After finishing 4th in the opening race of the 1985 championship in Brazil, Arnoux was suddenly dismissed from the team with no explanation ever given by either driver or team.

He joined Ligier for 1988, ironically alongside the man he replaced at Ferrari, René Arnoux, but the team's first non-turbo powered car since, the Michel Beaujon designed JS31-Judd, was totally uncompetitive scoring no points and more often than not failing to qualify, even against teams with much smaller budgets such as AGS and Rial ( the French teams low point of the year was when both Johansson and Arnoux failed to qualify for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard in the first weekend of July ).

It was originally built with very tight bends in the area around Sceaux: Arnoux had devised a new articulation system that allowed train wheels to turn, the " système ferroviaire dit Arnoux ", and the line was to test his prototypes.

With the McLarens of Prost and Niki Lauda dominating 1984, Arnoux had a less successful second season at Ferrari, only finishing 6th with 27 points, with his new teammate Michele Alboreto progressively taking the initiative and team leadership from him.

Jones ' second place allowed him to close to within two points of series leader René Arnoux who had collected three points for finishing fourth in his Renault RE20.

Prost assumed the lead again, now from team mate Lauda who disposed of Arnoux, but had Ayrton Senna, who had also passed the Ferrari, quickly closing in.

Ligier, the leading French team in Formula One at the time, had a disastrous weekend with both René Arnoux and Stefan Johansson failing to qualify for the team's home Grand Prix, though they did have a celebration of sorts over the weekend as Arnoux turned 40 the day after the race.

By lap 23 he had a three second lead coming up to lap Stefano Modena and René Arnoux.

Arnoux had actually been 2nd fastest in the wet pre-race warmup behind Senna.

With Tambay having departed for Renault, the team signed its first Italian driver since with Michele Alboreto to join Frenchman René Arnoux, who had finished third in the Drivers ' Championship for Ferrari in 1983.

This also allowed Brabham driver Nelson Piquet to come from 3rd to 2nd by nipping past Tambay into the second of the two left-handers, which dropped Tambay to 3rd and denied him the lead he had been preparing to re-take from Arnoux.

After one lap, Piquet led Patrick Depailler, who had gotten by René Arnoux in the hairpin.

On lap 63, Arnoux had his right rear tire go completely flat, and by the time he was able to make it back to the pits for a replacement, he had dropped all the way to ninth place.

Gradually, however, the Renault began to develop electronic injection problems, as teammate Arnoux had several laps earlier, and the Frenchman saw his lead over Rosberg begin to evaporate.

By lap 20, Rosberg had caught up with Piquet's Brabham and easily went by to take second, about twenty seconds behind Arnoux.

On lap 29, the Ferrari's lead was up to almost 30 seconds when Arnoux came into the pits, as expected, followed soon after by Rosberg's Williams, whose intentions had been unclear.

Arnoux rejoined after a stop of just 13. 5 seconds, still barely in the lead ; by the time Rosberg was able to get back on the track ( his stop lasted 17. 5 seconds ), he was in fifth place behind Piquet, Alboreto and Jacques Laffite, none of whom had stopped.

Morand had been hired to collaborate with Alexandre Arnoux on a scenario for a proposed project, “ Don Quixote ,” to star the opera singer Feodor Chaliapin.

Berger was leading the final race of the season at Adelaide ahead of Prost and Senna before he clashed with former Ferrari driver René Arnoux in the Ligier while trying to lap the Frenchman.

From there he put some 5 seconds between himself and Prost before being taken out by Arnoux on lap 28.

However, despite maintaining his motivation, Ligier were not competitive and Arnoux went through three seasons at the back of the grid before leaving Formula One after the 1989 season.

Jean-Pierre Jabouille's Renault RE20 broke its transmission at the start and Jones picked his way past Pironi then the second Renault of René Arnoux before finally catching Laffite on lap 34.

Laffite soon took the lead from Arnoux before both were picked-off by Piquet.

Alboreto looked to be in challenging the Williams duo for the lead having overtaken Rosberg, Arnoux and Berger before spinning at the exit of the first chicane.

At the drivers meeting before the race Ligier driver René Arnoux announced his retirement from Formula One racing at the age of 41.

Instead Johansson started again with Tyrrell as a replacement for the suspended Stefan Bellof before being called up to Ferrari when René Arnoux was mysteriously sacked after the first race of the season in Brazil.

But positive signs were beginning to show as Gachot just missed out on pre-qualifying in Imola, Johansson would do the same at Monaco before finally, Johannson would make it out of pre-qualifying in Mexico, setting the 6th fastest time in Saturday free practice before qualifying 21st for the race, ahead of the illustrious Nelson Piquet and respected drivers Pierluigi Martini, René Arnoux and Eddie Cheever.

Johansson was to be retained with John Watson driving the second car, but the tyre supply issues prompted Johansson to drive for Tyrrell before replacing René Arnoux at Ferrari.

* 1948 – René Arnoux, French race car driver

Towards the end of his career Arnoux attracted some controversy ; he was frequently accused of blocking faster cars in qualifying and when being lapped, even taking off a number of cars as well, such as race leader Gerhard Berger at the 1988 Australian Grand Prix

The race is perhaps best remembered for one of the fiercest battles ever for second place, between Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve and Renault driver René Arnoux, who on several occasions during the final laps touched wheels and swapped positions.

The race was won by French driver René Arnoux driving a Renault RE20.

Thanks to the high altitude of the Interlagos circuit, the turbocharged Renaults of Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux were dominant, running 1-2 for much of the race until Jabouille's turbo failed on lap 25.

The race was won by French driver René Arnoux driving a Renault RE20.

It was Arnoux ' second World Championship victory adding to his win at the previous race the 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Arnoux to led for much of the race until Jabouille punctured.

Late in the race Arnoux regained second place.

Despite the Renaults of René Arnoux and Alain Prost qualifying 1-2, their cars failed in the race leaving Ferrari occupying the top two positions with Gilles Villeneuve leading Didier Pironi.

At the green light for the race on Saturday, Prost led from the pole, followed by teammate Arnoux.

The race was won by René Arnoux driving a Ferrari, with Andrea de Cesaris in an Alfa Romeo and Riccardo Patrese in a Brabham-BMW completing the podium.

The race produced in a 1-2 result for the Ferraris of René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay, with John Watson third in a McLaren.

Before the race, three drivers were still in a position to win the World Drivers ' Championship: Alain Prost ( Renault ) led the championship with 57 points, followed by Nelson Piquet ( Brabham-BMW ) with 55 and René Arnoux ( Ferrari ) with 49.

Alboreto led all 70 laps, leading home Renault's Derek Warwick and Ferrari team mate Arnoux ( who set the fastest race lap on lap 64 ).

Pole-sitter Prost led the race from the start, while first corner contact between Ferrari's René Arnoux and the Renault of Derek Warwick pitched the Englishman's car into the fence on the outside of St.

Rounding out the points were the Lotus-Renaults of Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell in 4th and 6th respectively, the pair separated by the Ferrari of 1983 race winner René Arnoux who finished 5th.

Of note, even though René Arnoux finished 4th for Ferrari, he was sacked after the race, with both the team and Arnoux never revealing the reason behind the sacking.

Johansson charged early in the race, passing Rosberg and Arnoux on lap 5 to go on to finish third.