WTF Happened to Jean Alesi?

this video was made possible by surfshark stay tuned to find out how you can get 83 off your subscription and three extra months for free [Music] monaco the seaside principality that has become a haven for sports stars and everyone else it doesn't like paying tax it's famous for the glitz and glamour and for certain parts of the year being the host of some motor racing driving around on a circuit too narrow to walk on the monaco grand prix is the main event of the year sports wise for the principality with the residents having the luxury of watching the race from their balconies and throwing caviar onto the peasants below although before that you get to see some of the cars of the past being driven around at a relatively brisk pace this is the extremely beautiful ferrari 312b which was once driven by three-time world champion nikki louder although in 2021 it was being driven by jean-lacey lacy for those of you perhaps unaware it's one of the more popular formula one drivers that has ever walked the face of the earth a daring driver who was visibly talented behind the wheel and produced some spectacular racing with some even comparing him to jill velner he was also notable for his weird-ass way of holding the steering wheel like in a row car the 10 to 2 arrangement is fine i guess but in a formula one car it was strange but despite the praise that surrounds him when you look at the stats and lacey's time in formula one they're not brilliant or at least they don't seem to stack up to the legion built around him and it does seem strange when you watch lacey drive how this guy didn't go on to achieve much more success than he actually did and then for his career to sort of fizzle out like it did not a lot of it made sense to me like what the [ __ ] happened to the sky [Music] born in avignon france alaisi was engrossed in the automotive culture thanks to his father jean's first outing behind the wheel came about when he was 16 years old debuting in go-karts he eventually graduated to cars in 1983 driving in the national reno 5 turbo series after hanging around in that championship for a couple of years olasey moved on to formula 3 in 1986 competing full time in the french championship he would take two wins that season finishing second in the championship behind yannick dalmas he also competed in the monaco and macau f3 grand prix with varying levels of success a decent albeit not exactly groundbreaking season however in 1987 elasie would once again compete in the french f3 championship this time winning the title and finishing second in the monaco f3 race however his performance at the macau grand prix left a little to be desired and actually while we're on the subject of macau we might as well talk about his last attempt at the race in 1988 after starting the weekend well by qualifying on the third row of the grid alaisi would put himself in prime position to [ __ ] things up for himself immediately at the start spinning out to avoid jj lato alaysi was fortunate enough to find out the race would be restarted however with a broken rear wing that was producing anything but downforce it would be a hard ass room to even finish on the podium but that's exactly what he did in the second part of the race elasie would spend a lot of time in second position which would have won him the grand prix overall however a puncher on the final lap of the race put all of this into disarray and kind of summed up his experience in macau which was only half as depressing as watching valtteri bottas trying to defend having said that aleci's focus would be in the formula 3000 championship that was held throughout europe driving for eureka alongside pierrot henry rafanel a lacey would finish 10th overall that year despite achieving a podium at po the rest of that year's results were pretty [ __ ] average internal issues within the team didn't really help him either although a man who had a knack for spotting talent and sifting through the [ __ ] sourced something in him that man was eddie jordan drafting him in for the 89 season elasie would be tied on points with her at comas at the end of the year but with a lacy's three wins at poe birmingham and spa against komas's two wins alaisi secured the title the remarkable thing is that he won the title despite not competing in the final round of that series and that's because all the while he was competing in another series let's rewind back to july that year the turrell formula one team was preparing for the french grand prix and had come into possession of sponsorship from camel tobacco unfortunately this clash with the personal sponsorship of their driver micaeli albaretto who has been bankrolled by a rival company albaretto would not tolerate this and so walked away from tyrell pledging his allegiance to marlborough to drive for larousse who was sponsored by camel sometimes you have to envy the way the italian mind works kind of unlucky for alberto though he probably 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surf shark does this sound good yeah i thought so for freedom and protection online click the link in the description and use this code use this code and you'll get 83 off the regular price and three months of free service they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee which you can't really complain about eh so thank you once again to surfshark for sponsoring this video if only albaretto had a sponsor like this oh yeah let's get back to that so over at monza alasey was testing formula 3000 machinery this was brought to an abrupt hold however when