René Arnoux: “I never lost patience”

Under what conditions do you arrive at Renault en 1979 ?

Gérard Larrousse and François Guiter absolutely wanted a French pilot. Didier Pironi, winner of Le Mans with Renault the previous year? Impossible, Ken Tyrrell refuses to release him from his contract. Larrousse then made me a proposal, without giving me time to think.

Anyway, it was a yes from the start! Here I am attacking the championship F1 1979 at the wheel of a car that I only had time to test around thirty rounds. Three broken engines and not qualified. Admitted at the start by Patrese's withdrawal, then abandoned in the race with a broken engine.

For a complicated start, it was one! I discovered a large team, with the support of a large manufacturer, with what could be considered a large budget. But above all I discovered a completely new technology, which had proven itself in Sport but never in F1 against the big V8 and V12.

For me, a driver but also a mechanic enthusiast, who knew what preparing a competition engine meant, it was a bit of a crazy world. I found it hard to believe that such a small engine would overcome the others.

However, you have to believe it when you start a Grand Prix…

I doubted every time an engine blew up in my hands, but I believed it every time I went to Viruses-Châtillon. There, facing Bernard Dudot and Jean-Pierre Boudy, speechless and ears wide open, I regained my morale. “ You will see René, one day, they will all come crying to have this engine! » They had such faith, such conviction, that I left feeling energized.

Finally, the worries become rarer, the progress is notable and the results improve…

I never lost patience, as sometimes happened to Jean-Pierre Jabouille, because I did not have to develop this technology from scratch. I arrived when the project was already clear, even though the car was still complicated to drive.

Things improved with the arrival of the new RS10 at the French Grand Prix in Dijon in 1979, which Jabouille had received a little before me. Adopting ground effect side skirts and twin turbos transformed my life.

Power, driving comfort with more flexibility and support... More support means more grip, therefore shorter braking, therefore less drop in boost pressure and more effective re-speeds.

Watch the full interview with Rene Arnoux and our flashback on the history of Renault Sport, in issue 2127 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and on newsstands.