LEGENDS: Jean Alesi’s one and only win

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1:36John Alessi, potentially victorious. I was the best. I was the best. In a damp condition, no question. The Ferrari mechanics are already leaning over the arm curve, ready to greet him home and what a hero he's going to be. The mechanics in Ferrari, they are special. They live what you live. John Alessi wins the Canadian Grand Prix. The emotion was so big. And look at John Alessi out of the cockpit. For me, a win is like a World Cup.

2:11Jean Alessi, a one-win wonder who wrote his name into F1 and Ferrari folklore on that very special day in Montreal back in 1995.

2:29Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Beyond the Grid with me, Tom Clarkson. From a lap of honour on the back of Michael Schumacher's Benetton, to visiting the Vatican a few days later, Jean celebrated his one and only Grand Prix victory in unique style. He knows he could and should have won more races, but he feels as much joy and happiness when reliving those memories now as he did when taking the chequered flag 31 years ago. It's very infectious. There are more great stories from other parts of Jean's career as well, including the time he borrowed something from a rather unimpressed Ayrton Senna.

3:11great to have you on the show again and it's lovely to see you at a race again you still love formula one don't you all right it's not about love it's really passion for me f1 is my life as a driver and now i'm a supporter i'm a super fan i watch everything well today can i take you back to 1995 montreal very excited about that your first win you're in car number 27 in a ferrari on your 31st birthday when you think back to that amazing day what is the first memory that comes to mind the first memory is the last lapse because in our days we had the cars very fragile just to remind a bit because we forgot about that our engine we had at the time in Ferrari was a V12 engine 17 ,000 revs so you know all these vibrations and you you have to cross the fingers to say please please stay in one piece you know Because people sometimes think I exaggerate because they can say, OK, he only won one race, you know, and he's so excited about that.

4:33But back to these days, if I look at my career, I did 32 podiums. My first race, I finished fourth. Ran second. Yeah. That was back in 89 in the territory. And I had many, many possibilities to win the Grand Prix, but always something was happening and I was not able to make it happen to have more wins. So for me, a win is like a World Cup. And so you talk about the last 10 laps because, of course, Schumacher had his electrical problem here in Montreal, didn't he? And do you start hearing strange noises from the engine? Do you start questioning everything? when you're in the lead with so little of the race still to go?

5:20Yeah, absolutely. That was my main issue, was to bring back the car. And Gerhard had, during the race, a fuel issue because we were really on the limit with a fuel tank. And just in lap, in a pit lane, his engine stopped. He ran out of fuel. and I run out of fuel in my in-lap after the finish line. So, you know, we were always thinking, can the car stay in one piece? Let's break down the weekend. And can we start by talking about the track, the circuit Gilles Villeneuve. You'd always gone well here. You'd already had a couple of podiums in 92 and 94. What was it about the track that brought out the best in Jean -Élise?

6:09i was a good breakers so my really special point was the braking and this is a circuit where you hit the brakes with a very high speed like in monza where i go well as well so i think that was my best point in in montreal the braking what about the car the 412 you've spoken about the v12 but was it a was it a nice car to drive i mean it was a quick car but was it drivable for me this car was the best car i drove for my whole career extremely fragile i mean i broke everything push roads gearbox engines fuel pump everything was a step by step going away you know But except that, the car was always everywhere fast.

7:08In Monza, in Monaco, in Montreal, on a wet condition, this car was just amazing. And very drivable, very drivable. Without power steering, so the steering wheel was a bit heavy. But except that, we deal with it. Tell us more about the lack of power steering. because of course today the drivers have power steering. Just how physical was it? You know, many times we see with the new cars, with a button they have on the steering wheel and they change the regulations. Nowadays that was impossible because with one hand, it was impossible to survive for the whole Grand Prix. So you have to really hold the steering wheel with two hands and in high-speed corner with a downforce, It was very heavy in the hairpins with the caster heavy as well.

8:06So you had no chance really to go around with one hand and trying to change some parameters. Final sort of preparation point about Montreal is you're with Gerhard, right? You've mentioned his name. He's your teammate. Why did you two rub along so well together? What was it about Gerhard? you know many times people think we had a lot of fun together it was true because out of the car we we had a very good relationship but we went well for five years because a lot of respect a lot of speed from him and from myself at the time very equal so we had to fight hard to beat or to beat me or to beat him.

