Jean-Eric Vergne will race formula one veteran Jean Alesi’s helmet design this weekend in Monaco.

It is Vergne’s tribute to his French countryman as former Ferrari and Sauber driver Alesi, 47, this weekend becomes the youngest ever rookie in the Indy 500.

Vergne, 22, had planned to watch Alesi from Indianapolis’ fabled stands, “but then came the news I was driving for Toro Rosso and of course that meant a clash with Monaco”.

Alesi starts the Indy 500 from 33rd and last, with the vastly-underpowered Lotus engine.

Jean Alesi would like to see the pressure eased on the shoulders of France’s new F1 hope.

Until Sunday, Alesi was the last French driver to have stood on a formula one podium, after taking his Sauber to third at Spa in 1998.

Romain Grosjean therefore ended a 14-year podium drought for France, tasting top-three spoils in just his eleventh race in formula one.

“(Grosjean as) My successor?” Alesi told RMC Sport. “I don’t see it that way.

“It’s promising but we need to leave him alone now,” the 47-year-old veteran of 202 grands prix over 13 seasons insisted.

Alesi is referring to the media hype about Grosjean after the first two races, when he failed to get his Lotus around even the first lap in Australia and Malaysia.

He then scored his first ever points in China and seven days later was on the podium, triggering press speculation in France that the tones of ‘La Marseillaise’ are next.

But there remains other pressures on Grosjean; exalted as France’s new hope, and at the same time accused of preventing Kimi Raikkonen from winning in Bahrain by not letting his faster teammate through in the absence of team orders.

“I know what I’m talking about,” said Alesi. “Since the beginning of the season there have been all sorts of comments about him.

“That isn’t right.

“He needs to have calm and take the time that he needs to get on top of everything.

“When it’s a podium, we’re all happy but when it’s a bad performance, we all have to be behind him too,” he added.

Two experts have tipped Lotus to shine this weekend at Sepang.
The black and gold E20 car was a standout of the winter pre-season, but Kimi Raikkonen qualified poorly in Australia while Romain Grosjean was punted into early retirement by Pastor Maldonado.

Seeing the chequered flag first in Melbourne was McLaren’s championship leader Jenson Button, but he said he is expecting a “strong fight” this weekend.

“Of course we’re not relaxing,” said the Briton.

“Both Red Bull drivers were very quick in the race (in Australia), and I think we can expect further strong challenges (in Malaysia) from Mercedes and Lotus,” added Button.

Also anticipating a Malaysian push by Lotus is team ambassador Jean Alesi, the former Ferrari race winner.

“The car should suit Sepang well,” said the Frenchman.

“In testing in Jerez and Barcelona it was particularly good in the fast turns, which is what defines the Malaysia track.

“Lotus appear to be quicker than everyone except McLaren,” added Alesi.

He is worried, however, that the former Renault team might not be able to keep up its pace throughout 2012.

“Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari have much bigger budgets,” said Alesi.

“They have a brilliant team at Enstone but it is really tough to match the development pace of the biggest teams, and I think that will be Lotus’ challenge this year.”

Jean Alesi has welcomed news his native France looks set to rejoin the formula one calendar.
It is expected that, three years after Magny Cours dropped off the schedule, France will return in 2013 with a single annual date to be alternated between Paul Ricard and Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps.

“The drivers love Spa and I think it is very important to always go there because of the spectacle, the history and everything else,” Frenchman Alesi, who contested more than 200 grands prix until 2011, said.

“But the problem is the money,” the 1995 Canadian grand prix winner and Group Lotus ambassador is quoted by France’s Auto Hebdo.

“Spa doesn’t have enough (money) to compete with places like Abu Dhabi. So it would be a shame to lose Spa but I say it’s better to go every other year than not at all.

“The compromise would be beneficial for everyone. As I am French, I would love to see the French grand prix coming back,” added Alesi, “and with the sharing (scheme), we can have both (France and Spa).”

