1979 French Grand Prix
“It was just a couple of young lions clawing at each other.” - Mario Andretti
The record books show that the first World Championship F1 race to have been won by a turbocharged car was the French Grand Prix at Dijon in 1979. The all powerful Renaults formed the front row of the grid. Gilles Villeneuve was third behind pole sitter Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux in second. The French fans poured into the circuit to watch Renault score its first win of the modern era.
No doubt success could not have happened at a more appropriate venue than here at home for Renault. The champagne was waiting and the company executives had their speeches prepared. Above all, Jabouille was entitled to feel that he deserved such a reward for his loyalty to Renault through two years of disappointment with the fickle turbo engine.
Instead, all the attention and the plaudits would fall on the men who had fought for second place. Their battle had occupied only 5 laps, but it had been the clash of the decade. Wheel-to-wheel confrontations are to be expected in bike racing or in the junior formula series, but not in F1. Yet Villeneuve and Arnoux had passed and repassed so frequently in those hectic laps that nobody could say how many times they had changed places.
Only special circumstances could have led to such a battle and the race had begun perfectly for Villeneuve. As the green lights started the sixty-fifth French Grand Prix, Gilles had split the two Renaults and led his Ferrari 312 T4 into the first corner with Jabouille second ahead of Scheckter. Arnoux had almost stalled his engine at the start and was back in ninth. Villeneuve began pulling away from the Renault of Jabouille, who in turn was opening a gap to Scheckter in the other Ferrari. Arnoux had meanwhile carved his way back into fourth. The first four cars were on French Michelins tires. France was having a great day.
The cool dry weather conditions suited the turbo Reanults to a tee and they were running superbly. Arnoux took Scheckter for third as the Ferrari was experiencing handling problems. Gilles, at the front, was also having the same problems but he just fought the car and kept a steady lead of six seconds ahead of Jabouille. Gilles’ tires begun to go off with Jabouille pulling closer to the Ferrari with every lap. Villeneuve was quicker through the back-markers than Jabouille and stretched his lead back to four seconds. Once clear of the traffic, Jabouille begun to reel Gilles in and by lap 46 they were nose to tail. Getting by the Ferrari might prove to be more difficult.
On lap 47 heading onto the start/finish straight (map of Circuit Dijon) Gilles was held up slightly by Elio de Angelis, who was being lapped, and Jabouille was through. Once past Villeneuve, Jabouille showed off the Renault power and pulled well ahead of the poorly handled Ferrari. Of course, the crowd was going wild. Under the stress of holding off Jabouille the Canadian’s Michelin’s had begun to wilt. Villeneuve now began to slow slightly to try and conserve his tires. Arnoux was plugging along in third before he realized he was catching the ailing Ferrari. Once alerted to the slowing Ferrari by his pits, Arnoux began to lap quicker, setting a new lap record in the process. By lap 71 he was right up the Ferrari exhaust. The thought of a possible Renault one-two finish was driving the partisan fans crazy. On the long straight, Arnoux got alongside Villeneuve and pulled in front under braking for the right-hander at the end of the straight. Gilles was not to be counted out. His tires were finished yet still he mounted a charge that would see him light up the tires after a duel down the straight that he had lost his lead on during the previous lap. Jabouille was being virtually forgotten in first while the real action was for second. The Ferrari was way out of its league but nobody bothered to tell Villeneuve. He lost a corner to Arnoux then pulled alongside him to bump and grind their way through the next few turns. They had both been on the grass but managed to get their cars back under them and take off in hot pursuit to catch up at the next corner. The fight was decided on the last right-hander when Arnoux went slightly wide and Villeneuve dove to the inside to pull alongside the Renault. They crossed the start/finish line almost side by side again! With 15 seconds in hand Jabouille had won the first Grand Prix for Renault since 1906 and the first race for both him and the French turbo-charged car. Villeneuve was 24 one-hundredths of a second ahead of Arnoux in a race that would put both of them into racing mythology.
“The duel with Gilles is something I’ll never forget,” said Arnoux afterward. “You can only race like that, you know, with someone you trust completely, and you don’t meet many like him. He beat me, yes and in France, but it didn’t worry me … I knew I’d been beaten by the best driver in the world.”
Jabouille was on the top step of the podium, but the cheers were for the next two men to finish. Unjust? Perhaps. But for a rare moment of motor car racing history it was the sport which had triumphed.
“That is my best memory of Grand Prix racing. Those few laps were just fantastic for me - outbraking each other and trying to race for the line, touching each other but without wanting to put the other car out. It was just two guys battling for second place without trying to be dirty but having to touch because of wanting to be first. It was just fantastic! I loved that moment.” - Gilles Villeneuve