8:58And that keep in between him and myself a very good respect and relationship. How different was he to Alain Prost? Because when you moved to Ferrari, Alain was your teammate. Yeah, with Alain was absolutely different because Alain, it's the only driver I know because at the time when you had a good position, you had the power to say to the team, I don't like him, I want him as a teammate and normally you choose a weak teammate. Alain was the opposite. Alain didn't care about the teammate, he cares only of how to get his car fast. He had a special way to drive. So when I arrived in Fiorano, I remember very well this day, I had all the Ferrari available for me.

9:49That was my first day presentation to the Italian press. And I said to, after the picture, then the first laps in Fiorano, they said, okay, what do you want to do? And I said, I'd like to drive the car with two different setups, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost. So I said, okay, no problem. They prepared the car. when I went out with the setup of Alain I did 5 or 10 laps because it's a short circuit if you want to it's 59 seconds and I came in and they said no this car is too easy I mean I have a good traction I have too much understeer in this place and they start to change the setup and I was going slower slower slower then I drive the Nigel Mansell setup first corner I was not able to turn the corner because he had a massive power, Nigel, in his arms.

10:49And he was setting the car mechanically in a way you had no surprise because the steering wheel was not coming back on the other direction, on the bumps and stuff like that. But you had to be very physically prepared to drive a Nigel car. so at the end you know what i found out is alan was very quiet and very open book because you had not the the capacity to drive the car as him it was able so i learned a lot with him who was the fastest teammate you ever had while we digress yeah i i believe uh so far alan but gerard he had this craziness at the moment where he was able to do something who surprised everybody in the team and myself as well.

11:44So Gerhard had a very pure velocity. Look, while we're talking drivers, bringing it back to 95, coming into the Montreal race, there was a bit of speculation that Michael Schumacher was going to move to Ferrari for 96. that was just starting to raise its head. Were you aware of that speculation? And what did Ferrari boss Jean-Todd told you, if anything? Well, I came to him and I asked him and he said no. But when I found out, that made our relationship not so good. Tough time. And had Todd made it clear that both you and Gerhard were going to be leaving at the end of the year? Well, that was the wish of Michael Schumacher, because when he accepted the proposition to join Ferrari, it was absolutely clear.

12:39His position was choosing the teammate, choosing the way to work, because we have the spare car at the time. So everything was on him, and we had no chance to stay. It was not a question of if Michael is coming, do you stay or not? If Michael comes, you're going. Because Michael had it on the contract. Sure. Back to school starts now. Get long-lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere. Now starting at$699 with exclusive student pricing starting at$599. and it's lightweight, portable and packed with enough processing power to make multitasking a breeze.

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15:37You were carrying the number 27 on the car in 95. Of course, everyone associates that with Gilles Villeneuve. A lot of people, Jean, tell me that there are similarities between the way you drove and Gilles. Do you think it's a fair comparison? Well, it's really fantastic to hear that because he was my hero and he's so far right now the number one driver for the Italian fans up to now. When there is, in the Italian press, they make a ranking of who was the best Ferrari driver. He's always number one. So I'm very pleased about that. But I cannot say yes, because Gilles is Gilles. And I try to drive by instinct.

16:28At the time, it was an easy time for the Formula One driver compared now. I feel much more complicated, the F1 drivers from now, to drive these cars. because they need to follow a kind of route to use the car on the limit. In my days, you drive as you feel, naturally. They never, ever, an engineer said to me, you brake too late or you have to brake in this place, you need to operate the throttle in this way, sacrifice this corner because you're going to be faster at the end of the lap. Never. They just said to me how we can improve the car to go faster. Let's talk about that because you hit the ground running Montreal 95.

17:15You're second fastest in both of the practice sessions. And of course, back then there were no simulators or nothing like what we have today. How much did you change the car sort of during the course of a Grand Prix weekend and specifically here? So here you have to be very careful. Like in Monaco, the evolution of the circuit is massive. so you don't have to overreact because straight after a few laps the car is not doing exactly what you want you need to be only concentrate of the red light because we had a lot of fuel at the beginning of the race and in qualifying of course we qualified with an empty tank but you had to make the car very low but not too low to have some issue in the fast corners.

