Jean Alesi interview: Verstappen, Ferrari, Mercedes, Piastri, Alonso & more

The Formula 1 season returns at the end of August with the Belgian Grand Prix, after what has been a fascinating campaign so far.

The standings are currently looking very much in favour of Max Verstappen and Red Bull but, with nine races still left to go, anything can still happen.

To take a look back at the 2022 campaign up to this point, we caught up with ex-F1 driver Jean Alesi to get his thoughts on some of the biggest storylines…

Jean Alesi on Ferrari

“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.

“Probably since Ferrari [began] existing, 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,