Jean Alesi's breakout year
Sweeping to F3000 success, winning over an F1 team and making a spectacular grand prix debut. Jean Alesi looks back on a breakout 1989 season with CHARLES BRADLEY
Breakout years, the kind that define a top-level driver's career and can shake up an entire generation, come along only rarely. Last year Daniel Ricciardo had that kind of season. But a quarter of a century ago, with legendary talent spotters Eddie Jordan and Ken Tyrrell behind him, Jean Alesi became the hottest prospect on the grand prix grid.
But does it really feel like a quarter of a century ago to Alesi? "I can believe it was 25 years ago, because today my kid is racing and I am the one who is doing all the watching!" he laughs today. "But when you have a chance, you just have to take it. In 1989 I had the chance, in F3000 and then in F1, and I just said to myself, 'Go for it'."
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Max Verstappen is the world’s number one racing driver… and he’s determined to keep it that way. Speaking exclusively to GP Racing's OLEG KARPOV, the Red Bull driver explains why he’s relishing the 2022 championship battle with Charles Leclerc – and why he’s not worried about returning to Silverstone, the scene of the biggest accident of his career last year
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OPINION: The British Grand Prix is a home event for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, with their Mercedes team based just a few miles away too. But there’s another reason why the Silver Arrows squad is eager to arrive at Silverstone this weekend, which may help it fix its remaining problems with its 2022 Formula 1 challenger
The “solemn promise” that cost quiet hero Brooks an F1 title
After two terrifying crashes, one of the best British racers of the 1950s retired before his career peaked. But that’s why GP Racing’s MAURICE HAMILTON was able to speak to Tony Brooks in 2014. Like his friend Stirling Moss, Brooks was regarded as one of the best drivers never to have won the world championship. Here, as our tribute to Brooks who died last month, is that interview in full
F1 teams can develop engines in season after FIA admits loophole
Nico Hulkenberg: Current Formula 1 cars harder to drive than before
