Alesi, Jean

The early years

He began his career in karting , ring racing in the Renault 5 series, then moved to Formula Renault turbo. In 1986, Alesi made his debut in French Formula 3 and in the first season took second place in the championship, letting forward only the more experienced Yannick Dalm . In 1987, Alesi won seven of the fifteen races and easily won the champion title. The next year, he went a step higher into the international F-3000 , and also won the title for the second year of participation, speaking for the team of Eddie Jordan . The title was obtained by Jean in a bitter struggle with compatriot Eric Coma , and the opponents earned points equally, and the title went to Alesi because he won one more victory - three against two. It should be noted that this season, Jean had to speak on two fronts: 1989 was the year of his debut in Formula 1.

Formula 1

The first participation in Formula 1 for Alesi was organized by the chef of his team - Eddie agreed with Ken Tyrrell that he would try the young pilot for one race, the French Grand Prix of 1989 , and all the arrangements were made secretly from Jean. Immediately before leaving for the track, Tyrrell advised the pilot, urged him not to be upset if he did not pass the qualification. In fact, Alesi not only qualified, but also finished in a brilliant fourth place. After such a debut, Tyrrell immediately forgot that the contract was temporary, fired the main pilot Michele Alboreto and accepted the young rider into the permanent team. In the following year, 1990 , also in the Tyrrell team, Alesi at the very first stage in the American Phoenix with the not-so-powerful machine was able to impose a fight on the 1988 champion Ayrton Senna and in the end finished second. The repetition of this result at the Monaco Grand Prix attracted the attention of the leading teams to the young Frenchman. Having a choice between Ferrari and Williams , Alesi, being an Italian by origin, chose a team from Maranello.

In addition to considerations of an emotional nature, the decision seemed to be purely logical - in the 1990 season the Ferrari team was one of the leaders of the championship, and its future team partner Alain Prost , at that time - one of the most successful pilots in the history of Formula 1 , won five stage wins.

But in reality, the Ferrari team in the 1991 season began to experience obvious problems with speed, often the car did not allow it to fight for the victory, not to mention the titles. One of the reasons for the failures was that the Italians used the 12-cylinder engine that was inferior in efficiency to the 10-cylinder Renault engine that stood on the British car. Annoyed by the poor results, the distinguished teammate Alesi even preferred to interrupt his career for the race before the end of the championship, finally calling the car a team “truck”. At the same time, “ Williams ”, from the place where Alesi recklessly refused, on the contrary, experienced an upsurge and, starting this season, has been fighting for the title for seven years in both competitions.

For five seasons in the composition of the Ferrari ( 1991 - 1995 ), Jean did not achieve very high results, was able to win only once, but gained the sincere love of Tifozi , who loved his energetic driving style. His behavior on the track, and the fact that he used the number 27 as a car number, evoked associations with the popular among fans Zhil Villeneuve , who played for Ferrari in the 1977 - 1982 seasons.

In 1996, “ Scuderia " agreed to participate with two-time world champion Michael Schumacher . Alesi and his Ferrari partner Berger chose to leave for his place at Benetton - this team was the current winner of the Designers Cup , and the decision seemed logical.

As in the situation with the Ferrari in 1991, Jean again missed out on luck. With the advent of Schumacher, the Italian team quickly took on the first roles and already in the 1997 season it was close to winning the champion title in the individual competition. At Benetton , the same problems started as at Ferrari before. Nevertheless, it was still possible to fight for the podiums.

After leaving Formula 1 Renault in late 1997, Alesi left Benetton. The next two seasons he spent in the middle team of the championship - Sauber , where he was able to score eleven points in two seasons (he came to the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1998 ). The transition in 2000 to the team of his former Ferrari partner Alain Prost was a disaster. Partner of Jean was the debutant of the championship - the champion of Formula 3000 Nick Heidfeld . Despite a couple of talented racers, the team finished the championship in last place with Minardi - both teams could not score a single point for the entire season. The most terrible of the season was the Austrian Grand Prix , when the pilots did not understand each other and collided, retiring from the race. The next season was somewhat better - there were no technical gatherings at all, and in Monaco , Montreal and Hockenheim, Alesi was even able to score points. However, this was not enough, and before the race in Budapest, Jean quarreled with Prost and left the French team, moving to the team of an old friend before the end of the season - in Jordan, to the place of dismissed Frentzen . Until the end of the year, he was able to finish with glasses once ( 6th in the Spa ). In the ensuing offseason, he conducted rubber tests for the McLaren team, being the only racer to use both Michelin and Bridgestone tires in combat conditions, ^[1] after which he completed his formula career.

