Jean Alesi

Jean Robert Alesi (born Giovanni Roberto Alesi, 11 June 1964) is a French professional racing driver.

He progressed to open-wheel car racing in 1983, participating in French Renault 5 Turbo.

Starting his career with a passion for rallying rather than racing, he took up karting at the age of 16 and then graduated to cars in 1983 by entering the French Renault 5 Turbo championship, where he raced for two seasons.

After winning the French Formula Three Championship in 1987, Alesi moved up to International Formula 3000 the year after.

Despite the struggles during the inaugural season, his performances for the Jordan Formula 3000 team in the 1989 season led to a 1989 Formula One drive with Tyrrell Racing, replacing Michele Alboreto.

Alesi eventually won the International Formula 3000 championship with three race wins, edging out his title rival with the same amount of points, Érik Comas.

He won the 1987 French Formula 3 title before moving up to International Formula 3000 in 1988.

The 1988 season was a disappointment, finishing tenth in the championship with two podium finishes, not helped by problems within the team.

He competed in Formula One between 1989 and 2001, including spells at Tyrrell, Benetton, Sauber, Prost, Jordan and Ferrari, where he proved very popular among the Tifosi.

However, in 1989 he joined the Jordan Formula 3000 team and won the championship.

Both crowns were after duels with his rival Érik Comas.

In 1989 Alesi tied on points for the F3000 title with Comas, but won the title on number of wins, having scored three to Comas' two.

Made the strong start with a street Ferrari F40 LM in Laguna Seca IMSA GTO race.

Surprisingly led for six laps and finished third overall, ahead of most experienced drivers in race-spec cars.

He also raced in the Le Mans 24 hours in the same year, but a fire forced him to retire in the fourth hour of the race.

While Alesi was seen as a talent of the future, his start as a Formula One driver was somewhat fortuitous.

Prior to the 1989 French Grand Prix, Ken Tyrrell had signed a deal to run Camel cigarette sponsorship on his previously unsponsored cars.

However this caused problems for Michele Alboreto who was personally sponsored by rival cigarette brand Marlboro.

The sponsorship clash forced Tyrrell to release Alboreto and find another driver.

The team decided to look at whoever was leading International Formula 3000 at the time, and Alesi was signed as the replacement.

Alesi debuted in the 1989 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard in a Tyrrell-Ford and finished fourth, having run as high as second during the race.

Ken Tyrrell was sufficiently impressed to give him an eighteen-month contract.

He drove most of the rest of the season for Tyrrell while continuing his successful Formula 3000 campaign, occasionally giving the car up in favour of Johnny Herbert when Formula 3000 clashed, scoring points again at the Italian and Spanish Grands Prix.

With Jonathan Palmer having retired from driving at the end of 1989 and a new teammate in Satoru Nakajima, Alesi amazingly became Tyrrell's lead driver in 1990 for what would be his first full year in Grand Prix racing (prior to the start of the 1990 season, Alesi only had 8 race starts in Formula One).

At the first event, the United States Grand Prix at Phoenix, he led for 25 laps in front of Ayrton Senna with a car powered by a customer Ford V8 considered as vastly inferior to the factory-developed Honda V10 in Senna's McLaren, and also re-passing Senna after the Brazilian had first overtaken for the lead, before ultimately finishing second.

Second place in the Monaco Grand Prix followed, and by mid-season top teams were clamouring for his services in 1991.

A confused situation erupted, with Tyrrell, Williams, and Ferrari all claiming to have signed the driver within a very short period.

He won the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix, but this proved to be the only win of his Formula One career.

During his time in Formula One, Alesi was particularly good in the wet and was a mercurial and passionate racer, whose emotions sometimes got the better of him.

Born and raised in Avignon, Vaucluse, Alesi started karting at the age of 16 with a desire to eventually compete in rallying.

After leaving Formula One, Alesi raced in the DTM championship from 2002 to 2006, winning some races with his best result being a fifth place in the drivers' championship.

Alesi became a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2006.

Alesi was born in the southern French town of Avignon, Vaucluse, between Montpellier and Marseille to Sicilian parents.

His father, Franco, was from Alcamo, Sicily, and his mother was from Riesi.

His father ran an automotive bodywork repair garage in the town, where Alesi spent much of his formative years and developed a love of cars.

In addition to spending time in the family garage, Alesi's father also provided his first taste of motorsport, being a keen amateur competitor in rallying and hillclimb events.

On weekends that he was unable to compete he would sometimes lend his rally cars to family friend and future Monte Carlo Rally-winning professional rally driver Jean Ragnotti, who would commonly return them "destroyed".

He raced in the Speedcar Series in 2008 and 2009 and raced at Le Mans in 2010.

He raced in the Indianapolis 500 in 2012 and became the oldest professional driver to perform the rookie test for admission to the competition.

For several years, he was also a commentator for the Italian TV show Pole Position.