Masters Degree: Rene Arnoux

Rene Arnoux's Formula One career was characterised by contrasting moments.

From being brave enough to disobey team orders and beat Renault teammate Alain Prost to win their home Grand Prix in France in 1982, to the pain of losing a victory after a superb drive at Detroit in '83 through no fault of his own.

There was the season he two won races for Ferrari to move himself into championship contention, only for his time with the Scuderia to end in acrimonious circumstances just one race into a new season.

There were seven emotional victories, and countless agonising mechanical retirements.

Following Arnoux was nothing if not a roller-coaster.

Born in Grenoble, France, he graduated to Formula One with his Formula Two team, Martini, in 1978. But after struggling to get into many races and a brief stint in an uncompetitive Surtees, Arnoux was given his real break when signed by Renault for '79.

"I had very good memories of my time with Renault," Arnoux recalls. "My best moment was the Grand Prix in Dijon with Gilles Villeneuve and we had a big war. It was really exciting for the last five laps."

The pair were battling for second in the 1979 French GP - what has become one of the most famous Formula One battles of all time. After frequently switching positions for the final five laps, including good natured but occasional wheel banging, the pair crossed the finished line just 0.24 seconds apart in Villeneuve's favour. The duel overshadowed Renault's first win as a constructor.

Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari 312T4) leads Rene Arnoux (Renault RS10) at the finish of the 1979 French Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois ? LAT

Yet despite losing the 'war', Arnoux says he was happy just to be involved.

"A battle like that was possible only between Gilles and me," Arnoux continues. "He knew me very well and I knew him very well. During these five laps I had a big confidence in the safety between us two as drivers.

"Jean Pierre Jabouille won the race but the newspapers were filled with me and Gilles the next day.

"It was a good race compared to when I won the race in Canada with Ferrari, which was easy. I had pole on Friday and Saturday and then the best warm up laps on Sunday. I then won the race with 25 seconds between me and the second driver. The car was perfect.

"But during this race in France, I pushed harder to finish third than I did to win in Canada. For pleasure it is a better feeling inside to push yourself very hard to try to see the flag in the best way.

"Formula One now is not as good - it is all about strategy and not passing at the end of the straight when you brake or on the exit of the corner.

"The people now... they don't take the risks that I took with Gilles at this time."

He took two victories in his final season with Renault, including going against team orders to beat Prost to the 1982 French Grand Prix. While they were teammates, Prost finishing behind Arnoux was rather the exception than the rule, with Prost generally being the more measured driver over race distances.

Arnoux's performances were inconsistent in his final season with Renault, though he did show he could match Prost on occasion.

"A lot of people were upset I didn't win the world championship with Renault. Some people in Renault said we were just not lucky with reliability and that it was always a small part that went wrong to let us down.

"But I said in a briefing with Renault - no - that it wasn't bad luck. We had some very bad parts and it wouldn't have cost much to fix them."

But halfway through that final season with Renault, Enzo Ferrari came calling, which was too good an opportunity for him to miss.

"When Mr Ferrari called me to go to lunch with him, in the middle of 82, I ran directly to see him. We had lunch and I was like a baby at Christmas. After a long time of chatting he asked me if I want to drive for Ferrari next year.

1983 Dutch Grand Prix Winner Rene Arnoux (Ferrari 126C3) ? LAT

"I said, er, 'yes please!'. I hadn't gone with my manager so no one knew. And I asked him not to reveal this until the end of the season and he didn't. I always had a lot of respect for him.

"It's not like this nowadays, with Alonso for example. He can do what he wants and sign for whoever he wants, but he shouldn't reveal it to the press. It is not very respectful."

Arnoux's time with Ferrari gave him a shot at the world championship, in 1983. It proved to be his most successful season in Formula One, a season when he took three victories. Yet he blames a retirement while leading the US Grand Prix in Detroit as the reason why he didn't take the title that year.

What's more, he reckoned he knew straight afterwards that his chances to win were over - even though there were eight races to go at that point.

"I lost the world drivers' championship in Detroit," he insists. "I was the leader of the race with more than 35 seconds over the second driver. And eight laps before the end my engine stopped on the track.

"And at this point it was a disaster. I later had the possibility to win the championship in South Africa [the final round] but it was very difficult for me, because there were two other drivers - [Nelson] Piquet and Prost, that had the same possibility.

"I had to win the race and Piquet had to finish fifth or sixth or something and my car was not so competitive. I tried, but I stopped during this race too.

"But I remember that in Detroit it was very difficult to speak with me for one week afterwards because I was not very happy. We tried a new injection part for that race and we didn't test it in the private test before. We tested it for the first time in the race instead and we had a problem with that part which caused the retirement.

"It is ridiculous to lose points like that and I was not happy for some days. But the race is a race. And if I had the old part maybe I would have won the race and the championship. But afterwards it is always easy to say.

"I push very hard and Ferrari worked well and the car was good, and the championship was very close. I said to myself at the time that maybe I lost the world championship in this case and my mechanics were disappointed, but afterwards all I wanted to know was why we tested this new system during the race."

The following year with Ferrari started a gradual decline in Arnoux's results. New teammate Michele Alboreto was in the ascendancy and Arnoux scored only four podiums.

"1984 was difficult, because the car was not built well. The car in '83 was difficult to drive but on the very fast tracks it was very easy to drive. We tried very hard to test but the team was not as competitive in '84.

"In '83 it is very difficult because when you have a possibility to win the championship you don't want to lose this possibility. And in '84 when I started with the car I saw that it was not really competitive. We pushed very hard and we tested a lot in Fiorano."

Rene Arnoux (Ligier JS27 Renault) in the 1986 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps ? LAT

And then after just one race into the 1985 season - a fourth place at the Brazilian Grand Prix - Arnoux split with Ferrari. The full reasons have never been made fully public, despite plenty of rumours circulating at the time. And even though it is now 21 years on, Arnoux declines to shed much further light on the subject.

"In 1985 I had some problems. Not with Enzo Ferrari, I had a good relationship with him - I had that good lunch with him. But I had a problem with somebody and it was a big clash."

Ligier tried to rescue him from the sidelines that year but Arnoux stayed off the grid.

"Guy Ligier called me in '85 to go to drive for them, but I said no. He had called me earlier when de Cesaris has a big crash in Austria, but I couldn't replace him because he was a good friend.

"I said no to Guy that year, and I didn't drive, but told him if he was still interested he could call me at the end of this year. And he called me at the end of the year and I stayed four years with Ligier, which was good with the Renault engine."

Arnoux drove for Ligier for four seasons, before deciding he would quit at the end of 1989.

"I decided to tell Ligier that I will stop driving Formula One at the end of the year. He asked me for one year more and I said no, I'm telling you I'm stopping. You have time to find another driver. I tried to push very hard and it finished.

"But I like Formula One now because the car is very strong. When I drove you had 16 races but you were sure you would not finish in six races because of reliability. It is really difficult to race for the championship in just 10 races."