18:07So that was the main concern, the radite. And then slowly you start to understand what was the point to work on. And so how much qualifying preparation would you put in during practice? Not so much because we waited the end of the session and we had three go with three set of new tyres. And at this time, you understand if the car was good or not. You line up fifth on the grid. Fair representation of where you and the car were? No, no, no. Something went wrong. I think if I remember very well, I overdrive. And that was my problems many times. overshooting the corners be late on shuttle and I had more let's say it was easier for me during the Grand Prix to follow the others to understand because in my mind I was breaking it to on the right point but maybe I was already 20 meters too much you know and I didn't make a very good qualifying but on Sunday we had a warm up.

19:23It was wet? It was wet I was P1 and then it's okay start from this point and make it quiet for the first laps and then we see on the topic of overdriving i think it's it's an interesting one why do drivers not just john and lacy why do drivers overdrive because you hear a lot of people talk about it is it just over eager too much passion too you say too late on the brakes but what causes it every machine has a limit. A good driver is a driver who understands the limit of the car because maybe the driver can forget or go over this limit and then it's what we call the overshooting a corner, overdriving, because you don't know what is the limit of your car or you don't feel the limit of the car.

20:19and that caused some problems. So we've discussed the race morning warm-up. You're fastest, it's wet. It then stops raining, but there are still damp patches at the start of the Grand Prix. How confident were you going into the race? Well, in this condition, honestly, I don't want to make it... I was the best. I was the best. In a damp condition, no question. and during this year in 95 I start with slick tires in Nürburgring and middle of the race I had one minute lead to the second then in Suzuka I have the penalty drive through I came in I did my another lap when I came in in this condition it was wet everybody and myself had to start with the rain tires.

21:17But after a few laps, when I had this penalty, I said on the radio to the team, I'm coming back now, slick tires. And nobody replied, you know. And then in lap, I mean, in this lap, again, I said, slick, slick, slick. Nobody replied. And maybe my engineer said, okay, give him the slick tires. Came in, put the slicks. It was really wet. That was the race of my life. I came out of the pits after two corners, and maybe you exaggerate, but I was so upset. I push, push, push. Okay, I was in between five and six seconds faster than Michael. I pass everybody. I catch Michael. And when Michael, because we talk about together after the race, on the radio, he called the team and he said, Alizi is in the same lap than me.

22:09And the team said, yes. And then he started to worry a bit. and then make your box boom. Well, as you say, you were electric at the start of the race and you end up taking P2 from Damon Hill. He's going for it now. He's going to try and go down the inside and force Damon Hill out. And he's done it. John Alisi moves up into second place with a really forceful move. I think it was lap 17, a lovely move down the inside of the hairpin. Did you think you could catch Michael? at that point michael schumacher leading the race yeah no no because i try when i pass demon then i had a free free let's say air the the car was working very well and i push push push and he was six five seconds ahead i said he was not really moving you know and when i was driving like that the rear start to to move a bit and they said okay maybe I will not be able to so I slow down a bit to to cool the car as much as possible and then I retry again but when I retry I see something in the tribunes and then I say something happened I pass the the finish line and my pit board was not there I said okay because Michael was already in in the box and there are no time to change the pit board position, you know.

23:42And then when I arrived to the hairpin, I see everybody standing up with the flag, the Ferrari flag. They say, okay, I understand. I pass the pit board, the CP1, and then I had a shock, you know. I had a big shock. I love the fact that you actually found out that you were in the lead of the race from the fans before you did from the team. Because Montreal is probably the circuit where you drive inside a stadium because you have the grandstand so close to the circuit, not only at the airpin, but in turn six, in turn seven and eight. I mean, there is really, you see the people moving or showing something to you.

