Équipe Ligier () is a motorsport team, best known for its Formula One team that operated from to . The team was founded in 1968 by French former rugby union player and former Formula One driver Guy Ligier as a sports car manufacturer.
Sports car origins After retiring from racing following the death of his friend Jo Schlesser, Guy Ligier decided to found his own team and had engineer Michel Têtu develop a sports car named JS1 (Schlesser's initials). The Cosworth-powered JS1 took wins at Albi and Montlhéry in 1970, but retired at Le Mans and from the Tour Automobile de France.
For 1971, Ligier had the JS1 developed into the JS2 and JS3. The JS2 was homologated for road use and used a Maserati V6 engine, while the JS3 was an open-top sports-prototype powered by a Cosworth DFV V8 engine. The JS3 won at Montlhéry in 1971 but failed to finish the minimum distance at Le Mans. Therefore, it was retired, and Ligier installed the Cosworth DFV in the JS2 road car, finishing second overall at Le Mans in 1975. Guy Ligier then switched his efforts into Formula One.
Formula One After the departure of Matra at the end of the season, no French constructor competed in Formula One for three seasons until Ligier's arrival at the start of the season. Following the acquisition of the Matra F1 team's assets, Ligier entered Formula One with a Matra V12-powered car, and won the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix with Jacques Laffite. This is generally considered to have been the first all-French victory in the Formula One World ChampionshipTeam, car, engine and driver were French and tyres American (Goodyear). Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Renault achieved victory at the 1979 French Grand Prix with an all-French Renault car and French Michelin tyres. as well as the first Formula One victory for a French-licensed teamJackie Stewart achieved victory at the 1968 Dutch Grand Prix with the French Matra MS10 car, but the car was entered by the British privateer team Matra International. and a French engine.
The deal with Matra ceased in 1979 and Ligier built a Cosworth-powered wing-car, the Ligier JS11. The JS11 began the season winning the first two races in the hands of Laffite. However, the JS11 faced serious competition when Williams and Ferrari introduced aerodynamically modified cars. The rest of the season was less successful for the French marque.
The JS11 and its successors made Ligier one of the top teams through the early 1980s. Despite substantial sponsorship from Talbot (known officially as Talbot Ligier in the 1981 and 1982 seasons) and public French companies – mainly SEITA, Gitanes and Française des Jeux – the competitiveness of the team began to decline around . Around this time, they were testing a Matra V6 turbocharged engine, which never raced. Thanks to the political support of Ligier long-time friend François Mitterrand, in the mid-1980s, the team benefitted from a free Renault turbo engine deal. This, along with sponsorship from companies such as Loto and Elf Aquitaine, made the team more competitive, though not a frontrunner. When Renault left the sport in 1986, Ligier was left without a bona fide engine supplier. An abortive collaboration with Alfa Romeo (due to René Arnoux's harsh criticism on the Alfa Romeo engines) was followed by customer engine deals with Megatron (who provided them with rebadged BMW M12 engines), Judd and Cosworth and then works contracts with Lamborghini, Renault and Mugen-Honda.
Between 1987 and 1991, the team struggled, failing to score points in 1988, 1990 and 1991, and at the 1988 San Marino Grand Prix neither René Arnoux nor Stefan Johansson qualified for the race, the first time in team history that neither car made the grid. In 1990, when fellow French team Larrousse were disqualified after claiming their chassis was built by themselves, while in fact it was built by Lola Cars, Ligier moved up into 10th place in the Constructors' Championship, which gave them subsidized travel benefits, despite actually not being classified due to a lack of points.
In 1993 the team enjoyed an upswing when Guy Ligier sold the team to Cyril de Rouvre after a disappointing 1992 season when they once again failed to fulfil their potential despite being supplied with the same works Renault engines as the dominant Williams team. Surprisingly, the team was somewhat more competitive during this period, in part due to the talents of aerodynamicist Frank Dernie and engineer Loïc Bigois. They scored eight podium finishes over the next four years, contrasting sharply with their failure to secure a single top three position between and . In the last years Ligier had little public support and lacked funds.
In , de Rouvre sold the team to Flavio Briatore and Tom Walkinshaw. Other organisations bidded to purchase Ligier, including Alain Prost and a consortium consisting of Hughes de Chaunac and Philippe Streiff, with the support of the similarly Renault-powered Williams F1 team, who intended to turn Ligier into a 'junior' team.
