Jean-Pierre Jarier

Name: Jean-Pierre Jarier

Nationality: France

Date of birth: July 10, 1946 - Charenton, nr Paris

His family ran small hotel near Paris and Jarier studied economics before discovering the Montlhery racing circuit. Initially he raced bikes, using BSA and Honda machinery but in 1967 he switched to cars and convinced his mother to sell her Peugeot road car to buy him a Renault 8 Gordini. He progressed into single seaters and moved up to win the 1973 European Formula 2 Championship in a works March-BMW. That same season he made his Formula 1 debut for the team, but it will be for his thrusting performances for the Shadow team in the mid-1970s that he will best be remembered. He held the 1975 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos in the palm of his hand when his Shadow DN5 retired with a jammed fuel metering unit and later, while attempting to restore his career with Lotus in 1978, he similarly dominated the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal before brake problems intervened. Two further years with Tyrrell failed to produce a worthwhile upsurge in his fortunes and, into the next decade, his career gradually slipped. It hit rock bottom with a disastrous 1983 season with Ligier which marked the end of the Formula 1 road for Jarier. He went on racing in the French touring car series and in Porsche events and while he was unlucky in his F1 career, he was rather luckier in life when he walked from a helicopter accident in southwest France without any serious injury. The helicopter was torn apart in the impact.

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