37 replies to this topic

[Todd]

Article by Earl Alexander. Cribbed from DF1:

It seems that the split between Prost Grand Prix and Jean Alesi has not been as amicable as the press releases seem to state.

Speaking to the French media, team boss Alain Prost hit out at his former driver claiming that Alesi's attitude following their split was 'childish'.

"For me, his recent remarks are grotesque and I don't want to comment on them in detail," l'Equipe report Prost as saying, "Above all, when we fixed the terms of our separation, it was agreed that nobody would denounce the other party or would give his version of how things had happened," Prost said. "Then, minutes after we announced his departure he was giving everything away on radio. It's a childish attitude..."

"He did exactly the same at Ferrari, exactly the same at Benetton and exactly the same at Sauber," Alesi's former Ferrari team-mate continued. "It happened again with us. It's the same every time. The others are all imbeciles, engineers are no good and there is no progress made on the car. He should stop it. I don't want to say anymore."

Reports suggest that Alesi was incensed with Prost after he was given verbal warnings from the team following his comments over the cars performance at the French Grand Prix.

Clearly, Alain Prost's relationship with Jean Alesi is all but over.

Prost is only about half as clever as he thinks. Now, he remembers that Alesi burns every team that he ever drives for. Seeing as he knows the guy's history, why on earth did he take him on?

[Ross Stonefeld]

heh and equally strange why did Jordan take him

[Todd]

My guess is that Eddie wanted to be rid of H2F and didn't have any confidence in Zonta. Combine that with Eddie's history with Alesi, and I guess Jordan is as dumb as a brick some of the time.

I wonder who instigated Alesi leaving Prost though. Alesi was no faster than his never-will-be-anybody teammates, and Prost was strapped for cash.

[MN]

Originally posted by Todd
.....
I wonder who instigated Alesi leaving Prost though. .....

Prost!
There are a lots of stories(Alesi on Prost) in a Japanese F1 web site.
Prost has been giving Alesi hard time and blaming Alesi for everything.
French GP was the one made Alesi mad.
Car had mechanical problems, it was bouncing up and down due to the new aerodynamics they tried. Prost factory knew that they made mistake and ride hight was incorrectly set. They informed it to Prost but nothings were done about it. Yet again Alesi was the one being blamed for poor performance.
After British GP, Alesi received a letter from Prost and that letter was the trigger.
At German GP, Alesi gathered all mechanics and thanked them for their support and told them that it is the last time driving Porst car.

Even though Alesi thought he could win if Prost took him to court, he paid 35,000,000 Franc to Prost to cancel his contract to get Jordan ride.

[Todd]

What is that in hard currency?

[312 PB]

~6-7 mil us$

[Williams]

Originally posted by 312 PB
~6-7 mil us$

WoW. Amazing that (a) JA could afford to give away those funds and (b) he would feel that strongly about getting out of Prost.

Why would anyone make a ficitonal move about motor racing ? A documentary about this season in F1, with Newey and Jaguar and now Alesi and Prost would be just as riveting as anything anyone could make up.

[312 PB]

you think jean or eddie paid ?

[Williams]

312 just going by what MN posted ("Even though Alesi thought he could win if Prost took him to court, he paid 35,000,000 Franc to Prost to cancel his contract to get Jordan ride.") I assumed that Alesi paid, but I suppose it could be Eddie.

6-7M would be a good retainer for even a next-to-top driver for one season, never mind half a season.

[MN]

And.... just remind you that Prost is not paying HHF. HHF will drive Prost remaining 5 races free.

Prost now says that he is a long time HHF fan.

[kenny]

Typical Prost... It's always someone else's fault!
while he has never done anything wrong ...

seems like prost is the biggest whiner of them all!

[RJL]

"It's the same every time. The others are all imbeciles. Engineers are no good and there is no progresss made on the car."

Wow, that could easily be Forgierri describing Prost during his time at Ferrari.

[Boston Killer]

heh I see certain users just can't live with the fact of Alesi being better racer than Schumaher:lol:

C'mon fellaz show us what other cheapshots have you learned!
This is getting really old...

