Rene Arnoux

Rene Arnoux is a racing driver French born the July 4th 1948 with Pontcharra close to Grenoble (France). It in particular was pilot of Formule 1 of 1978 with 1989. It added up 162 races, 18 poles positions, 22 podiums and 7 victories in Grand Prix.

Popular pilot par excellence, loved for his combativeness in track and his outspokenness, that which one called affectionately Néné was one of the major figures of Formula 1 of first half of the Années 1980.

Biography

Champion of Europe of Formula 2 in 1977, Rene Arnoux reaches Formula 1 in 1978, with the small French stable Martini, of Tico Martini. Within a structure with the insufficient means for appearing well in the discipline queen, Arnoux is hardly able to highlight itself. Martini giving up F1 in the course of season, money fault, Arnoux finds at the end of the year refuge in the team Surtees. But there still, Arnoux finds a team at the edge of the bankruptcy.

In 1979, it is integrated into the stable Renault, which for the first time since its beginnings in 1977 aligns two cars. If the only victory of the stable returns to its fellow-member Jean-Pierre Jabouille with the GP of France disputed on the circuit of Dijon-Prenois, Rene Arnoux highlights himself there this day by his furious brawl with Gilles Villeneuve for the profit of the second place. Today still, impassioned do not weary themselves to re-examine this duel which passes to be one of the most intense moments of the history of Formula 1.

In 1980, Arnoux takes down its first two successes Formulates 1 of them, but the unreliability of its mounting does not enable him to play a part in the fight for the world title, while at the same time it connects the pole-positions and is regarded as one of the fastest pilots of the plate. For Arnoux, the things become complicated in 1981 with the arrival at Renault of the great hope Alain Prost. In spite of its qualities of sprinter, Arnoux undergoes the law of its new fellow-member. Inevitably, the competition in track overflows out-track, the relations between the two men worsening gradually, and dividing the small world of the French sport. The conflict knows its point of organ with the GP of France 1982, disputed on the layout of Castellet. The Renault pilots sign there the doubled first of the history of the mark Formulates 1 of them, Arnoux asserting themselves in front of Prost. Furious, Prost is estimated betrayed, considering that Arnoux did not respect the instructions of team established before the race and according to which Arnoux was to be erased with its profit, insofar as it is placed better at the championship. Arnoux will be satisfied to retort that no instruction of team had been given before the race and that it was free to play its personal chart.

The Prost-Arnoux cohabitation becoming intolerable, Arnoux leaves Renault at the end of 1982 to join the Scuderia Ferrari. With three victories, it is a long time fights about it for the world title, but is made outdistance in the last straight line by its Prost rivals and Piquet. After a second more delicate season at Ferrari (its new fellow-member Michele Alboreto gradually took the ascending one on him), Arnoux is suddenly dismissed at the conclusion of the first GP of the season 1985. This decision as sudden as unexpected remains unexplained to date.

Without wheel during the near total of the season 1985, Arnoux carries out its return in F1 in 1986, at Ligier, where it delivers some pretty performances. But they will be the last blows of glare of Arnoux in F1, victim of the descent into Hell of the Ligier stable. In spite of a motivation seldom taken at fault, Arnoux will then know three seasons of galère in bottom of grid, before giving up F1.

Rene Arnoux from now on launched out in the exploitation of Karting indoor. He has 4 establishments in France: 2 in Paris region, 1 in Lyons suburbs and 1 near Marseilles.

Recently, Arnoux belonged to the pilots called to dispute the championship Masters Grand Prix, reserved for old glories of F1.

Prize list

Champion of Europe of Formula 2 in 1977
7 victories in Formula 1

automobile Grand Prix of automobile Brazil 1980
Grand Prix of automobile South Africa 1980
Grand Prix of automobile France 1982
Grand Prix of automobile Italy 1982
Grand Prix of the Netherlands 1983
automobile Grand Prix of automobile Germany 1983
Grand Prix of Canada 1983

External bond

Page of '' Mémoire of the Stands '' devoted to Rene Arnoux

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