Rene Arnoux - Formula One driver

Born 4 July, 1948 in Grenoble, France, Rene Arnoux was a well-liked and very talented, but somewhat outside force in Formula One from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He was erratic in effort and at times almost lackadaisical.

Having risen through the ranks of Renault to join their factory team in 1979, where he stayed for three years. Highlights of his Renault years included a fierce but good-natured wheel-banging battle with Gilles Villeneuve for second place in the last few laps of the 1979 French Grand Prix, a fight so spectacular it overshadowed Renault earning its first Grand Prix victory as a constructor, by Arnoux's teammate Jean-Pierre Jabouille. Arnoux was clearly the number two driver to rising star teammate Alain Prost in 1982, but managed to take several victories, as well as luckily walk away from a high speed crash after brake failure at the end of the long straight in the Dutch Grand Prix. In 1983 he joined then-struggling Ferrari, and in that same year he won the Canadian, German, and Dutch grands prix. He stayed with Ferrari but was again eclipsed by a rising star teammate, this time Michele Alboreto, and continued to have some success until, by mysterious circumstances, he was replaced following the 1985 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Sitting out the rest of the 1985 season, he returned in 1986 for Ligier, where he continued to perform until his retirement in 1989.