jordan gave him the word that he was going to be racing in the french grand prix that weekend and that he needed to get over to the terror factory pronto a one race deal was signed and so he had a new grand prix debutant on our hands rocking up to the circuit paul ricard donning his helmet which was inspired by a man who was killed at this very circuit alaisi would be forced to deal with the fact that his debut would come after no practice in the car or any formula one car for that matter but this didn't stop eddie jordan from placing a bet with ken tyrrell that lacey would beat teammate jonathan palmer that weekend placing the bit right in front of palmer after a few teething issues on the lead-up to qualifying a lacey was forewarned that not qualifying the car was a possibility and if it did happen to not worry about it too much it's motor racing [ __ ] happens elasie went out on his first qualifying run and immediately was way faster than teammate palmer he got bought by traffic in the second qualifying session although this was a mixed blessing as had he qualified any higher he probably would have been in the flight path of mauricio guzman airlines heading into turn one this brought out the red flag which gave the turtle mechanics time to mana lacey's car which he somehow managed to break in time for the restart after keeping his nose clean throughout the entire race elasie robbed home in p4 again ahead of teammate palmer which made jordan a few quid richer but while tyrrell may have lost a few bob to the village idiot he was extremely impressed with the lacy after having done what he did without setting foot in a grand prix car until that weekend still in need of a driver for the remainder of the season alaisi was given an 18-month contract to drive for the team at the british grand prix alaisi headed into club corner with intentions of passing the extremely stupid philly paleo unfortunately lacy didn't use much brain either attempting to take the corner flat out before finding out then it wasn't really a flat out corner thus bringing his race to an end despite missing out on a couple of races alaisi would score two more points finishes that year while that doesn't sound amazing to pretty much anyone who doesn't understand anything before 2021 it was pretty good going finishing ninth in the standings that year despite only completing half of it it's fair to say that alecia had a pretty decent season but it was gonna get a little bit better from here on in the beginning of a new decade saw alesia remain with tyril and now with a new teammate satoru nakajima the speed demonstrated by nakajima in the early part of his career meant that elasie was under no threat qualifying on the second row of the grid elasie made the most of a clean getaway by diving down the inside of gerhart burger's mclaren to take the lead of the race he began to romp away from the field although as the race went on he was eventually reeled back in again as the formidable iodon cena began to chase him down heading into turn one santa made a lunge down the inside of a lacy taking the lead jean didn't take a liking to this and so heated his way back down the inside of ayerton this caught him unawares they caught everyone unawares who was this peasant driving in a turtle how dare he challenge the almighty ayat on santa well he did and for now he was still leading the race one night later cena made the move again but this time he was wise to the counter-attack although he probably wasn't expecting a lacie to perform the switchback and challenge for the lead once again this dude was like a honey badger that's getting stung to [ __ ] by bees and still going after they honey cena went on to win the grand prix although lacy was the star of the show a new superstar had arrived on the scene or so he hoped elasie continued to perform in the next few races and after finishing second in the monaco grand prix he was now sitting third in the championship just three points behind gerhart berger and not a long way either from cena but then as is so often the case with the drivers that end up in this bloody series it all started to go wrong for the remainder of the year elasie would not score any more points which isn't ideal but perhaps more messed up was what happened with regards to contracts you see despite the slight issue of jon not scoring any point he was a commodity within the paddock people up and down the pit lane were chasing a signature with the more notable one being frank williams owner of the williams f1 team this was all music to jean's ears and so signed the dotted line for the 1991 season except it didn't pan out that way basically frank promised to announce the lacie's signing at the french grand prix in 1990 but guess what didn't happen that weekend no one really knows why either potential sponsors were not keen on the idea of a lazy driving for the team or more perhaps because frank williams was chasing cena to drive for the team now please keep with me here because even i'm going to get lost basically at this point nelson piquet had told lacey he should give frank an ultimatum if you don't announce me by silverstone i'm taking my ball and i'm going home although with that being said by nelson pk it could mean just about anything but then nigel mansell announced his supposed retirement after ferrari wouldn't grease his nipples or whatever and so now there was a vacancy of ferrari and frank now wants nigel as well as edson but has a contract with a lacie which he hasn't announced yet because reasons i mean i don't know this was all just a mess no wonder