Alan Jones, the Australian who won the 1980 Formula One World Championship and helped turn Williams into a title-winning team, has died on this day, 5 November 2026, aged 80. He was Australia’s second Formula One world champion, following Sir Jack Brabham.
Born in Melbourne on 2 November 1946, Jones was known as ‘Jonesy’. He made his Formula One debut at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix in a Hesketh 308B. He also raced for Hill, Surtees, Shadow and Beatrice Lola, taking his maiden Grand Prix victory with Shadow in Austria in 1977.
Alan Jones
F1 Debut 1975 Spanish Grand Prix
Current/Last Team Arrows
It was at Williams that Jones made his biggest mark. A favourite of team boss Sir Frank Williams and technical chief Sir Patrick Head, he gave the team its first podium at Watkins Glen in 1978 and its first pole position at Silverstone in 1979.
Jones won five of the 14 races in 1980 to secure the drivers’ title, while Williams claimed its first constructors’ championship. The team was in only its fourth Formula One season. Eleven of Jones’s 12 Grand Prix wins came with Williams.
“Alan was the greatest fun, a terrific driver,” Head recalled in 2012. He said that bringing in an established Grand Prix winner made an already hard-working team raise its standards and gave it a sharper focus.
Jones left Formula One in 1986 and went on to a second career as a broadcaster in Australia.
Formula One president and CEO Stefano Domenicali remembered Jones as a formidable competitor and natural leader who inspired generations of fans, especially in Australia. He described Williams’ first championship double as a defining moment for both the team and the sport, and paid tribute to Jones’s character, passion and lasting influence. He sent condolences to Jones’s family and loved ones on behalf of Formula One.
Williams credited Jones with helping shape the team through his close partnership with Frank Williams and Patrick Head. In its tribute, the team said he set the standard for the Williams champions who followed. It remembered him as a fast, uncompromising driver who relished a challenge and devoted his life to motor racing, and sent its thoughts to his family and friends.
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