Indy 500 – Jean Alesi: “It’s not impossible for me to give up”

He dreamed of it, but will he really be able to do it? Jean Alesi, after reaching an agreement with the Fan Force United team last week to take part in the Indianapolis 500 (May 27), is asking himself a lot of questions after noting a flagrant lack of performance from his Lotus V6. You just need to look at the cumulative time sheets from the first five free practice sessions to realize this. The two Dallara-Lotus bring up the rear. But even more than the fact of not being able to fight at the forefront, it is the question of security which makes the Avignonnais doubt today. It must be said that its car returns more than 12 mph (nearly 20 km/h) to the fastest. “At the moment I feel dangerous, being in a clearly slow car in the middle of the track, he told the Associated Press. The fact that we couldn't reach the necessary speed worries me for the other drivers. I'm going all out and reaching 205 mph at best. We are not in a comfortable position right now.”

EJ Viso (KV Racing), who has a Chevrolet engine, is also worried. “I wouldn’t want to be in his place. (to Alesi. Editor’s note), he admits. It's clear that they lack power. To go faster, you have to compensate, and when you compensate, it becomes harder to ride. He's a rookie, and it's his first time on an oval. And probably one of the hardest of the year”. "TheIndyCar is monitoring the situation very closely and continues to discuss with manufacturers on this subject” says Will Phillips, the series' vice president of technology. As for John Judd, who designs the Lotus V6s, we don't really know what to do. “I sympathize with the situation, underlines the Briton. We have work to do. I think we would all benefit from doing more testing.”

Also having a Lotus unit, Simona de Silvestro (HVM Racing) admits to constantly looking in her mirrors. “On the engine side, we are suffering, and that makes driving more complicated, admits the resident of HVM Racing. When you're only at 200 mph, the downforce generated isn't enough, and it becomes trickier. Hopefully for qualifying and the race we have something suitable”.

A cruel example of this lack of power, Jean Alesi had to benefit from the extra power normally reserved for qualifying in order to complete phase III of the Rookie Orientation Program, which consists of completing 15 laps at more than 210 mph. Although qualified, we still do not have the certainty of seeing the Frenchman at the start on May 27. “I have a hard time with it, because I worked a lot to be here, he lamented on Radio-Canada. Here (Tuesday. Editor’s note), we didn't drive because we can't work. With an engine like that, it's impossible. It's not impossible that I'll give up. Normally, Lotus should provide us with a more powerful engine. If something better comes along, we'll continue or if not, we'll stop. » Which would be a very sad end to this extraordinary challenge that he had set for himself...