jean left for ferrari wait what yeah somehow through all of this jean found his way to marinello to race for a team despite being contracted to another one but hey ferrari the prancing horse the heart and soul of formula one this was a prime opportunity for him eh yeah i mean they came off the back of a strong season but as we know with ferrari one good year doesn't necessarily carry over to the other one this was one of those cross had the measure of a lacy throughout the year despite the former describing the car as a truck ferrari took this tongue-in-cheek comment in good share by firing him before the end of the season this meant that elazi was now the number one driver for the team which effectively meant that the white of italy was now on his shoulders also it seemed the good news for him heading into 1992 was that the car was even slower there was now no realistic chance for him to win a race and instead had to pray that it rained so that he could show off his boat driving skills and especially at the spanish grand prix where after a strong start was punched off by burger and sent down the order after pitting for a fresh set of boots a lacey began to charge up the field with some awesome driving with the occasional not so awesome driving which saw other cars get nerfed while mansa would win his cake walk a lacey would round out the podium after a daring albeit somewhat maniacal drive a fantastic drive in canada gave the frenchman another podium however something that plagued he and the ferrari team that year was an ever-present issue where the engine would constantly run into what the italians call mancanza de vita or absence of being alive but more bluntly it blew its guts all over the track which doesn't really help lacey with the simple task of you know finishing races let alone getting podiums this rancher in france where his drive in the wet left many people aghast matching the williams times what is this witchcraft of course it couldn't last a lacie came by to complete lap 61 but would not return to complete lap 62. his engine already haven't given up due to the embarrassment of being led by ricardo betrayze ferrari government new car halfway through the season which was slightly better whenever he wasn't running into another car he finished the year in p7 a somewhat deflating position for the prancing horse's number one driver unreliability with the carrera 93 may the lacy seriously consider filing divorce papers with ferrari but after finishing third at monaco a lacie thought this to be a turning point and julie signed on for another two years with the scuderia but whatever the magic was that transpired in monaco it wouldn't really work out for the remainder of the year despite another podium at monza he was now three years with a scuderia and no wins this wasn't exactly what he had in mind when he signed up for this gig but when 1994 came around the tide started to turn the car started to perform better despite missing out on two rounds that year after injuring himself in a crash he put on a good string of results in the first half of the season but then his engine came over all italian again for the next four races he would not finish a grand prix although he did score a proposition at monza which doing so in a ferrari gave a lacie a sort of status in italy only reserved for god in iphone 65 but when his gearbox failed while making a pit stop while in the lead of the race a lacie was pissed he walked away from the paddock got in his car and sped back home to avignon with his foot flat to the floor [Music] he didn't care anymore his race was ruined as it was so many times with ferrari who could not deliver him a car that would finish a race although admittedly it wasn't always ferrari's fault sometimes a lacie would be his own worst enemy with all of this it seemed that a lacie would never win a grand prix with ferrari [Music] spending the 31st birthday behind the wheel of a ferrari formula one car is not a bad gig it was the canadian grand prix and prior to the start he vowed to be more aggressive in the opening laps of the race so what's new after starting from fifth on the grid he worked his way up and found himself behind reigning world champion michael schumacher who was leading a dominant effort for the benetton team it seemed that shumi was destined to win before his electrics decided to keep the car in third gear gifting the lead to a lacie with the luck he'd had so far you would think that his car would pack up and leave him on the side of the road but it didn't after four years of trying after four years of heartache jean lazy finally got his first grand prix victory to the elation of like everybody this was a moment of euphoria for him but almost immediately after the race ended rumors abound ferrari had signed schumacher for the 1996 season it was later confirmed that he would be indeed signing with the scooteria and that he would be replacing jean coming close to more wins that year alec's final stint with ferrari was pretty much the same as he had been for the whole of his time there fast but with a violent tendency to cause drama although it was this mercurial attitude that led to some amazing drives at the japanese grand prix he was given a stop-go penalty for what he described as no reason this put him way back down the pack and seemingly out of contention but this is john lacy we're talking about from 15th place he climbed through the field fell back down it again went back up and again was gaining on the leaders found himself in second place and gaining on schumacher hand over fist at this