Team · 1976–1996 · France
Equipe Ligier
Guy Ligier played rugby, then raced in Formula 1 himself, and in 1976 he entered his own team in the championship with a Matra V12 engine. Jacques Laffite took the first win at the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix — the first World Championship win for a French driver in a French car with a French engine. Ligier started the 1979 season with two wins for Laffite, and in Brazil its drivers took the top two places.
In 1980 Ligier finished second in the Constructors’ Championship, the best result in its history. Olivier Panis brought the team its last win: at a wet Monaco in 1996 he started fourteenth and won a race in which only three cars made it to the finish. In 1997 Alain Prost bought the team, and it was renamed Prost.