Alan Jones, the 1980 Formula 1 world champion, died yesterday, Thursday, November 5, following a short illness, three days after his 80th birthday. The full story of his death, his family’s statement and the Williams title that made him the last Australian to win the championship is in iimiTV’s breaking report on Alan Jones dying aged 80.
Friday brought the second day of Alan Jones tributes, and it was wider than Thursday’s. The current Formula 1 grid spoke in Sao Paulo, Williams put its full statement on the record, and in Australia the touring car years got their own remembering, through the teammate who finished second to Jones in one championship and alongside him at Bathurst.
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Oscar Piastri Leads The Alan Jones Tributes In Sao Paulo
The paddock’s lead voice was the Australian who now carries the wait Jones started in 1980. Speaking ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri told Formula 1: “I think it’s obviously a very sad day. A life that should be very well celebrated. I think [he was] a guy that obviously had a lot of success on the racetrack and was Australia’s most recent World Champion.”
Piastri remembered the man as much as the record. “But I think also the person he was, you know, a very straightforward person, straight to the point. On a personal level as well, he often had nice things to say about me, which was nice. I’ve had the honour to drive his World Championship-winning car as well, so [it was] very cool to be able to experience that and connect with him in some kind of way. A sad day, but a day that should celebrate a great life.” He added that Jones “kind of embodied the Australian spirit, very tough, saying it how it is, saying what he thinks.”
The support ran both ways. Speedcafe reported that Jones had backed Piastri earlier this year as a future world champion, telling the Sydney Morning Herald: “He’s just an extremely talented bloke, as in talented like you don’t see all that often. He’s got the attributes, the mind and whatever else it takes to become a world champion.”
Williams’ current drivers spoke from inside the team Jones built. Carlos Sainz said: “Very sad news, given also that Alan was such a strong figure for Williams in our history. Being our first winner, our first champion, it’s obviously a big loss for the team, as he’s done so much for us. He will be missed.” Alex Albon added: “Deeply saddening. Alan was a legend to Williams, and I think he’s brought so much success to the team, and moved the team forwards in many ways.” Fellow Williams champion Damon Hill, who followed Jones to the title in 1996, also honoured his memory, and McLaren CEO Zak Brown shared the most personal memory of the day on Instagram: the first race he ever attended was the 1981 Long Beach Grand Prix, a race Jones won, and he now owns Jones’ championship car.
Williams Says Alan Jones Set The Standard
Williams’ full statement, carried by Speedcafe as the tributes flowed in, went further than Thursday’s first reaction: “He set the standard for Williams champions: a fast, uncompromising racer with a challenger mentality who loved motor racing and dedicated his life to it. He is a true Australian icon and a Williams legend, and he will be dearly missed.”
Claire Williams, who ran the team her father founded, put the family feeling plainly: “Dad was enormously fond of Alan; I think he was one of Dad’s favourite drivers of all time. Alan scored our first podium finish in 1978, and in 1980, brought Williams its first drivers’ and constructors’ World Championships.” Formula 1 president Stefano Domenicali, in the expanded tribute published by Formula 1, said Jones’ “place in Formula 1 history is assured, not least for bringing Williams their first Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championships in 1980, a defining moment for the team and our sport,” and that beyond the track “Alan will be remembered for his character, his passion and the lasting mark he left on Formula 1.” Motorsport Australia president Andrew Fraser called him “one of the most significant figures in Australian motorsport history,” and 1978 world champion Mario Andretti remembered “a true racer who loved the sport and was well-respected by his competitors.”
The Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame, which inducted Jones in 2016 and elevated him to Legend status in 2019, published its own farewell and the film of that induction:
Alan Jones at the Durban A1 Grand Prix in 2007, in his years leading A1 Team Australia. Photo: Chris Bloom, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Glenn Seton Remembers Alan Jones In The V8 Years
Australia’s second remembering was about the career after Formula 1. Glenn Seton spoke to Speedcafe on Friday about Jones’ touring car years: 19 Bathurst 1000 starts between 1981 and 2002, podium finishes in 1988 and 1995, five Australian Touring Car Championship wins, and a 1-2 finish behind Seton in the 1993 championship, the first season of the five-litre formula that became V8 Supercars.
Seton’s memories were of a driver who needed no settling in. “He never needed practice, he just went for it. It was quite extraordinary because you don’t get a lot of race drivers who can just adapt to anything so easily,” Seton said. “When he was fired up he was almost unbeatable.” The fire had an edge the paddock remembered too: after a clash with Mark Skaife at Symmons Plains in 1993 and a post-race pit lane argument, Jones closed it with “don’t let your ambitions get mixed up with your capabilities.” Colin Bond, quoted in the Hall of Fame’s farewell, measured the same gift from the other car: “He was extraordinary. I could measure the difference between us in tenths, maybe hundredths of a second, but it was enough to show me why he was world champion.”
What The Alan Jones Morning After Leaves Behind
What it means next is mostly a baton still waiting to be passed. Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame chair John Smailes wrote in the Hall’s Vale piece that Jones’ passing “has robbed the country of an opportunity to see the transfer of the world championship baton from one Australian to another,” a moment Jones had anticipated through Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo and now Piastri. None of the official tributes published overnight carried funeral or memorial details; the family’s Thursday statement asked only that he be remembered, and Friday was given to remembering.
Piastri carries that wait into this weekend at Interlagos. He arrives in Sao Paulo 15 races without a podium since Miami, equalling the longest such stretch of his career, sits out Friday’s first practice for Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli, and races with rain forecast across the weekend. Jones backed him to end the 46-year wait while he was still here to say it. The morning after his death, that backing is the last word the champion left Australian racing.
