïc debut worth marking is entirely what came after it. Jones spent several seasons building his Formula 1 career through the mid-1970s, racing for various teams without the machinery to translate his ability into results. He was competitive, sometimes very quick, but the equipment around him was rarely equal to his ambition.
The situation changed when he joined Williams. Frank Williams and Patrick Head had built a team that was finding its feet as a serious operation, and Jones arrived at the right moment. In 1979 he won four Grands Prix and finished third in the championship. In 1980 he went further, winning five races and taking the World Championship with a combination of pace and aggression that felt entirely consistent with how he had always driven.
Martin Lee, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
He was not a subtle champion. He was fast, direct, occasionally blunt and entirely comfortable with the physical demands of racing a car that required strength and commitment. The style suited the Williams of that era.
From Montjuïc to the title
The distance between a twelfth-place classified finish at a stopped race in 1975 and a world championship in 1980 was five years of work, the right team at the right moment, and a driver who had not softened in the time between. Jones retired from Formula 1 after 1981 before returning briefly in 1983 with Arrows.
His debut at Montjuïc is a footnote to a difficult day. His championship with Williams is the headline. But the footnote was where it started, on a circuit the sport never returned to, in a race that ended under red flags, for a team that would itself be gone from Formula 1 within a few years.
Everyone who becomes world champion started somewhere. Jones started there.
