Formula 1

About the season

At the French Grand Prix at Dijon, Jean-Pierre Jabouille scored the turbo era's first Formula 1 win with Renault's turbocharged RS10 - an engine mockingly nicknamed the "dirty yellow teapot" for its early unreliability, but competitive by 1979. The same race is remembered even more for the fight for second place: Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux banged wheels side by side into the final corner on the last lap, in what Arnoux himself called "the best race in the world" and what remains one of Formula 1's most celebrated duels. Williams debuted its Patrick Head-designed FW07, a ground-effect car built on the Lotus 79's template, with a win at the British Grand Prix (Clay Regazzoni); Alan Jones then won three races in a row, making the car nearly unbeatable in the second half of the season - too late for the title, but a preview of Williams's dominance in 1980. Jody Scheckter became the first, and to date only, African-born Formula 1 World Champion, and with teammate Gilles Villeneuve finishing runner-up, Ferrari also claimed the Constructors' Championship. Jody Scheckter won the 1979 Drivers' Championship with 51 points (Ferrari), 4 points ahead of the runner-up. Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship with 113 points, 38 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 15 completed races this season, there were 196 retirements. 7 different drivers won a race this season. Alan Jones took the most race wins, 4 in total. Laffite won the season-opening race, the Argentine Grand Prix. The United States Grand Prix West saw the most retirements of the season, with 17 drivers failing to finish. The season's biggest upset win came from Scheckter at the Belgian Grand Prix, starting from grid position 7. The closest finish of the season came at the Monaco Grand Prix, with a gap of just 0.440 seconds. Rebaque made the biggest gain of the season at the British Grand Prix, from grid position 26 to finishing 9 (up 17 places). The most dominant win of the season came at the United States Grand Prix, with a margin of 48.8 seconds. Villeneuve won the United States Grand Prix, the final race of the season.