Ligier

Ligier is a French car manufacturer. Today specialized in the construction of carriers , Ligier is especially known for its implication in the championship of the world of Formule 1 between 1976 and 1996.

History

Ligier was founded by Guy Ligier, an old driver (12 Grand Prix of Formula 1 between 1966 and 1967), after having founded, with others associated, a company of public works to Vichy. The company, named Ligier Public works, gained many markets in highway work, bridges, stoppings and installations. It founds in 1969 its own brand, intended to engage of the cars in Endurance. As of the first model, all Ligier of race will have like code name a number preceded by the initial JS, in homage to the French pilot OJ Schlesser, large friend of Guy Ligier tragically disappeared at the time of the GP of France 1968. After having glané some successes in Endurance, Ligier engages its mark Formulates of them 1 as from the season 1976. The epopee of Ligier Formulates 1 of them will last nearly 20 years.

Parallel to its engagement in automobile Sport, the mark Automobile Ligier is made known by the design of carriers not requiring the driving license. Starting from 1992, Guy Ligier gradually resold the majority then the totality of its shares of the stable of Formula 1, which became Prost Grand Prix in 1997. That does not have however affected the remainder of the activity of " Ligier" cars;. In 2005 the Ligier mark even carried out its return to the competition with the JS49, prototype of race answering the regulation of the championship of VdeV endurance. Ligier also conceived a Formule 3, but the latter never yet appeared in race.

Ligier and races of endurances

24 hours of Mans

Ligier and Formula 1

Beginnings

Guy Ligier engages his mark Formulates 1 as from 1976 of them. He profits from the support of the the SEITA as well as motor mechanic Matra. Jean-Pierre Beltoise carries out the first the basic tests and adjustments, but Jacques Laffite is finally retained as pilot. The first results are more than encouraging since the new stable blue of France takes down, thanks to Laffite, several podiums since 1976.

In 1977, the young team pains to confirm her good performances of the former season and connects the against-performances until the GP of Sweden where, left in anonymity the group, Laffite the first victory of “Blue” at the end of an unhoped-for increase takes down. This success will be the only notable performance of the year. The season 1978 being hardly better, Matra decides to leave Formula 1, which obliges Ligier to turn to the traditional engine Ford-Cosworth for 1979.

The great Ligier years

1979 mark the beginning for Ligier of the most beautiful period of its history. Thanks to a frame of excellent quality (the Ligier JS 11, drawn by the engineer Gerard Ducarouge, perfectly integrated the principle of the ground effect exploited so well the previous year by the Lotus 79) and thanks to a remarkable duet of pilots (Jacques Laffite from now on is accompanied by Patrick Depailler), Ligier makes control on the beginning of championship and gains three of the five first sleeves of the season. Unfortunately, this domination does not last. Considered for its science of the development, Depailler is wounded seriously in an accident of hang glider little before the semi-season. Combined with limited budgetary resources, that largely disturbs the development of the JS 11, dominating at the beginning of season but unrelentingly overflowed by Ferrari and Williams with the wire of the year.

In 1980, Ligier (from now on constituted of the duet Laffite - Pironi) confirms its beautiful state of form with two new victories and a constant presence with the outposts but without being able to really mix with the fight for the world title.

In 1981, whereas the team profits from the implication of the group Peugeot (via Talbot - Matra), Ligier knows a very average beginning of the season but the results take off starting from the end of spring. Laffite connects the places of honor and gains two victories which start again it in an unhoped-for way in the fight for the world title. The day before the last GP of the season with Las Vegas, it is third of the championship with a real mathematical chance to be titrated. But the miracle does not take place and Laffite must be finally satisfied with the fourth place to general classification.

On the downward slope

This season 1981 marks the end of the golden age of Ligier. In 1982, whereas the performances of the French stable are in freefall, Peugeot is disengaged, making at the same time lose in Ligier its hope to be able to profit in the short run from an exclusive turbo engine, essential sesame to shine in Formula 1 in the Eighties. From 1984, the team profits finally from a turbo engine (in fact the Renault V6) but will not be able to make good use of it before the season 1986, where Laffite and Arnoux are highlighted on several occasions. The return in form of Ligier ends at semi-season with the serious accident of Laffite at the beginning of the GP of Great Britain.

Renault leaving Formula 1 at the end of 1986, Ligier thinks of having found an alternative interesting with Alfa Romeo, but the repurchase of Alfa Romeo by FIAT, already present Formulates 1 via Ferrari of them, changes gives it. Pretexting awkward declarations of Rene Arnoux to the Italian press, Alfa Romeo gives up Ligier at a few days of the beginning of the season 1987, obliging the French stable to turn itself in-extremis worms Megatron which develops the old blocks BMW turbo. For Ligier, it is the one long period beginning of galère, where motor mechanics, pilots and engineers will follow one another for invariably disappointing performances and little in agreement with the potential of the stable.

New owners

In 1992, at the end of a springtide far from the best in spite of the contribution of the V10 Renault, regarded as the best engine of the plate, Guy Ligier resells the majority of the shares of the stable to the contractor Cyril de Rouvre (already seen in F1 as an owner of the stable AGS of 1989 to 1991). With its new owner, the Ligier stable seems to find a new breath and the season 1993 mark an undeniable return in form of the blue cars, which finish the championship in the fifth place of the classification of the manufacturers (the best result of Blue since 1986). But the implication of Reopens lasts only one season because of legal troubles.

Lorgnant on the French stable and in particular on its Renault engine for several months, Flavio Briatore has become about it the new majority owner in spring 1994. Being in addition the sport director of the stable Benetton, Briatore installs with the head of Ligier the Scot Tom Walkinshaw. This last plans to repurchase in its turn the stable to move it in England, but the media outcry caused in France by such a project obliges it to leave the stable at the beginning of 1996. In bad financial posture, without credible transferee at the horizon (France was vigorously opposed to the repurchase of the team by Walkinshaw but no serious alternative project is born), the fate of the Ligier team appears quite dark until the spectacular victory of Olivier Panis with the Grand Prix of Monaco 1996. This first victory of the French stable since nearly 15 years starts again the media passion around the concept of “F1 to the Frenchwoman”. In the months which follow, the old driver Alain Prost manages to federate around him several solid partners and mêne with good his redemption plan of the stable. The resale of the Ligier team in Alain Prost by Flavio Briatore is officialized on February 14th, 1997. The stable then is officially renamed Prost Grand Prix.

Ligier and carriers

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