Alesi: It's Jordan or bust for 2002

Formula 1 ace Jean Alesi says that he only wants to drive for the Jordan team next year and that if he cannot hold onto his seat, then he will call time on his 12-year Grand Prix career

Alesi is banking on staying at the Silverstone-based team after quitting the beleaguered Prost outfit to replace the sacked Heinz-Harald Frentzen before July's German Grand Prix. And the Frenchman scored his first points for the Honda-powered team after holding off the Williams of Ralf Schumacher for sixth place in Belgium a week ago.

Team boss Eddie Jordan has yet to announce whether Alesi will stay with the team alongside the incoming Giancarlo Fisichella for next year. The affable French-Sicilian is certainly in the running - but at 37, he is in the twilight of his career and Jordan is known to want to plan for the long term.

Alesi says he is not worried about the future, but if he is not given the nod by Jordan, with whom he won the International Formula 3000 Championship in 1989, then it could signal the end of his F1 career.

"We are having talks all the time and I keep asking Eddie to keep me," Alesi told Autosport.com. "I am not looking for any other place. I just want to stay with Jordan. But I am not at all worried for the future.

"For me the future is just race by race. I think I am using the end of my racing life very well. It is not a question of trying to just carry on, it is about enjoying yourself. For sure I am close to the end, but I don't want to retire."

Alesi's Jordan seat is the closest that the one-time GP winner has got to a top-line drive in recent years, following lacklustre spells with Sauber and Prost since leaving Benetton at the end of 1997.

Eponymous team boss Jordan is quick to sing the praises of his long-time friend, but he has said that he will not make any decisions until after this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

"I think Jean has been very much maligned and he deserves a lot more credit," said Jordan. "He has finished every race this year and wouldn't have done that two or three years ago. He was brilliant to stay ahead of Ralf [Schumacher] at Spa. I'm not going to say he's the number one choice, but he's certainly in the running."