24:28You've spoken already about how fragile the car was. How nervous were you at that point when you'd taken the lead? you've still got 10 or so laps to go were you incredibly nervous because you hadn't actually won a race since i think 89 in 3000 with eddie jordan yeah yeah as i said before it it was not a question of i didn't win and i had to win or i didn't put a timer in my head saying okay you have to win it's how many times i was leading maybe i don't know in my whole career 10, 12 times where leading not lap 2, lap 3 leading when the car is over when you finish your pit stop where you just have to bring back the car to the finish line and then boom, boom, boom boom so I was really thinking about the car what to do to make it happen not jumping on the curves we had a very high they were higher curbs back then weren't they yes we had a very high curbs not breaking too late not uh going to the 17 000 revs breaking a little bit with the left foot on straight to slow down the the speed because beginning of the grand prix with the fuel tank and the end of the grand prix the car was very light and yeah the engine was going very uh very well but there were no dramas right no no problems the car was perfect the car was perfect yeah can you remember how you felt crossing the line to win your first race yes because you know i make a countdown in my head i said okay break uh for the chicane it's the same chicane now go outside for and whatever is happening look just where is the finish line because you don't see exactly the finish line It's like a corner, you know?

26:29So I was, I said, okay, even if now I have a big explosion with the speed that will cross the finish, like, you know, like in the movie Cars with the town. So I remember that. And then, you know, a big moment, a big moment up to the airpin where I feel no fuel in the car. And I stop. It looks like, you know, for a World Cup, soccer one, there is a penalty and there is all the fans sharing to you. And look at John Alessi out of the cockpit. Has he kept the engine running? No, he has not. He may conceivably be out of fuel, but I suspect he's just so overcome with emotion in front of this enthusiastic Canadian crowd with so many Ferrari flags.

27:24And suddenly I hear the noise of a car it was Michael just behind me So Alessi getting a lift from Michael Schumacher isn't it lovely to see real, real emotion and happiness Alessi absolutely overjoyed and he's every reason to be How was the ride back on the back of Michael's Benetton? I burned my butt because I was on the engine cover and And, you know, I understand why now he's not allowed anymore because it's quite dangerous. The car, you don't know where to put your feet. But it was so good, so good. And Michael was happy. I mean, it's the first time he was not winning and he was happy as well.

28:10Did you have a good relationship with Michael? Yeah, very much. Yeah. We had a very good relationship, again, because of the respect in between him and myself. Nobody was jealous about anything. we were just enjoying a super time but probably because you know when I joined Formula 1 my competitor was Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet Nigel Mansell, Gerd Berger Alain Prost big names and big champions so when Michael came in 93 92 or 93 I don't remember the first race was 91 but then he won his first race in 92? No, no, when Michael came in F1. Yeah, 91. 91. So when he arrived in Spa, he was with Eddie Jordan and Eddie brought him on the table at the restaurant.

29:03He said, it's my new driver. Tell him what to do, you know. And I saw the face of him. It was like, I don't need to have your advice, you know. And they said, no, just be careful with a fuel tank when it's full because there's a big difference with an empty tank. but the rest do what you want you know and um and then i found out during my relationship with him with his character to have eddie jordan to tell him uh to bring him to a driver say tell him what to do he was um funny back to school starts now get long-lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere.

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31:21You had a very close relationship with Eddie, didn't you? Because you raced for him in 3000 and you actually shared the podium here in 95 with two Jordan drivers, Rubens and Eddie, Eddie Irvine. was that quite special actually to share it with jordan drivers yeah eddie uh was my man as a driver i would never be a formula one driver without him impossible because when i joined ed jordan in formula 3000 in 89 that was my last chance to be a driver not to think about f1 and he brought me in his house. I lived with Marie and the kids for one year. He did everything to me. He was like a big brother.

32:10When I went to F1 in 89 and I said to him, thank you, Eddie, you helped me a lot. That was in July. But I will not drive the 3000 anymore with you because my goal was to go in F1. he said what did you say you will never ever see a F1 car if you don't finish my you know how he was talking championship and you win your championship and I said no Eddie please please but anyway he convinced me or I have no possibility to do another way so I did every weekend 3000 F1 3000 F1 and then I went to Eddie and said Eddie I'm sorry to tell you that, but why you don't do a F1 team? You are more organized than the Tyrell team.

33:00And Tyrell, honestly, they have a story. They have two fantastic engineers, so they design a supercar. But the rest, the team, when you go inside of the workshop, it's embarrassing sometimes, you know. And you start to think about that. And then you make his team. Jean-Alaissi inspired Jordan's move to... No, but that is a true story. And was EJ pleased for you? Although you beat his drivers in Montreal, was he pleased that you'd won? Yes. We were always in contact, you know. And it was a kind of place where you go to him, you know, like you go to see the priest in the church because you don't know who can talk to have a right answer, I have to say.