To begin with the car was chronically unreliable and earned the nickname 'the yellow teapot' from rival teams (it tended to blow up fairly regularly, usually in a cloud of white smoke), but Jabouille and the team pressed on throughout the rest of 1977 and 1978 until they brought the car home to its first points, a fourth place at the 1978 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. The car had been developed so much it barely resembled the chunky machine that it had been when it first appeared, and the team's performance had picked up throughout the season. Reliability had started to be found, and the yawning turbo lag had been overcome by using twin turbochargers.