On a more serious note I think both Prost and Jean should have done better in this situation.
It was clear that they have the worst car of the decade, but they could have broke up politely.
On the other hand bith of these truly GREAT men have probably had enough of it.So many bitter loses, would make anyone mad.
even Jean and Alain.

As for Jean's remarks..well, while I personally think he should have avoided them it is clear that he was absolutely right.
With Prost and Ferrari and Sauber.

By the way, for those not familiar with the world financial situation:
French Franc IS a hard currency

[AlesiUK]

hmmmm,anyone remember prost leaving ferrari,or mclaren..... wasnt exactly amacible was it!

Infact,didnt ferrari sack him for an outburst in the press.Seems the proffesor has a short memory.

[Singing in the rain]

Seems that Alain is scared and panicking.
What has Jean said apart from "I am NOT 'appy with Alain, but let's not dwell over that"?
Sure someone has the right to say "I am angry and disappointed"
Anyone remember Jean's word after Nürburgring? -"I am very appy for the team". Still it was clear that he was NOT happy.
That's class if you ask me!

Jean sure had disagrees with Todt, Flavio and Sauber, those disagreements are settled know. Question is will Alain and Jean be friends again? Not sure! Does Alain have any friend these days?
Watch out HHF, Alain needs a buddy!

Todd, can we agree on the fact that Alain is a lesser teamboss than Jean is a driver?

[Lantern]

Originally posted by Boston Killer
heh I see certain users just can't live with the fact of Alesi being better racer than Schumaher:lol:

C'mon fellaz show us what other cheapshots have you learned!
This is getting really old...

WTF??

[Gudrun]

Originally posted by Lantern


WTF??

JA, just like JV. More guts than brains.

[schumigal]

They seem quite bitter about each other. And i thought they are like good buddies. Wasn't Jean the one that said he'll drive for Prost because of their good relationship or something a while back? Boy, time sure has changed.

[CeCe]

Alesi could have just kept his mouth shut. He's getting a chance to drive a better car so his move needs no explanation. His comments seemed to mirror the HHF vs EJ situation and were completely unnessesary. If he doesn't have a contract with EJ for next year (“contract” we all know what that's good for) he should still watch his step. He's a man that can't afford to burn anymore bridges.

[Cociani]

Originally posted by Boston Killer
By the way, for those not familiar with the world financial situation:
French Franc IS a hard currency

Thank you for posting that I was about to do the same. Todd once said that Nova Scotia Canada was part of the third world and defended this opinion vehamently. The French definitly do not print monopoly money. Todd if you have any extra French Francs you don't want send them my way.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Man give Todd a break, he probably only wanted the numbers in a currency he could relate to

[Cociani]

Ross, than he could have asked what is that in U.S. dollars or gone to one of the many currency conversion sites on the net. Todd very often belittles countries other than his own and I as well as many others on this site get tired of it. It is not necisary and does not add to the atmosphere of this BB.

[RJL]

Originally posted by CeCe
Alesi could have just kept his mouth shut.

I disagree. It seems to me that it's Alain who is running off at the mouth here. As far as I can see, JA has said this in the press:

"Things didn't go the way I expected at prost. There's no need to dwell on the subject, but on monday after Silverstone I received a letter from Alain's soilcitors that really upset me.

After that all I wanted to do was leave, but I never for a moment thought I'd find another seat so quickly and as of Budapest, I'll have a car capable of being on the podium."

Like Singing In The Rain said: pure class. The guy's been through hell on his so called "friend's" team, rumour has it that they weren't paying him. This statement hardly qualifies as controversial. Particularly in light of Alain's recent (and sadly typical) tirade as posted by Todd at the top of this thread.

CeCe, if you have a link that shows Alesi going off about Prost I'd like to see it posted.

[pa]

Originally posted by Cociani
Ross, than he could have asked what is that in U.S. dollars or gone to one of the many currency conversion sites on the net. Todd very often belittles countries other than his own and I as well as many others on this site get tired of it. It is not necisary and does not add to the atmosphere of this BB.

I'm gonna surprise everyone and keep my fat yap shut this time.