In 1995, Ligier switched from the Renault engines as they had been passed/sold on to the Benetton team, the reason given was because Flavio Briatore had purchased the team and had persuaded Renault to switch the supplies to the defending champions in light of Michael Schumacher testing a Renault-powered Ligier car late into the 1994 season which convinced Renault to support Benetton along with Michael. Ligier's replacement engine supplier was Mugen-Honda, who in previous seasons with Footwork and Lotus did not initially have the best reliability. The switch to Mugen-Honda engines was not without controversy, as the contract was originally intended for the Minardi team. Though the engine was less reliable than the previous Renault engine, the 1995 season turned out to be surprisingly successful for the team while allowing them to score points on a more consistent basis combined with securing 2 podiums for the season, Martin Brundle securing 3rd place at Belgium and Olivier Panis securing 2nd at the last race of the season in Australia.
The Mugen-Honda-powered JS43 turned out to be a well-balanced car, if not on par with the Williams entries. It became a surprise winner as well, with the team taking the chequered flag with Olivier Panis at the Monaco Grand Prix, albeit in a race of heavy attrition, with only three cars finishing. It was the first "all-French" victory at Monaco since René Dreyfus in Bugatti in 1930 and it also marked the only win by a team outside the "Big Four" teams (McLaren, Williams, Benetton, and Ferrari) between the season and the season as well as the last Grand Prix win by a car built in France.The French-licensed teams Renault (in the period of -) and Alpine built their winning cars in England.
This victory ended a nearly fifteen-year-long winless-streak for the Ligier team (since the 1981 Canadian Grand Prix), the longest of any uninterruptedly existing team between two wins (some teams like Mercedes, Honda or Renault had much longer periods between two wins, but did not exist as a Grand Prix team for most of their respective periods between two wins).
The Ligier name last appeared in Formula One at the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix. Although Ligier was expected to be part of the 1997 season with the Ligier JS45, on 13 February 1997, the team was sold to Alain Prost and became Prost Grand Prix.
The team traditionally used numbers 25 and 26, even though 9 and 10 was used in 1996 and in 1997 it was expected to use 14 and 15.
As of 2025, Équipe Ligier remains the last defunct Formula One team to score a Grand Prix victory.
Ligier cars are still used in historic racing, winning races and titles in the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco and the FIA Historic F1 Championship.
After Formula One In 2004, Ligier returned to motorsport after acquiring Automobiles Martini. Tico Martini had designed a Formula 3 chassis that was introduced at the 2004 Paris Motor Show as the Ligier JS47, but with the F3 market cornered by Dallara, the car only raced in the minor Recaro F3 Cup.
In 2005 Ligier introduced a "gentlemen driver" sports car, the JS49, a sport prototype made for the 2000 cc CN class, which can be used in the V de V Challenge.
Racecars YearCarImageCategory1969Ligier JS1Group 61971Ligier JS2Group 5Ligier JS3Group 61976Ligier JS5Formula One1977Ligier JS7Formula One1978Ligier JS7/9Formula OneLigier JS9Formula One1979Ligier JS11Formula One1980Ligier JS11/15Formula One1981Ligier JS17Formula One1982Ligier JS17BFormula OneLigier JS19Formula One1983Ligier JS21Formula One1984Ligier JS23Formula OneLigier JS23BFormula One1985Ligier JS25Formula One1986Ligier JS27Formula One1987Ligier JS29Formula OneLigier JS29BFormula OneLigier JS29CFormula One1988Ligier JS31Formula One1989Ligier JS33Formula One1990Ligier JS33BFormula One1991Ligier JS35Formula OneLigier JS35BFormula One1992Ligier JS37Formula One1993Ligier JS39Formula One1994Ligier JS39BFormula One1995Ligier JS41Formula One1996Ligier JS43Formula One2004Ligier JS47Formula ThreeLigier JS49Group CN2008Ligier JS51Group CN2012Ligier JS53Group CN2014Ligier JS55Group CNLigier JS P2LMP22015Ligier JS P3LMP32017Ligier JS P217LMP2Ligier Nissan DPiDPi2018Ligier JS2 RGT RacingLigier JS P4LMP42019Ligier JS F3Formula Three2020Ligier JS P320LMP32024Lamborghini SC63LMDh2025Ligier JS P325LMP3
Complete Formula One World Championship results (key)