Sammy Jones

Sammy Jones (born 7th December 1978 in Banbury, England) is a former British racing driver and son of former F1 driver, the late Harvey Jones. Sammy is primarily famous for his exploits within the F1 Rejects World Race Series, where in late 2010, he established the Jones Racing Group which would go on to run a successful team in the series, currently known as Castrol Jones Racing. Sammy achieved some success whilst driving for his team for the first five seasons of its existence, retiring from driving in late 2015, but found greater success earlier in his career whilst in Formula 1 where he made his debut in 1998. Having since retired from racing, Jones now concentrates on managing the Jones Racing Group's activities from its headquarters in Banbury.

Formula One

1998: Tyrrell

Jones was one of many British youngsters rising up through the ranks of motorsport in the late 1980s and 1990s, working his way through karting and Formula Ford, before landing himself a drive in British Formula 3 in 1997. His results were enough to attract the attention of the BAR-owned Tyrrell F1 team leading to him being placed on the team's books as a test driver, alongside Marc Goosens and Tom Coronel.

With Tyrrell's main driver Tom Kristensen forced to miss the Canadian Grand Prix to compete in Le Mans, Sammy Jones was handed his Formula One debut. He out-qualified team-mate Toranosuke Takagi, but after running solidly throughout the race retired near the end with puncture. Tom Kristensen would return at the next race in France, and although he would later go on to leave the team after the Hungarian Grand Prix, Jean Alesi would be called upon to fill the seat in place of Jones.

1999-2002: British American Racing

1999

The Tyrrell team became British American Racing for 1999, and promptly signed Williams refugee Jacques Villeneuve to lead the team's ambitious assault on both championships. Jones was selected to partner Villenevue in the team's debut campaign after impressing Craig Pollock during testing and his solitary race outing in 1998.

However, his season would not go as smoothly as the BAR press material would have you believe. Jones would only finish a paltry three races all year, having to wait until the 9th round of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix to finish his first race - in 9th position. He would go on to come home 14th in Japan and a 12th in Portugal, meaning the earlier 9th was his and the team's best finish all year.

2000

Sammy Jones driving his Honda powered BAR 002 during the 2000 Italian Grand Prix.

Jones would be retained alongside Villeneuve heading into the 2000 season. The first season of the new millennium proved to be a breakout year for both Jones and BAR, with the Englishman scoring his first points at Imola and then backing this up with three further top 6 finishes, including his and BAR's first podium at the 2000 Malaysian Grand Prix. As a result, Jones would finish a creditable 11th place in the Driver's Championship, a place (and four points) ahead of his world champion teammate.

2001

With offers from top teams not forthcoming, Jones remained at BAR for 2001 alongside Villeneuve, though with the latter no longer the clear team leader. Jones would continue to be a semi-regular points scorer - but it would be at the German Grand Prix where he'd take another step forward by winning his and BAR's first ever Grand Prix - albeit after James James Davies span on the final lap of the race. Jones finished the season in eighth place overall.

2002

Jones would again compete with BAR for a fourth consecutive season, but would have a new teammate in British rookie Justin Wilson, the team's former test driver, as new team management Prodrive deemed Villeneuve's 2001 performance not worthy of his somewhat extravagant salary. As the season began, it soon became clear that the BAR 004 chassis was a major step down from the previous year's, being unreliable and difficult to drive, resulting in numerous retirements throughout the season for both Jones and Wilson. The absence of race-winning speed or consistency in the team seemed to affect Jones the most within the team, his form going into a slump as the season continued, the only bright spot being a fourth-placed finish in Italy, being the only points scored all year by him. As a result, Jones would fall to 13th in the championship, his lowest position since 1999 and the first in which he had been beaten by a teammate, Wilson having scored six points and generally outraced him all year.

2003-2005: Jordan Grand Prix

2003

BAR's step backward in 2002 convinced Jones to leave the team which gave him his debut in lieu of fellow Honda-powered entrant Jordan for 2003, partnering with Japanese rising star Takuma Sato at the Irish team, signing a three-year contract worth $33 million. It would be another disappointing season for the Englishman, scoring only four points (and in positions which would not have scored them under the previous year's points system) with the consistently uncompetitive EJ13, which was lacking in both pace and reliability. Frequent mistakes by Jones also cost him and team dearly- the Michelin-boycotted Italian GP would have been a prime opportunity for the Bridgestone-shod Jordan team to score big points against close rivals BAR, but Jones' off in the race left them with only a single point gained from the weekend, scored by the inexperienced HWNSNBM, who was replacing an injured Sato. Jones would end the season in a poor 20th place (of 24) in the Driver's championship.

