France's national team, sustained by Gauloises and state-linked backing, and handed to Alain Prost after twenty seasons.
Seasons
1976–2001
Identities
2
Race wins
9
Titles
0 CWC · 0 WDC
Identity timeline
Each bar is a name this entry raced under. Select one to jump straight to its written history.
Ligier was a political as much as a sporting project: French chassis, French engines where possible, French drivers and French sponsors. Its final identity put a four-time world champion's name above the door.
Written history by identity
1976 — 1996
1976–1996: Guy Ligier's blue cars
Equipe Ligier
Nine wins, including Panis at Monaco in 1996.
Former rugby player and driver Guy Ligier entered Formula One in 1976 with the Matra V12-powered JS5. Jacques Laffite won at Anderstorp in 1977 and the ground-effect JS11 of 1979 briefly looked like a championship car, winning the opening two races.
The 1980s were erratic, propped up by sponsorship rather than results. Ligier sold control in 1992; under Flavio Briatore's ownership, Olivier Panis won the extraordinary attrition-hit 1996 Monaco Grand Prix — the team's ninth and last victory.
1997 — 2001
1997–2001: Alain Prost's team
Prost Grand Prix
Alain Prost's ownership; second place at the Nürburgring in 1997.
Alain Prost bought the team in February 1997 and rebranded it Prost Grand Prix, aiming to make it France's answer to Ferrari. Panis finished second in Spain in the first season and the team was sixth in the championship.
A switch to Peugeot engines in 1998 was disastrous, and the operation ran out of money. Prost Grand Prix was declared bankrupt in January 2002 and its assets were sold; the entry did not survive.
Reference material used to compile and verify the Equipe Ligier lineage data on this page. GridXTrax is an independent fan archive; follow the links to check any figure at source.