rate he was sure to take the lead then he retired on lap 24 the ferrari technology once again failing him he celebrated his last race with ferrari by crashing into schumacher a dismal in for the fan favorite but on the plus side he would be headed to bennetton for 1996 the defending champions maybe this would provide the elixir of life that was so dearly needed for him well of course i think you all know the answer to this which schumacher left for ferrari he took a lot of bennett and personnel with him the team was gutted although jean had problems of his own after crashing twice at the start of the year he was told by team boss flavio briatori that there were to be no more errors from either he or teammate burger alecie every so often found himself leading some grand prix only for his car to fail him the more things change the more they stay the same having said that he would actually achieve eight podiums that year to help propel him to fourth overall in the standings although heading into 1997 bloated beetlejuice told him that if he did not deliver the goods he was out aleci took heed of this by running out of fuel in australia having ignored team orders to pit for you know fuel there was other stupid [ __ ] that year as well and so despite achieving decent results that year flav had had enough and left aleci out of the team's lineup for 1998. he julie signed for sauber a team not exactly known for being creme de la creme but it nonetheless gave him a seat on the grid to prove his worth he outperformed the machinery he was given and this was noticed by of all teams ferrari the team was looking to replace eddie irvine for 2000 and schumacher had said that having a lacie as the team's second driver would be ideal granted he would have been a lap dog but heading into the season of 2000 it would have made a lacey a perpetual front runner instead he would sign for pros grand prix now if we want to talk about bad moves this is one of them the car was nothing short of [ __ ] and even jean's heroics couldn't make it work he ran around in the car for a year and a half before joining jordan for a short-term stint in 2001 a reunion with the man who gave him his big break in motorsport all the way back in 1989. it wouldn't last long however as for 2002 the team opted to sign takuma sato and giancarlo for cicala leaving a lacie hung out to drive he was offered a drive at arrows but he wasn't interested in driving for a back marker team and even if he did join them the team would die just a few races into that season when the 2001 season came to a close the sun had also set on a lacy's formula one career he did complete some testing for mclaren in 2002 and was even in the frame to become their official test driver but where lacey's main efforts lay was within the dtm touring car series where he ran with relative success for a few years after that lacy would do everything from the mon to indy to being a test driver for the lotus t125 project who i used to hero worship is playing with my genitals he also managed the racing career of his son giuliano which in itself is a bit of a trip selling his ferrari at 40 to watch his son battle the likes of a man who was regarded as one of the greatest drivers to ever come out of asia a driver who when given the machinery can make it fly sean galile overall what do we say about this guy he put on some herculean performances in his career was much adored by fans and very highly rated within the paddock why did it all go so wrong why didn't he win more races or challenged for championship titles well there are a few reasons firstly his choice of teams were untimely even by alonso standards had he kept towards williams contract in 91 he would have been there when the team was indomitable and most likely would have meant more wins and possibly a shot at the title he then went to ferrari which brought up the second problem reliability he had none whether it was ferrari or some other team elasie would find himself leading a grand prix only for his car to take a cyanide pill before he can reach the checkered flag this ruined too many opportunities for him and made the results look a lot worse than what they actually were but then there is the third reason for why it all went wrong himself as much as we all love jean he made a great many mistakes throughout his career which really hurt his reputation and his results had he kept a call ahead perhaps he may have finished a few more races having said that it was because of this attitude that he put on the drives that he did you can't really win with this one still though even in 2021 he remains ultra popular especially with the tafozi because his personality as well as his driving style was a breath of fresh air compared to someone like terry bootsen who was more boring than an empty void and it's for this reason why when you witness him driving a classic ferrari formula one car around the streets of monaco it just feels right you get the sense that everything is right with the world that nothing could possibly go wrong [Music] anyways thank you all for watching drop a comment below subscribe to the channel if you're awesome and always remember keep it respectful be wholesome don't be a manager and as always i'll see you all later [Applause] never been

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 394,421

Keywords: F1, Formula 1, Formula One, Jean Alesi, Alesi, Ferrari, Grand Prix, Tyrrell, Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Prost, Alain Prost, Senna, Ayrton Senna

Id: FCEsQVmqN78

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021