Further career

After completing a career in F1, Jean switched to the DTM series, where he got on the podium in the first race and won in the third. However, despite the fact that he had the latest cars at his disposal, they could not fight for the championship, despite regular podiums. In the end, in 2006 the team did not provide him with a new car, which greatly upset Jean, and at the end of the season he decided to finish his performances in this series. In just 5 years, he spent 52 races and won 3 victories.

After leaving DTM, Alesi hoped to lead a new Formula 1 team ^[2] , created with the money of Arab sponsors, but the project failed. Jean returned to racing in 2008, performing in the new Arab series SpeedCar ^[3] . In the races he was successful, he won the first stage races in Sentula ^[4] and Sepang , finished several times on the podium and fought for the title until the last stage, but failure in the last two races threw him to fourth place in the standings. The winner was Johnny Herbert . The next season in the off-season 2008/09 brought three more victories - in Bahrain ^[5] and twice in Dubai ^[6] .

In late 2009, Jean conducted a short test of the Ferrari F430 ^[7] , after which in early 2010 it was announced that he would participate in the LMS Endurance Championship, ^{[8] [9]} and possibly Le Mans ^[10] . In search of a partner for such participation, Alesi turned to the famous motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi , ^[11] but he refused because of the heavy workload of the motorcycle championship races. ^[12] . As a result, Giancarlo Fisichella became Jean's partner. In the first three races of the season, they managed to finish on the podium, and in the fourth race they became fourth. At Le Mans, managed to achieve fourth place in his class. ^[13]

In 2011, Jean became a representative of Lotus Cars, as well as a test pilot of the unique Lotus T125. He gave an interview in which he commented on this statement: “I am very glad to start cooperation with Lotus, I have great respect for this great British brand and I am confident that in the future they will achieve serious success both on the racetracks and beyond. I look forward to the first Type 125 tests in Vallelunga and Abu Dhabi - this is a very interesting project. ”

Alesi’s participation in the Indianapolis 500 Mile race was also associated with the Lotus Cars brand. At the end of 2011, it was announced that with the support of this company, Alesi will try to qualify. It was supposed to agree on assistance in participating with the Newman-Haas team, but failed to agree. The owner of the HWM Racing team, Kate Wiggins, was also unable to arrange financial support. Finally, we managed to negotiate with the Fan Force United team from the Indy Lights championship. Jean qualified in last, 33rd place, but in the race a very weak Lotus engine did not allow him to maintain the racing pace, and he was removed from the race by the organizers for violating the 105% rule, similar to the 107% formula rule.

Married with a second marriage to Japanese actress and TV presenter Kumiko Goto (born March 26, 1974). They have three children: daughter Helen (born November 19, 1996), sons Giuliano (born September 20, 1999) engaged in car racing, and John (born February 26, 2007). From the first wife Lauren has a daughter Charlotte (born April 10, 1994). He likes tennis, golf and water skiing. He lives with his family in a suburb of Geneva Nyon .

He is engaged in winemaking, owns his own vineyard near Avignon .

Formula 3000

The results at start from the pole position are bold.

Formula 1

SpeedCar

Steve Small. The Grand Prix Who's Who . - 2. - Guinness World Records Limited, 1996. - S. 19. - 464 p. - ISBN 0-85112-623-5 .

• Jean Alesi (Russian) on wildsoft.motorsport.com
• Encyclopedia of Formula 1
• Motorsport celebrities
• Celebrity Weddings. Jean Alesi
• Jean Alesi at Peoples.ru
• Alesi, Jean ( historic ) on historicracing.com