2004

Jones remained at Jordan for a second successive season, this time joined by Rubens Barrichello. Both he and Jordan were well off the pace, his best result in a shortened season being a ninth place in Canada.

2005

Jones' third year at Jordan saw another teammate join him - with India's first Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan making his debut with the British team - replacing the McLaren bound Barrichello. Jones outperformed his rookie teammate in what would be Jordan's final season - the best result being fourth place in the controversial United States Grand Prix. Jones finished the season in fourteenth place.

2006-2009: McLaren

2006

With the sale of Jordan to Spyker, Jones switched to Woking and McLaren - whom had been looking for a British driver to fulfill sponsorship conditions. Jones scored his first win in five years when he took the flag at the Monaco Grand Prix - his only win of the season on his way to third in the World Driver's Championship.

2007

Jones saw himself be joined by defending World Champion James James Davies in 2007 - the outspoken Welshman joining on a bumper deal from rivals Ferrari. Jones managed two wins - in San Marino and Uruguay whilst his teammate Davie effectively ran away with the lead. Midway through the year, the Spygate scandal which implicated McLaren in a espionage case meant the team's strong performances were put under intense scrutiny. Jones was cleared of any wrongdoing at the September FIA court hearing but the resultant damage to his teammate's image saw Davies opt to retire from the sport after the Italian Grand Prix - relinquishing the lead to BMW Sauber's Daniel Melrose. Pedro de la Rosa saw out the year alongside Jones, who finished the season in fifth place.

2008

The 2008 McLaren package was looking to be particularly strong in pre-season testing and Jones was considered among the favourites for the 2008 crown. Joined by prodigious young Brit Lewis Hamilton, Jones opened the season in Bahrain with a one-two finish - which he followed up with a win in Malaysia. Jones and McLaren went into a brief slump in the early-to-mid season, but the team bounced back with five straight wins between Jones and Hamilton - Jones taking the flag in Germany, Hungary and Belgium. Despite this decent form, this would not be enough for Jones to take the title - with Daniel Melrose continuing his period of domination for a second year. Jones finished the season as runner up.

2009

Jones and Hamilton both continued with the Woking team in 2009, however McLaren had adapted poorly to the new technical regulations meaning the MP4-24 was not a competitive car. Although the team managed to develop the car throughout the season, Jones had his first winless year since 2005, only scoring 2 podiums at the European and British Grands Prix. At the end of the year Jones would leave Formula One, having become increasingly disillusioned with the FIA's management of the series.

F1RWRS Career: 2010-Present

Sammy was one of the original drivers in the F1 Rejects World Race Series, and has participated in every race bar 4, two of which came through a race ban during the 2012 season whilst the other two were the first two races of the 2013 season, which Sammy had originally opted to not participate, before reversing his decision in time for the third round at Mexico.

He is one of a number of drivers who run their own teams, and Jones Racing has been one of the most successful driver-managed teams in the history of the series.

2010: West Cliff Racing

Beginning his F1RWRS in its inaugural year, Sammy signed to drive with the British-based West Cliff Racing team alongside Manxman Douglas Mann. The year was largely a negative one for both drivers, particularly Mann, and whilst Jones picked up two podiums at the German and Saxon Grands Prix early in the year, there was very little else for either driver to be happy about. One of the main issues was the team's frequent bad calls on strategy, which often hampered the performances of the drivers who had got themselves into good positions on the track. The situation was so dire by the end of the year that neither driver stayed on with the team for 2011, with both going on to establish their own teams. For Sammy, this involved a partnership with Tex Pearson's RubberTex company, and having founded parent company, the Jones Racing Group to oversee his motorsport activities, the Englishman was the first driver to establish his own team within the series.

2011-present: Jones Racing

Sammy's team, RubberTex-Jones Racing, would have a somewhat difficult first year, despite signing F1 legend Chris Dagnall to partner Sammy himself in driving duties. Whilst Chris took the team's first win at Luxembourg, and a third place at the USA, Sammy could only manage a best result of 6th at the Dutch GP, and only scored once more in the points, and failed to pre-qualify a total of nine times, ending up 26th overall in the drivers' standings at the end of the year. It was a difficult year of balancing the running of the team alongside driving for it as well, something that was completely new to the Englishman, but with Dagnall's points haul Sammy's team finished 7th by the season's end. There was no doubt though that Jones was looking for a vast improvement in his fortunes for the 2012 season.

