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JEAN ALESI
Biography
Sadly, time looks to be running out for Alesi, who at one stage of his
career looked to be a future world champion.
He burst onto the scene in 1989 with a stunning debut drive to fourth in the French Grand Prix for Tyrrell. He also took the F3000 championship that season with Eddie Jordan and signed full-time for Tyrrell for the following year.
A fierce battle with Ayrton Senna in the season opener at Pheonix
confirmed his reputation as the sport's outstanding young talent, and
bigger teams were soon sniffing round the French-Sicilian.
With rumoured offers from Ferrari, Williams and McLaren for 1991, Jean let his heart rule his head and joined the Prancing Horse. This turned out to be a big mistake, as Ferrari began one of their periodic nosedives in form.
He spent five spirited, but largely unsuccessful, years at Ferrari, with only a solitary win at Montreal in 1995 to show for them.
With Michael Schumacher joining Ferrari for 1996 there was no room for Alesi and he was forced into a marriage of convenience with
Benetton. The combination of Alesi and flamboyant Benetton boss
Flavio Briatore was always liable to be explosive and the relationship soon soured.
Briatore never forgave Alesi for crashing in the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix, gifting the runners-up spot in the constructors' championship to, of all people, Ferrari. More
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