Born 7/10/1946, Charenton, near Paris, France

Starts:132

Points: 31.5

Wins:0

Poles:3

Fastest Laps:3

Judging from Jean Pierre Jarier’s season in Formula 2, he looked like a serious candidate for France’s first world champion. Unfortunately, he ended up the eternal underdog, at times as unlucky as Chris Amon. Jarier began in touring cars in his native France, eventually making to Formula 3, where he did well enough in 1970 to finish third in the series. He shot straight to Formula 2, where he did not show too much pace, but had occasional podiums. That year he also made his debut in Formula 1, racing a year old March to 12th place in Monza. Jarier went back to Formula 3 in 1972, after he lost his ride to Jose Dolhem, but did well enough to attract March, which hired him for its 1973 Formula 2 team. He ended up getting a Formula 1 ride as well, when March decided to fire Amon under conditions that were never made very clear. Although he was stupendous in Formula 2, in Formula 1 Jarier did not impress much, except for 7th [place qualifying in France. He finished a single race, in 11th, at Watkins Glen. For 1974, Jarier was hired by the Shadow team, which had debuted in 1973. Initially hired to be Revson’s number 2, suddenly Jarier found himself teamleader, after the American’s death in Kyalami. His first races were subdued, but then he showed a great turn of speed in Monaco, qualifying sixth and finishing 3rd. He got a second helping of points in Sweden, but run into a slump between the French and Austrian GPs. He qualified near the front in the Italian and Canadian Grands Prix, but did not score any more points. He was obviously retained by Shadow, and became the sensation of the Sotuh American races. With the DN5 Shadow, Jarier scored pole positions in Argentina and Brazil. His lack of luck showed up in a big way in Argentina, when he had mechanical failure during the warm-up, thus failing to start. In Brazil he did start, run away from everybody, scored fastest lap, but retired while in front. It was early in the season, so there would be more chances for Jarier to show his worth. However, the Shadow became a midfield runner in the next couple of races, although Jean Pierre did score 1.5 points from fourth in Spain. There were rumors that Jarier’s pace had to do with a special Cosworth engine that was tried in his car, and once the engine was gone, so was the pace. Then, Jarier shut up his critics, qualified an excellent third in Monaco, and fourth in France, Pryce had a pole in Silvertone, so it seemed as if the Shadow was just plain inconsistent. An experiment with a Matra V12 engine did not increase the Shadow’s speed, so “Jumper” ended the year with 1.5 points. He continued racing for Shadow in 1976, and again ran away from the competition in Brazil, scored fastest lap and retired. However, Jarier was only competitive in Brazil and South Africa, did not score any points during the year, and fell out of favor at Shadow. Pretty much yesterday’s news, Jarier was hired by ATS in 1977, which was running year old Penskes that season. Again he popped a surprise, qualifying 9th and finishing 6th in Long Beach. That was the last glimpse of competitiveness coming from the ATS Penske. He ended up leaving the team, racing for Shadow in Watkins Glen (9th) and Ligier in Japan (retired). He was back at ATS for 1978, running a few races for the team, with a season best 8th place in South Africa. Then the opportunity of a lifetime: Ronnie Peterson was killed in Monza, and Jarier was called to take his place in Lotus, the absolute best car of the season. Jarier did really well in Watkins Glen, posting fastest lap and running out of fuel near the completion of the race, and then in Canada, he started from the pole, was running away with the race, but had an oil leak and retired. Suddenly, Jarier’s talent became evident again, and Tyrrell was quick to sign the Frenchman. He did well at a few 1979 races, in fact scoring the most points ever in a season, including two third places in South Africa and Britain. However, Tyrrel was no longer a top team, and the performance dropped in 1980. The podiums were gone, and the best Jarier could do with the 010 was 5th place, three times, breaking into top 10 qualification three times. Let go by Tyrrel, Jarier did a couple of races for Ligier in early 1981, replacing the injured Jabouille. He was then hired by Osella, and did a decent job with poor machinery. He continued at Osella in 1982, and scored three points with a fourth in the ill supported San Marino GP. He failed to qualify quite a few times during the year and left the Osella team by the end of the year. For 1983, Jarier was hired by Ligier, another team that was in obvious decline, Jarier qualified well in some of the street races (Long Beach and Monaco), but the best he could do was 7th in Austria. By the end of the year, there would be no more offers for Jean Pierre, who continued racing mostly sports, GT and touring cars to this day.