Our 8w Millenium Entry

We have entered in the 80s section twice now, and we're pleased to say that we have scored full points both times. Seeing as our subjects in the recent edition were both rejects, their bios have been included in the main part of the site. None of the drivers from the Millenium edition were, so we have posted our entry here.

Hard blows, though, were something he was accustomed to, having worked in Australian tin mines in 1975 with Dave Kennedy (who would later hold the record for most DNQs without an F1 start) to finance his Irish FF1600 career. Things weren't much better in 1976, despite victory in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch; he was living in a converted coach at the time. After becoming British F3 champion in 1977, and driving once in F2 at Estoril, he made the jump to F1 in 1978, with 3 entries for Hesketh and 7 for Ensign, for whom he scored a solitary point at Montreal. Considering his failure to qualify on four occasions, and his disqualification for receiving outside assistance in Austria, this was little reward, though he was 3rd in that year's F2 championship.

In remarkable parallelism, in 1979 he was again 3rd in F2, and again DNQed 4 times in F1, having been entered 7 times for Ensign (again) and thrice for Tyrrell. Sticking with Tyrrell he finished 4th twice, but a switch to March for 1981 was fruitless, resulting in 7 DNQs. 1982 was not looking any brighter having moved to Teddy Yip's Theodore concern. But after Carlos Reutemann's departure from Williams two races in, and Mario Andretti's one-off appearance, Daly got the chance of a lifetime to drive for the reigning constructors' champions in the remaining 12 races of the season. But despite a consistent car (which took Keke Rosberg to the title), the Williams was not the best machine and the Irishman suffered for it with poor qualifying performances.

Little testing didn't help and hard racing rarely brought rewards; three 5ths and two 6ths were all he had to show by year's end. One of those 6ths was at Monaco, where he qualified 8th, one of his better practice efforts. Bruno Giacomelli, who had qualified 3rd, retired after 4 laps, and then race leader Rene Arnoux suffered a torn skirt and spun out on lap 15 at the swimming pool, whereupon Alain Prost in the other Renault assumed the lead which he held convincingly. Daly, meanwhile, had worked his way with some forceful driving up to 2nd.

But on lap 60 it began to rain, and the Professor was doing a good job playing it safe until four laps from home when he had a massive accident coming out of the chicane. Put this uncharacteristic mistake down to Daly, who had rear-ended the armco at the same spot a lap earlier, dumping a load of oil from his damaged gearbox (see picture above). Nevertheless the Williams had continued, and upon Prost's demise, he took the lead, but would only hold on for a lap before his gearbox oil ran out, thereby losing the greatest chance of victory he would ever have.

Riccardo Patrese then inherited the poisoned challis of leadership, only to spin and let both Didier Pironi and Andrea de Cesaris by. In controversial circumstances the Brabham driver resumed in 3rd, having received a push start from the over-zealous marshals. Pironi, though, knew his Ferrari was in trouble fuel-wise, and signalled in vain for the race to be stopped. So he led into the last lap with De Cesaris' Alfa on his tail, only to see the Italian disappear at Casino Square, also out of juice. Yet the same fate was to finally befall Pironi in the tunnel, and Patrese swept through to collect the win.

For Daly, after the disappointments of 1982, he went to America and raced in Indy cars until 1989, during which he smashed both his legs in a crash at Michigan in 1984. Racing sports cars from 1987 to 1992 (including 4th at Le Mans in 1988 with Aussie Larry Perkins), he then retired from racing and turned to both commentary and journalism.

Back to the top.

His early career had seen him take the Italian Fiat Abarth championship in 1978, and be runner-up in Italian F3 in 1979. 4 wins saw him secure the European F3 title in 1980, and this landed him a drive for Giancarlo Minardi in F2, and 12 races for Ken Tyrrell in F1 for 1981. In those 12 outings he failed to qualify twice and retired five times, but he had done enough for wily old Ken to predict that he would win a race the next year. Staying with Tyrrell for 1982, he was to be partnered by Slim Borgudd, but money was running short and the Swede wasn't delivering, although Candy sponsorship kept them going, and the 011 chassis delivered Michele a string of consistent points-scoring finishes.

By the end of the season, Borgudd was replaced by Brian Henton, while aerodynamic improvements had made the Tyrrell a very competitive package, and Denim Musk sponsorship had cured Tyrrell's financial woes for the last two races. Going into the last race of the season at Las Vegas, Alboreto was sitting outside the top ten in the drivers' championship with 16 points, while all eyes were on Keke Rosberg, who was leading the title chase. The Finn needed to score one point, while John Watson needed to win with Rosberg out of the points.

