"I Rallied One"

From winning in F3 to taking pole at Le Mans, ‘Jeannot’ had done it all. But his ’81 Monte win saw him ‘arrive’…

“In 1977 I earned my first official contract with a manufacturer [Renault]. It was a real privilege because even though I didn’t have a fully defined role as a driver I was able to test all the company’s products, from Grand Prix racers to sports cars. In my first year I developed the Alpine A110 rallycross car [and won the French title in the process] while working on what became the 5 Turbo. “It was an important car for me, and for Renault. I put a lot of miles into developing it and winning the ’81 Monte Carlo Rally was a great result for the firm, but perhaps even more so for me, being a French driver in a French car winning a World Championship-level rally in France. Until that point I had been viewed as a useful driver, no more, which was fine. I’d won the French rally championship in 1980 but this was an event like Le Mans that everyone wants on their résumé. “Winning in Monte Carlo changed a lot. In the early days, turbo lag was really bad so the R5 wasn’t easy to drive. The biggest problem was at St Bonnet in the snow where the service van failed to arrive with our tyres: we did the stage on slicks. I spun and couldn’t get the car started uphill, so reversed back to find a dry patch so I could get going again. It was a tough event, and it mattered that I beat the likes of Fréquelin, Alen, Toivonen and all those other top drivers. I felt I had arrived. I was proud of that win.”