René Arnoux has since started an indoor karting business called Kart ' in, consisting of four tracks in France, two in the Parisian area, one in the suburbs of Lyons and one near Marseille.

Satoru Nakajima started from the pit lane owing to a faulty battery in his Lotus 99T, and René Arnoux failed to take the second start after the suspension of his Ligier JS29B failed.

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.

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.

Arnoux found refuge at the end of the season at the Surtees team, but once again found himself in a team on the edge of failure.

The team's only victory of the year was taken by Arnoux's teammate Jean-Pierre Jabouille at the French Grand Prix at the Dijon-Prenois circuit, but Arnoux took the headlines due to a fierce but good-natured wheel-banging battle with Gilles Villeneuve for second place, where Arnoux took third.

In the 1980 season, Arnoux took his first two Formula One victories, the first being at a much-protested Interlagos circuit in Brazil but a lack of reliability prevented him from playing a part in the fight for the world title, although he took three pole positions.

The pairing of Prost and Arnoux having become unsustainable, Arnoux left Renault at the end of 1982 to join Scuderia Ferrari.

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.

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.

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

Born Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr. in New York, New York, and educated at the Hotchkiss School and Yale University, his cartoons were published in The New Yorker from 1925 – 1968.

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

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.

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.

Piquet and Michele Alboreto ( Ferrari F1 / 87 ) collided at the start with Derek Warwick ( Arrows A10 ), Satoru Nakajima ( Lotus 99T ), Martin Brundle ( Zakspeed 871 ), Christian Danner ( Zakspeed 871 ), Philippe Alliot ( Lola LC87 ), René Arnoux ( Ligier JS29C ) and Adrián Campos ( Minardi M186 ) were all involved in the ensuing accident.

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.

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

However on the first lap, Olivier Grouillard spun off at turn 4, nearly collecting teammate Arnoux.

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 ).

The genus name honors admiral Auguste Bérard ( 1796-1852 ), who was captain of the French corvette Le Rhin ( 1842-1846 ), which brought back the type specimen to France where Duvernoy analyzed it ; the specific name honors Dr. Maurice Arnoux, the ship's surgeon who found the skull of the type specimen on a beach near Akaroa, New Zealand.

Arnoux and Clay Regazzoni collided, eliminating the Williams on the spot while the poleman only lasted to the end of the lap as he limped back to the pits.

The win saw Jones move back into the championship lead passing Arnoux and Piquet.

At the back of the grid René Arnoux ( Ligier JS29B ) and Andrea de Cesaris ( Brabham BT56 ) tangled, whilst Thierry Boutsen ( Benetton B187 ) hit Berger's spinning Ferrari F1 / 87.

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.

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.

Arnoux was coming back through the field after a second tire stop, and was waging battle with Cheever for fifth place when they came upon Laffite on lap 67, again at the end of Shoreline Drive.

For the 1979 season, Arnoux joined the Renault team, which entered two cars for the first time since its debut in 1977.

Without a drive for the rest of the 1985 season, Arnoux made his return to Formula One in 1986 for the Ligier team ( powered by the Renault turbo engine ), where he delivered several good performances.

The novel describes the life of a young man ( Frederic Moreau ) living through the revolution of 1848 and the founding of the Second French Empire, and his love for an older woman ( based on the wife of the music publisher Maurice Schlesinger, who is portrayed in the book as Jacques Arnoux ).

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.

On the second lap Arnoux was able to pass Scheckter to take the lead and for the next few laps the five front-runners were nose-to-tail, while Regazzoni ran in a lonely sixth position.

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.

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

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.

Piquet's third place moved him past René Arnoux and Alan Jones into the lead of the world championship for the first time.

Arnoux pitted for tyres on lap 21 handing Jabouille a lead he only just kept and Jones fell just short as Jabouille limped home on wrecked tyres.

Reutemann now led the battle for third by a point over Laffite and three over Arnoux.

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

It was almost a perfect weekend for the Maranello based team with René Arnoux qualifying on pole and finishing 3rd.

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

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.

Andrea de Cesaris drove superbly to finish third for Brabham despite having to push his car over the line with Eddie Cheever ( Arrows A10 ), Satoru Nakajima ( Lotus 99T ) and Arnoux taking the remaining points.

Ghinzani was eighth for Ligier ahead of Danner and René Arnoux in the second Ligier.