For 2012, Jones went in with a new focus, and with a year's experience of running a team behind him, the RubberTex-Jones team began to get into its stride, with both Chris and Sammy taking a win each at the British GP and Tasman GP respectively. Sammy's win was particularly special, being not only his first win in the series, but also followed on the back of a two race ban which he'd served following a very public spat with Phoenix McAllister and Barii Mori over a series of on-track incidents. Forced to sit out the Kent and English GPs, it deprived the team of vital chances to score more points, though Dagnall was going all out for the Drivers' Championship, and combined with Sammy's results, RubberTex-Jones Racing were in a prime position to clinch the Constructors' Championship too. In the end however, both Chris and the team finished runner-up in their respective championships, whilst Sammy finished his season a much-improved 11th overall. Having withdrawn his team in the face of the sweeping rule changes coming into force for 2013, Sammy took the offer of a one-off drive for Horizon Motorsport in the end-of-season non-championship Suzuka Charity Race which he won, to cap the season off somewhat on a high.

With the series undergoing a major rules change for 2013, Sammy initially decided against competing, and withdrew his team's entry, believing the series wouldn't last long under its new regulations. Having sat out the Tasman and Australian GPs however, he saw the success and potential with the series in its new guise and decided to re-form his team with Castrol backing, signing Kay Lon as the team's second driver, and entering the championship from the third round at Mexico onwards. Whilst Lon got off to an amazing start with the team, taking the win at Mexico and a second place at the next race in the USA, Sammy's was less spectacular, suffering from four retirements in the team's first six races. Despite that he still took victory in the Dutch GP, his second in his F1RWRS career, as well as podiums in Monaco and Belgium. It was comfortably his most successful season to date, despite the off-track antics and allegations surrounding his teammate Kay Lon, who was eventually fired by Sammy in the aftermath of the Chinese GP, replaced for the final two races by Daniel Melrose, another former F1 great.

Jones in action at the 2014 United States Grand Prix, where he eventually finished 7th.

Jones went into the 2014 season, still as team owner and manager of Castrol Jones Racing and drove alongside Daniel Melrose, whom he'd signed on a one year deal to drive for the team at the close of 2013. Hoping to build on what was a fairly solid year, Sammy was looking for more race wins and podiums from himself and the team as well, something which Melrose achieved in the two races of the year, finishing in third place at the Tasman and Australian GPs. Having had two fairly mediocre races, Sammy finally scored his first points of the year with a 5th place at Brazil. His third career win in the F1RWRS came at the sixth race of the year at Monaco in a high attrition race that was heavily influenced by the very wet weather at the time. The Englishman's 60th race and 50th start were both at the British Grand Prix, where in wet conditions once more Sammy battled through and looked on course for points before a late race pass by Mirko Bosevic dropped him to 7th place. Two straight retirements followed, before Sammy surpassed 100 points in his F1RWRS career with a 4th place finish at Monza, joining an elite group of drivers to achieve that feat.

Career Results

Complete F1RWRS Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2010	West Cliff Racing	West Cliff WC001	Chevrolet V8	GER 3	LUX 11	SAX 3	CHN 13	TAS 6	BHR 9	BEL Ret	GBR 18	AUS 14								10th	23
2011	RubberTex-Jones Racing Team	Jones 100	Renault RS9000T-11	BAV DNPQ	GER DNPQ	SAX 10	LUX Ret	BEL Ret	GBR DNPQ	ENG DNPQ	KEN DNPQ	NED 6	TAS DNPQ	AUS 8	NSW DNPQ	SUR Ret	CHN DNPQ	USA DNPQ		26th	4
2012	RubberTex-Jones Racing Team	Jones 101	Renault RS9000T-12	BAV Ret	SAX 10	GER 6	LUX 7	BEL Ret	NED 7	GBR Ret	KEN EX	ENG EX	TAS 1	SUR 4	NSW 14	AUS Ret	CHN 4	USA 8	500 17	11th	34
2013	Castrol Jones Racing	Jones 102B	Ford HBD VI	TAS	AUS	MEX Ret	USA Ret	MON 3†	FRA DNPQ	GBR Ret	GER Ret	NED 1	BEL 2	POR 4	MED 11†	MAC 7†	CHN Ret	JPN 4	BRA Ret	6th	25
2014	Castrol Jones Racing	Jones 103	Ford HBD VI Ford HBD VI-2	TAS 9	AUS 10	BRA 5	MEX Ret	USA 7	MON 1	FRA Ret	GBR 7	GER Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 4	MED 4	NED 4	MAC Ret	CHN 6	JPN Ret	8th	22
2015	Castrol Jones Racing	Jones 105	Ford Zetec XR8A	TAS 3	AUS 4	MED 9	MON 11	MEX 7	USA 4	CAN 3	GBR Ret	GER 7	BEL 10	AUT Ret	ITA 2	NED	CHN	JPN	BRA	7th	20

• † Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Formula 1 Results

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	WDC	Pts
1998	PIAA Tyrrell	Tyrrell 026	Ford VJ Zetec-R 3.0 V10	AUS	BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN Ret	FRA	GBR	AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	JPN	POR					26th	0
1999	British American Racing	BAR 001	Supertec FB01 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	AUT 9	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	JPN 14	USA Ret	POR 12					19th	0
2000	British American Racing	BAR 002	Honda RA000E 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	SMR 5	FRA 16	ESP 4	EUR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 7	GBR 10	AUT Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 6	ITA Ret	JPN Ret	MAL 3	USA 8	POR Ret			11th	10
2001	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	BAR 003	Honda RA001E 3.0 V10	AUS 5	MAL Ret	BRA 9	SMR 5	ESP 6	AUT Ret	MON 9	CAN Ret	EUR 12	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 1	HUN 7	BEL 7	ITA 11	USA 4	JPN 7				8th	18
2002	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	BAR 004	Honda RA002E 3.0 V10	AUS 18†	MAL Ret	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	AUT 9	MON 8	CAN 12	EUR Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 8	GER Ret	HUN 12†	BEL Ret	ITA 4	BRA Ret	USA 10	JPN 9				13th	3
2003	Jordan Honda	Jordan EJ13	Honda RA003E 3.0 V10	AUS 11	MAL Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 8	AUT 10	MON 7	CAN Ret	GBR 10	EUR 9	GER 9	HUN 10	ITA Ret	BEL Ret	BRA Ret	USA 8	JPN 9					20th	4
2004	Jordan Grand Prix	Jordan EJ14	Mercedes FO110Q 3.0 V10	AUS 14	MAL Ret	BHR 14†	MON 10	CAN 9	USA 14	CHN Ret	BRA 13	ARG 10	KOR C	JPN Ret										19th	0
2005	Jordan Grand Prix	Jordan EJ15	Toyota RVX-05 3.0 V10	AUS 17	MAL Ret	BHR 14	SMR 11	ESP 13	MON 8	EUR 14	CAN 10	USA 4	FRA 11	GBR 8	GER 13	HUN 11	TUR 17	ITA 7	BEL 11	BRA 13	URU 11	JPN 11	CHN 12	14th	9
2006	Team McLaren Mercedes	McLaren MP4-21	Mercedes FO 108S 2.4 V8	BHR 2	MAL 3	AUS Ret	BEL 6	EUR 2	SMR 6	MON 1	ESP 4	GBR Ret	CAN Ret	USA 10	FRA 14†	GER 2	HUN 5	TUR 5	ITA 11	BRA Ret	URU Ret	JPN 3	CHN 2	3rd	73
2007	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren MP4-22	Mercedes FO108T 2.4 V8	BHR 4	MAL 4	AUS 3	JPN 2	SMR 1	GER Ret	ESP 6	MON 2	CAN 7	USA 4	GBR Ret	EUR 3	FRA 10	HUN 3	TUR Ret	ITA 2	BEL 6	CHN 6	URU 1	BRA 3	5th	94
2008	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren MP4-23	Mercedes FO 108V 2.4 V8	BHR 1	MAL 1	AUS 17	JPN 8	TUR 6	EUR 4	MON 2	CAN 4	USA Ret	FRA 2	GBR 2	GER 1	HUN 1	ESP 2	BEL 1	ITA Ret	SIN Ret	CHN 5	URU 6	BRA 3	2nd	117
2009	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren MP4-24	Mercedes FO 108W 2.4 V8	BHR Ret	AUS 12	MAL‡ Ret	USA 4	JPN 4	ESP 7	TUR 12	EUR 2	MON 8	GBR 2	IRE Ret	GER Ret	BEL 7	ITA 6	HUN 11	SIN 7	CHN Ret	BRA Ret	URU 12	ABU 7	10th	38