JANUARY 8, 1996
Jabouille gets the bullet...
PEUGEOT SPORT's Jean-Pierre Jabouille has been dropped after two years as head of the company's disappointing F1 program.
In the Peugeot press release the departure of Jabouille was played down as being because Jabouille's contract "reached its term", but there is little doubt that PSA Peugeot Citroen bosses were unhappy with Jabouille's leadership, Peugeot not making as much progress in F1 as had been hoped.
Jabouille has been replaced by 47-year-old Pierre-Michel Fauconnier. In fact since March 1995 Fauconnier had been Jabouille's boss in his role as head of all sporting activities of Peugeot-Citroen - including F1, touring cars and Citroen's successful rally-raid team.
Fauconnier has been with Peugeot for 15 years. He served the company in a variety of foreign posts in South Africa, Taiwan, Nigeria and Tunisia before being appointed director of international marketing in 1992.
PSA Peugeot Citroen has also announced that its two-year partnership with the Total petrol company has been extended for another six years. Total will, therefore, remain Jordan's primary sponsor in 1996.
Fauconnier immediately announced that Peugeot's alliance with Jordan will continue on an exclusive basis for the next two years, thus ending speculation that the French manufacturer was planning to supply engines to another team in 1997. This will come as a major disappointment to DAMS boss Jean-Paul Driot who was hoping to get Peugeot backing for his planned F1 program.
The new Jordan-Peugeot 196 - fitted with the new Peugeot A12 V10 engine - is due to run for the first time at Estoril on January 18. An evolution of the A12 engine is due to debut in the mid season, probably at the French GP in July.