News Summary
- Alan Jones died on November 5 at the age of 80 following a short illness, his family announced through Motorsport Australia.
- Jones won five Grands Prix in 1980 and clinched the drivers’ title in Canada, the same season Williams won its first constructors’ championship.
- The second Australian F1 world champion after Sir Jack Brabham, Jones also finished sixth at Le Mans and won the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Alan Jones, the Australian who won Williams’ first Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship, has died aged 80. His wife, Amanda Butler-Davis, announced through Motorsport Australia that he died on Thursday, November 5, following a short illness. Jones had celebrated his 80th birthday three days earlier.
His 1980 title was a turning point for a young British team. Working with Frank Williams and Patrick Head, Jones helped turn Williams into a race winner and then a world champion. He was the second Australian to win the drivers’ crown, following three-time champion Sir Jack Brabham.
From Melbourne to a breakthrough with Shadow
Born in Melbourne on November 2, 1946, Jones followed his father Stan into motor racing and moved to Europe to pursue an international career. He reached Formula 1 in 1975, making his debut in a Hesketh at the Spanish Grand Prix. His early years took him through several teams, including Hill and Surtees, before he joined Shadow.
His breakthrough came at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix. Jones won at the Österreichring to claim his first Formula 1 victory and Shadow’s only championship Grand Prix win. It was the only one of his 12 victories that came outside Williams.
He joined Williams in 1978 and gave the team its first podium at Watkins Glen. A year later, he put a Williams on pole for the first time at Silverstone. Teammate Clay Regazzoni won that British Grand Prix to give the team its maiden victory. Jones went on to win four races of his own that season, establishing himself as a title contender.
How Jones won the 1980 world championship
Jones opened 1980 with victory in Argentina, where Nelson Piquet finished second for Brabham. Their rivalry carried through the season. Jones added wins in France and Britain, but the championship was still open when they arrived in Montreal for the penultimate round.
Canada settled it. Piquet retired after 23 laps, while Jones won ahead of Williams teammate Carlos Reutemann. The result secured Jones the drivers’ championship with one race to spare. He then won the finale at Watkins Glen to finish on 67 points to Piquet’s 54, with Reutemann third on 42.
Williams also took its first constructors’ title that year. For a team whose first race win had come only the previous season, the double established it among Formula 1’s leading constructors. The achievement was the first of seven drivers’ titles won by Williams.
His F1 career ended on home soil
Jones remained with Williams in 1981, winning the opening round at Long Beach and the finale in Las Vegas. He stepped away from Formula 1 at the end of that season, then made a brief return with Arrows in 1983 before racing for the American-backed Beatrice Haas team in 1985 and 1986.
His final start came at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide. He ended his world championship career with 116 starts, 12 victories and 24 podiums. His 1980 victory in the Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park was a separate achievement: that race took place before the event joined the Formula 1 World Championship.
Le Mans, Bathurst and a career beyond single-seaters
Jones made two starts at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He finished sixth overall on debut in 1984, sharing a Kremer Porsche 956 with fellow Australian Vern Schuppan and France’s Jean-Pierre Jarier. He returned in 1987 with Toyota, sharing an 87C with Geoff Lees and Eje Elgh before retiring in the second hour.
In Australia, Jones swept all nine rounds of the 1982 Australian Sports Sedan and GT Championship in a Porsche 935. He won the 1993 Bathurst 12 Hour in a Mazda RX-7 and finished second in the 1995 Bathurst 1000 alongside Allan Grice. Those results came years after his final Grand Prix, in races that demanded a very different approach from the single-seaters in which he made his name.
Jones remained involved in motorsport through television after his racing career. Williams remembered him as “a fast, uncompromising racer with a challenger mentality”. He is survived by his wife Amanda and six children.
GRANDE PRÊMIO is following every session of the São Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos, the first round since Andrea Kimi Antonelli secured the 2026 drivers’ title, in its Formula 1 section.
