Alan Jones, the Australian who became the first driver to win the Formula 1 world title for Williams, has died after a brief illness. He was 80.
His wife, Amanda, announced the news in a statement on Thursday, 5 November 2026: “We are extremely saddened to announce the passing of our beloved Alan.”
Jones was the 1980 Formula 1 world champion, with 12 victories and 24 podium finishes in his career. He was the second Australian to win the title after Jack Brabham, a three-time champion in the 1950s and 60s.
Williams said Jones formed an “extraordinary bond” with the team’s founders and “set the standard for Williams champions: a fast, uncompromising racer with a challenger mentality who loved motor racing and dedicated his life to it.”
Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali hailed “a true great of our sport and an extraordinary racer.”
Jones was born in Melbourne in 1946, the son of a successful amateur racing driver, and moved to Britain in the late 1960s. His first win came for Shadow at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix; he was runner-up in 1979 before winning the title in 1980, and left Formula 1 in 1986.
Away from Formula 1, he won the 1978 Can-Am sportscar title and kept racing in Australia’s V8 Supercars series until 2002. He was inducted into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
In a 2019 podcast, Jones said: “If someone passed me, I took it personally.”
Source: Associated Press. Read the original report here.
Note: The featured image is an illustrative stock photo, not a photo of Jones or the event.
