Former Formula 1 world champion, Alan Jones, has died at the age of 80 following a short illness.\n<\/p>\n
Jones, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Monday, November 2, died on Wednesday, November 5, according to a statement released by his wife, Amanda Butler-Davis, through Motorsport Australia on X on Thursday.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are extremely saddened to announce the passing of our beloved Alan, who passed away on November 5 following a short illness,\u201d his wife said.<\/p>\n
Jones made history in 1980 when he became the first Williams driver to win the Formula 1 world championship, securing the first of the team\u2019s seven drivers\u2019 titles.<\/p>\n
The Australian enjoyed a successful career in Formula 1 between 1975 and 1986, recording 12 Grand Prix victories from 116 race starts.\n<\/p>\n
He began his F1 career with Hesketh at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix before claiming his maiden victory with Shadow at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
He joined Williams in 1978 and finished third in the drivers\u2019 championship the following year before producing a remarkable 1980 campaign. <\/p>\n
Jones won five races that season and finished ahead of Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet to claim the world title.\n<\/p>\n
He became the second Australian to win the Formula 1 drivers\u2019 championship, following Jack Brabham, who secured the crown in 1959, 1960 and 1966.\n<\/p>\n
Jones finished third in the 1981 championship, winning the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which proved to be his final victory in Formula 1.\n<\/p>\n
After retiring at the end of that season, he briefly returned with Arrows in 1983 before making a full-time comeback with the Haas team in 1985 and 1986.\n<\/p>\n
Beyond Formula 1, Jones continued competing in touring car and endurance racing, mainly in Australia, until 2002. He later became a familiar face on Australian television as a motorsport commentator and pundit.\n<\/p>\n
Paying tribute to her husband, Butler-Davis said Jones had dedicated his life to motorsport and left a lasting legacy through his achievements and contributions to the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough his achievements, passion and unmistakable character, both on and off the track, Alan left an enduring mark on the sport both nationally and across the globe,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
She added that he would be dearly missed by his family, friends and the many motorsport fans who supported him throughout his career.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Former Formula 1 world champion, Alan Jones, has died at the age of 80 following a short illness. Jones, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Monday, November 2, died on… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}