Despite all the hype, the race fizzed. The Renaults of Alain Prost and Rene Arnoux were on the front row with Alboreto a superb third, while Rosberg was 6th and Watson 9th. As it turned out, Arnoux's engine expired while Prost suffered a tyre imbalance which meant that, under braking, he "was being shaken like a Bloody Mary" (according to Automobile Sport, anyway). Alboreto thus took the lead on the 52nd lap out of 75 and never looked back. While Watson came a distant 2nd, Rosberg's calm drive to 5th netted him two points and the championship. The nine points for Alboreto, though, lifted him to equal 7th in the title with 25 points.

In the future, he would win once more for Tyrrell in 1983 (Ken's last ever victory) before transferring to the spiritual home of every Italian driver, Ferrari. A solitary win in 1984 was backed up by victories in Germany and Canada in 1985 which saw him lead the title chase for several months before eventually succumbing to Prost's supremacy. This was the beginning of the end for Michele; the pressure of being a good Italian driver in the scarlet car was too great. A fruitless 1986 in a poor car was followed by two seasons in which he was totally outdriven by Gerhard Berger, and increasingly unwelcome at Maranello.

While expecting a Williams drive in 1989 (which eventually went to Thierry Boutsen), he returned to Tyrrell, scoring a fine 3rd in Mexico, before a mysterious fall-out with boss Ken saw him move to struggling Larrousse for the second half of the season. A move to Arrows in 1990 was no better, while 1991 with Porsche engines was about as low as he could go. Or so he probably thought. For after an Indian summer with a resurgent Footwork/Mugen in 1992, he hit rock bottom with BMS Scuderia Italia Lola (using Ferrari engines) in 1993, when he was consistently outpaced by F3000 graduate Luca Badoer.

His final season in F1, in 1994 for Minardi, saw him score one point at Monaco, but he became disenchanted by the tragic events of that year. Since then he has raced in the DTM for Alfa Romeo, the IRL in 1996, and sports cars for Ferrari, Porsche and Audi, winning Le Mans in 1997 with Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen. 1999 saw him race occasionally in the ALMS, his best being 3rd at Sebring with Rinaldo Capello.

Back to the top.

It was a triumphant homecoming for the proud Aussie, with added significance from the fact that his father, Stan, a competitive driver in his day, had won the Australian GP in 1959 at Longford in a Maserati. Funding his own way to Europe in 1970, Jones drove a private Brabham in British F3, and it took until 1973 before he came 2nd in the John Player Championship. This was followed by a season in Formula Atlantic in 1974.

1975 saw the Aussie make his Grand Prix debut for Hesketh, for which he drove four races, before transferring to the Embassy Hill team for four more, including a 5th place result at the Nurburgring to finish 17th overall. In a Surtees for 1976, Jones "showed dogged determination" (in the words of Autocourse) in recording a 4th and two 5ths on his way to joint 14th with 7 points. But it was for Shadow in 1977 that he held off Niki Lauda to win in Austria in a late-season surge which saw him score 19 points in the last 6 races to come 7th in the title.

The switch to Williams in 1978, however, would be the move to put him into the record books. Though reliability problems in the Head-designed FW06 saw Jones only net 11 points, Autocourse rated him the fourth best driver in the world, and in late 1979, when the FW07 began to come good, he reeled off 4 wins in 5 races to come 3rd in the title behind the Ferraris of Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve. By this stage Autocourse had him as the world's best, and he demonstrated that form in 1980 to sweep to 6 official victories (7 if you include Jarama, about which Jones still whinges) and the championship, with 67 points ahead of Nelson Piquet (54) and Williams sparring partner Carlos Reutemann (42).

At the end of the year, November to be precise, Jones made the trip down under with his FW07 to compete in the pictured non-championship event at Calder, along with other top F1 drivers such as Bruno Giacomelli (whom you see following AJ in the picture above). Jones secured backing for this outing especially from local tyre retailer Bob Jane T-Marts, run by former Bathurst winner Bob Jane. The Australian GP, part of the Formula Pacific Australian Gold Star Championship after the demise of the old Tasman Series, was now one of the very few non-championship races remaining. Future winners, before the AGP achieved World Championship status, included Alain Prost and Roberto Moreno.

Meanwhile, Jones recorded only two more wins in 1981 for Williams on his way to third in the title (when 7 points covered the first 5 drivers), before 'retiring' and returning to Australia in 1982 to run a cattle farm (!). Lured back for a one-off appearance for Arrows in 1983, he 'retired' again before the attraction of Carl Haas' cash saw Jonesy return for an unimpressive 20 races in the Team Haas Lola, before his motivation and fitness levels came into question and he decided that enough was enough was enough.

Since then he has lived on a staple diet of Australian touring cars, especially the legendary Bathurst 1000, always being doggedly competitive if not always successful. Other pursuits have included watching the progress of rising Australian drivers, including his son Christian, as well as joining the not-so-dulcet tones of the Ferrari-mad Darrell Eastlake in providing studio comments for the Australian F1 audience to supplement Murray and Martin.

Back to the top.