{"id":730483,"date":"2026-06-11T21:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T21:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730483\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T21:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T21:49:11","slug":"i-began-to-cry-inside-my-helmet-jean-alesi-recalls-his-only-f1-win-31-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730483\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I began to cry inside my helmet’ – Jean Alesi recalls his only F1 win, 31 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was only when the grandstands began to stir \u2013 Ferrari flags emerging in their thousands \u2013 that he understood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next time around my guy was on the pitwall, he showed my pitboard with P1 on it.\u201d And then the tears came.<\/p>\n

The wonder of that moment is inseparable from everything that preceded it.<\/p>\n

By the time Alesi won in Montreal, he had spent six seasons watching victories slip away.<\/p>\n

His early years at Tyrrell had announced him as someone genuinely extraordinary \u2013 fourth on his Formula 1 debut at Paul Ricard in 1989, then a stunning second at Phoenix in 1990 where he led almost half the race in a Cosworth-powered car against Honda V10s before Ayrton Senna finally caught him; third at Monaco that same year, splitting the two McLarens.<\/p>\n

The talent was obvious. What followed was a career that somehow never delivered what it promised, and yet never quite disappointed either.<\/p>\n

\"Jean<\/p>\n

Alesi with Ken Tyrrel in 1990<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

The crux was the decision at the end of 1990: Williams or Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Frank Williams had offered him a three-year contract. Then, at Imola, Ferrari came calling through sporting director Cesare Fiorio.<\/p>\n

Alesi turned them down as he was already committed, but Fiorio\u2019s parting words lodged somewhere: \u201cIt\u2019s never a good idea for a driver to say no to Ferrari.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Williams then stalled on announcing the deal, when it emerged that Frank was pursuing Senna, when Nelson Piquet suggested he started adding clauses (\u201cPlus a Ferrari F40\u201d was among them), the Williams paper went in the bin.<\/p>\n

His answer, when asked if he regretted the decision, is ambigous.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, can you imagine how it felt for me, in 1991, in my Ferrari, to be lapped sometimes after just 15 laps by the Williams that I\u2019d had a chance to drive?\u201d He shrugs. \u201cDid I make a mistake in saying no to Williams? Maybe. But I\u2019d made my decision because of human issues, not car issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jean<\/p>\n

Alesi scored 16 second places in F1<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

Alesi collected 16 second places across his career, racing in an era that included Senna, Prost, Piquet, Mansell and Schumacher. He never contended for a championship.<\/p>\n

And yet the complexity of his feelings about that Montreal win speaks to something real.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfterwards,\u201d he admits, \u201calthough I\u2019d finally won a grand prix, and that was great, I felt a bit strange. The reason was that I\u2019d led so many grands prix in the past, and I\u2019d only won this one because Michael had a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo after the race my feeling was relief rather than joy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was only when the grandstands began to stir \u2013 Ferrari flags emerging in their thousands \u2013 that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,91063,85],"class_list":["post-730483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-jean-alesi","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}