Alan Jones

Alan Jones was an Australian racing driver who became the 1980 Formula One World Champion, <cite index="2-1">joining Sir Jack Brabham as the only Australians to be crowned world champion</cite> in the sport's history. Driving for the Williams team, <cite index="2-5">he won five grands prix in 1980, Argentina, France, Britain, Canada and the USA, to claim the world title and become just the second Australian to achieve that honour</cite>.

Born in Melbourne, Jones was the son of Stan Jones, a prominent Australian racing driver of the 1950s. <cite index="2-3">Jones moved to London in 1970 to pursue his motor racing dream</cite>, working his way up through Formula Three before a difficult start in Formula One with Hesketh and then Surtees. <cite index="2-4">The tragic death of South African driver Tom Pryce led to Jones being signed by the Shadow team to race for them in 1977</cite>, where he claimed his first grand prix win, before Ferrari courted him and then changed its mind, and he signed instead for Williams, the team with which he became champion.

Across a Formula One career that ran from 1975 to 1986, Jones started 116 grands prix and won 12 of them. <cite index="8-1">He remains one of just five Australians to have won a Formula One race</cite>, alongside Brabham, Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri, and <cite index="8-3">was known for his uncompromising racecraft, establishing himself as one of the sport's most ruthless competitors</cite>. After leaving Formula One, <cite index="7-5">he returned home, racing in the Australian Touring Car Championship, now known as Supercars, between 1985 and 1998</cite>. He later became a familiar voice in Australian motorsport broadcasting, <cite index="6-6">working as part of Nine's commentary team when the network held the broadcast rights to the Formula One Australian Grand Prix</cite>.

<cite index="6-7">In 1980 he received an MBE for his services to motor racing and was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985</cite>. He remained an outspoken and widely respected figure in Australian motorsport for the rest of his life, still giving forthright opinions on the sport into his eighties.

Alan Jones died on 4 November 2026 at the age of 80, just three days after celebrating his 80th birthday. <cite index="6-2">He died following a short illness, with reports saying he had been diagnosed with cancer only weeks earlier</cite>. News of his death prompted an outpouring of tribute from across Australian motorsport and broadcasting, including from his long time Nine colleague Eddie McGuire, who <cite index="6-5">described him as a straight shooter who said exactly what he thought, and a long time member of the Wide World of Sports team</cite>.