[355 boy]

Originally posted by Cociani
Ross, than he could have asked what is that in U.S. dollars or gone to one of the many currency conversion sites on the net. Todd very often belittles countries other than his own and I as well as many others on this site get tired of it. It is not necisary and does not add to the atmosphere of this BB.

The french franc is linked to the Euro and you call it hard currency???

[Hakk]

I doubt EJ didn't have any faith for Zonta and he had no choise but to hire Alesi, who is pretty fast when motivated.

But I think Prost is right about what he said about Alesi. Alesi is moaning about everything. He even moaned at Ferrari, he moaned at Benetton and he moaned at Sauber. If someone has said that Barrichello is a moaner (was it EI who said that? ), Barichello is nothing compared to Alesi.

[philhitchings]

Originally posted by 312 PB
you think jean or eddie paid ?

Benson and Hedges paid

[philhitchings]

The Franc is in a similar situation to the dollar at present. Both performing realitvely poorly to the Mark and the GBPound, still that's hard for currency isn't it.

[Oho]

Ave !!


Yes actually French Franc, German Mark, Italian Lira, and Finish Mark among few others are no longer real currencies at all, they are not rated they merely exist as conversion factors for Euro which is the only actual currency for the entire Euro region.

- Oho -

[355 boy]

Originally posted by philhitchings
The Franc is in a similar situation to the dollar at present. Both performing realitvely poorly to the Mark and the GBPound, still that's hard for currency isn't it.

How can the franc perform badly next to the mark? They're both linked to the same crock of ****...

[schumigal]

Well according to f1.com, their problems seem to be deeper than that.

According to French newspaper, L'Equipe, Alesi has been an ardent defender of driving without the assistance of electronic aids which caused the team, and his boss in particular, a lot of despair.

Apparently, the team insisted that he use these devices and he refused, going as far as to accuse Alesi of being at fault for the mediocre performances of the car at Magny Cours, according to the paper. The team later acknowledged that the problems were of a technical nature and not down to the pilot.

Furthermore, again according to L'Equipe, it seems that this controversial issue was mentioned in a letter that was sent by Prost's lawyer to Alesi, highlighting the disagreement between both men. It is not clear whether this is the letter that Alesi received on the Monday after Silverstone.

Interestingly, it seems that the disagreements were not limited to Alain Prost; formula1.com has learned that Alesi may have also been at odds with the second major shareholder in the team, Pedro Diniz, and that the later had at least one perhaps-not-so-friendly exchange with Alesi on "driving styles."

[theMot]

Originally posted by Todd
What is that in hard currency?

[theMot]

Originally posted by kenny
Typical Prost... It's always someone else's fault!
while he has never done anything wrong ...

seems like prost is the biggest whiner of them all!

That helmet under your name wouldnt have anything to do with your opinion?;)

[obi-one]

Prost simply hates everything French.

Maybe Eddie feels that investing in cloud seeding technology is a better investment then developing his car.

It doesn't matter who drives for Jordan, nobody is fast enough to get the stupid thing to the finish line before it breaks down.

[MN]

The letter Alesi received from Prost's lawyer on the Monday after Siverstone basicaly said:

Alesi broke the contact by not co-oprating press interviews and also by not attending technical briefing thus Team Prost will consider Alesi as an outsider unless Alesi pays a penalty.
The penalty was Alesi is to pay 3,750,000 Franc to Prost.

Alesi got upset and determined to leave Team Prost.

[Earthling]

thats some way of asking for money....
I guess there are high classed beggers in the world then.

[Data]

Originally posted by 355 boy


How can the franc perform badly next to the mark? They're both linked to the same crock of ****...

I'll like to hear from you again about a year from now. And you can see what that crock of **** is doing to your great Pound. GB will be begging to get back in....

[Williams]

According to an unsubstantiated story on formula1.com, Prost was upset at Alesi for, among other things, his refusal to use TC and LC.

Also, Alesi had apparently gotten into a argument with Pedro Diniz over driving styles. Somehow I have a hard time envisioning Alesi accepting a driving lesson from Pedro Diniz...