Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Jean Alesi has chosen to focus on the positive aspects of the Maranello team’s start to the new era of Formula 1 technical regulations and feels that Ferrari should get more praise for the F1-75 project, especially given the huge step forward taken after two difficult seasons.
The Italian side has been highly criticized on more than one occasion during the first part of the 2022 Formula 1 season for not being able to convert strong qualifying results on Sunday’s because of several power unit issues, as well as a few questionable strategy decisions during the race, especially for Charles Leclerc. Following the Maranello team’s latest strategy-related discussions at the Hungaroring circuit in the Hungarian Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari have fallen almost 100 points behind rivals Red Bull in the Constructors’ championship, while Charles Leclerc has the difficult task of recovering 80 points to Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings, ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Yet Jean Alesi – who raced for Ferrari from 1991 to 1995, taking his only Formula 1 win during his time with Ferrari, believes more focus should be shifted towards the competitive package that the Italian side was able to design based on the new rules and technical regulation this season. While Red Bull have been able to take advantage of Ferrari’s missteps to take eight of the 13 wins on offer this campaign, the F1-75 car has shown great pure pace by securing pole position in the same number of qualifying sessions so far.
Asked about Scuderia Ferrari’s championship after 13 rounds, Jean Alesi replied, in a recent interview with Give Me Sport:
“It’s not such a bad season for them, because the last few years they had a very bad car and a bad season. They hardly got on the podium, then last year, they recovered a bit. And now with these new regulations they came out with a rocket car [which is] very competitive everywhere. But, of course, we are in the middle of the season, and now we can make the kind of judgement on what’s happened. And they have had the moments where they made the wrong decision on the wrong moment. And you see how much a small mistake can be a big effect on the bad side. What I have to say is it’s more important to have a fast car, and then to fine tune the team, because this team [has gone] a long time without winning the championship and they are building a group. And they are fighting with a group like Mercedes, or, obviously, Red Bull, who in the last 12 years, they have won everything, and so this fine tuning to be competitive, not only with the car, but also on the racetrack, will take time.” – the former Ferrari driver explained.
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Jean Alesi, who started more than 200 F1 events during his Formula One career, then wanted to make a comparison to the world of football and sent a message to the Ferrari fans, asking them to look at the bigger picture despite the many disappointing results this season.
“Probably since Ferrari [existed], the attention is always massive and the fans are also very critical. I have a column in Italy for the newspaper Corriere della Sera and last time after Hungary, I made the column only for the fans. I was saying, ‘Please, it’s not like the World Cup, every four years, and you miss a penalty, and it’s the end of the world – it’s not like that’. Racing is different. And of course Ferrari are prepared to have a lot of criticism, and they know how to deal with it. But it’s not nice. I believe so much in [team boss Mattia] Binotto and in the young team because when you have to race against engineers like [Red Bull design chief] Adrian Newey, he is a superstar. As an engineer he has always made winning cars and, to be honest, [the] Ferrari looks faster, so that is a big achievement. The criticism from the press or from the fan is normal because Ferrari is Ferrari.” – former Scuderia Ferrari driver Jean Alesi concluded.
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