The 1978 season began for the French Ligier Gitanes team with the JS7, already seen on track in 1977. Only from the third race of the championship was the car updated to the JS7/9 version, a modified version of the JS7’s chassis number 1, assembled in early 1978 while waiting for the new JS9 to be fully developed.
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| LIGIER JS9, Jacques Laffite Monza, Italian GP 1978 |
The JS7/9 was essentially the previous year’s car but fitted with the new Matra MS78 V12 engine, developed to reach an impressive 520 horsepower, coupled with a Hewland FGA six-speed gearbox, which was lighter and more robust than the previous TL model. The JS7/9 was used only in the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami and the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, where French driver Jacques Laffite, again the sole driver for the team, secured two fifth-place finishes.
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| LIGIER JS9, Jacques Laffite Brands Hatch, British GP 1978 |
At the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, the new Ligier JS9 was introduced. Its development had been rather lengthy, as designers Gérard Decarouge and Michel Beaujon, assisted by aerodynamicist Robert Choulet, worked to fine-tune a car that turned out to be more challenging than expected. In the following races, the team alternated between using the new car and the JS7/9 until the JS9 was deemed fully ready. Despite its light weight of 580 kg, the JS9 had bulky dimensions, with a massive nose topped by a wide front wing, connecting to long side pods that, however, could not fully exploit the ground effect concepts introduced by Lotus, concepts that had quickly become the standard in Formula 1.
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| LIGIER JS9, Jacques Laffite Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1978 |
The latest evolution of the historic Matra V12, which had been in use for about a decade, was certainly powerful but outdated, as its lateral bulk prevented designers from properly shaping the car’s underbody. Consequently, when the new Ligier appeared on the scene, it was already obsolete compared to the best competitors. Toward the end of the season, Guy Ligier decided to abandon the ambitious but now outdated "all-French" project with Matra, announcing the switch to Ford Cosworth engines for 1979. The difficult development of the JS9 was soon abandoned in favor of focusing on the creation of the new JS11, set to debut in 1979.
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| LIGIER JS9, Jacques Laffite Jarama, GP di Spagna 1978 |
Nevertheless, Ligier’s determination to bring glory to a French “Equipe” was somewhat rewarded in the 1978 season, during which Laffite secured two podium finishes and a series of strong results that earned the team 19 points, placing Ligier sixth in the constructors' championship.
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