Classic F1 start: Watch Jean Alesi’s ridiculous holeshot at Silverstone in 1995


Classic F1 start: Watch Jean Alesi’s ridiculous holeshot at Silverstone in 1995

Starting a Formula 1 car from the grid has always been notoriously difficult and back in the mid 1990’s, it surely wasn’t easy. The clutch heat-soaks while sitting on the grid and may or may not grab when you launch at the prescribed RPM; there was an even money shot on smoky wheelspin or grid-place stall. Add in a bit of rain falling just a few minutes before the race, and you have all the makings of an epic start like the 1995 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. For Ferrari driver Jean Alesi, it was apparently no bother.

As occasionally happens with the Prancing Horse, the Ferrari effort for 1995, the 412T2 was not the strongest in F1 history. Alesi would take the only win of the season in Canada, but on this occasion the two Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Alesi qualified fourth and sixth, respectively. However, when the lights went out at the start, everybody struggled for grip. Everybody except Alesi. His Ferrari hooked up immediately long before he even had to think about he braking for the first turn, Copse Corner, he had blown away (in order) Johnny Herbert, Berger, David Coulthard, and Michael Schumacher. If you’re counting, that’s everyone except polesitter Damon Hill.

Alesi couldn’t make his brilliant start stick unfortunately, and the race became famous for being one of many chapters in the rivalry between Schumacher and Hill when Hill slammed clumsily into Schumacher’s Benetton late in the race, allowing Herbert to win out. Alesi ran in podium contention all race until the closing laps, when he suffered a drop in oil pressure that forced him to limp into a sixth-place finish.

Sit back and enjoy some classic V12 Ferrari noise into your earholes after the ridiculous start.


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