Giuliano Alesi: “Living my passion in Japan”

Giuliano Alesi completed two seasons in F2, with a 15th and 17th place in the championship up for grabs. The son of Jean Alesi, seeing his future blocked in the discipline, decided to leave the Ferrari Driver Academy to go into exile in Japan. The Frenchman explains his choice to us.

To begin, a quick word about your big premiere in a F1 with the 2018 Ferrari last week?

It was a great pleasure to be part of this test and especially to drive an F1 car for the first time in my life, and a Ferrari at Fiorano. It's something historic. There are all the legends that I have idolized since I was little who have ridden here. It was an unforgettable moment. My father was there and, for him, seeing his son ride here with the number 28, thirty years later, it was a moving moment.

Can you tell us a little about this ride?

I didn't do a lot of laps. It was a fairly small program. I was the first to ride so obviously it wasn't easy to adapt, because the track was slightly wet, with a few wet patches here and there. It wasn't easy to manage, but once you gain the confidence, there is so much mechanical and aerodynamic grip that it's great and you can make a lot of progress in a few laps.

It’s a nice way to leave the Ferrari Driver Academy…

Yes, it's a very nice reward, a good way to part ways. I decided to take a different direction in my career. I'm going to Japan next season with the idea of ​​making my passion my job.

So it was you who chose to no longer continue with Ferrari?

By going to Japan, I want to live from my passion. By going there, I became, in quotes, a professional pilot. However, the academy is a school. She told me she was 100% with me, that I will always be part of the family, but that I will no longer be able to be part of the academy, which is normal since I am no longer at school.

You had a very difficult 2020 season in FIA F2, how do you analyze it?

It’s clear that this wasn’t the season we signed for last spring. But in the many difficult moments, I learned a lot about myself, about my way of working, about how to manage certain situations in my professional life for the future. Afterwards, it was certainly a very bad season. In Formula 2, if you're not in the top three teams, you can't win. And to go to the best teams, you either have to be wealthy or have a manager who blocks your seat. If you don't have that, you can't get in there. So we had hope of success with HWA.

But the problem is that with the first confinement, they sent all their staff home, on technical unemployment. And in the end, all the infrastructure they had that could have been very useful for the development of the car, they didn't take advantage of, because no one was working. Nobody touched the car. They left them in the containers and picked them up on the trail, without really touching them.

Why did you choose Japan?

There, motorsport remains pure in my opinion. There is the possibility of a career and great things. In Europe, you have to pay all the time. Whether you do F1, F2, F3 or Endurance. I want to make my passion my profession, and Japan is the right choice.

Find the complete interview in issue 2297 of AUTOhebdo, available in digital version.