Jenson Button intends to celebrate his 200th grand prix next month in Hungary, the scene of his first formula one race win in 2006.
F1′s official website lists the 2009 world champion as having “entered” 198 grands prix, meaning his double centenary could technically be marked at his home event at Silverstone.

But the typical practice is for the sport to only count grands prix that drivers actually start.

Button, 31, did not start in Monaco in 2003 after a practice crash, while in 2005 at Indianapolis all the Michelin runners pulled into the pits after the formation lap.

“I only count my race starts,” the Briton confirmed to Roger Benoit, the veteran correspondent for the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“So my 200th will be on the 31st of July in Hungary,” confirmed Button.

On August 6, 2006, then contesting his 113th grand prix at the wheel of a Honda, Button recorded his first formula one win at the Hungaroring.

Only Jarno Trulli (118) and Rubens Barrichello (123) took longer than Button to become grand prix winners, while with 179 races under his belt Nick Heidfeld is still trying to join them.

Only 11 F1 drivers have contested more grands prix than Button, with current rivals Rubens Barrichello (310) and Michael Schumacher (274) topping the list.

The Briton will climb to eighth on the all-time list by the end of the 2011 season, by surpassing the records of Alain Prost (198), Jean Alesi (201) and Nelson Piquet (203), and equalling Andrea de Cesaris’ 208.

Fellow ten-time grand prix winner Gerhard Berger retired after his 210th grand prix.

Robert Kubica feared his horror rally crash had left him paralysed, the Polish driver’s manager has revealed.
After arriving at the Italian hospital in a critical condition last Sunday and having seven hours of surgery, the 26-year-old Renault driver was put in a coma.

He woke up this week and has been seeing visitors, and according to O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper he feared his badly damaged hand and other fractures and trauma were not his worst injuries.

“Robert asked me if his accident had left him paralysed, and he asked me to be honest,” manager Daniele Morelli revealed.

“I told him no, that he had nothing that could not be healed with time,” he added.

Autosprint claims that Kubica does not yet know all the details of his injuries, including that his right hand had been almost severed.

The Italian report also said he remembers nothing about the crash.

Morelli also revealed that Kubica asked for a photograph of the late Pope John Paul II, a fellow Pole, to be at his bedside.

“Robert is under the effect of sedatives to take away the pain, but I have seen him smiling, he’s okay. The war is over,” smiled Morelli.

“He is strong and tenacious and he will recover and be stronger than before.”

Meanwhile, in addition to his other injuries that are publicly known, it has emerged that Kubica has a damaged heel.

And elbow surgery is currently not possible because it would require the driver to be rolled onto his stomach, and he is also nursing a punctured lung.

It is understood that Kubica will not require further surgery to his hand.

His next visitor will reportedly be Giancarlo Fisichella, after Jean Alesi visited him on Wednesday.

“He is particularly pleased to know that he will be able to regain his physical abilities,” the Frenchman is quoted by autohebdo.fr.

Lotus-Renault team owner Gerard Lopez also visited Kubica on Wednesday.

“The important news is that Robert is alright. We hope he can return soon, because we built this team around him,” he told La Stampa.

Should ‘team orders’ be deployed in Sunday’s 2010 championship finale, one of the stewards may not be voting to penalise the technically illegal practice.

When asked about whether Sebastian Vettel will be asked to move aside to help his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber win the drivers’ title, driver representative Emanuele Pirro said: “They would be fools if they did not.

“We will monitor it and try to assess the situation,” the Roman, earlier accused of being biased in favour of Ferrari, is quoted by La Stampa newspaper.

The key, Pirro said, is the execution of a team strategy.

“There are many ways for a driver to help the other, but it’s perhaps naive to be using coded messages on the radio,” he explained.

Within the paddock, there are few observers who believe a team with drivers in contention for the title should not be allowed to collaborate to prevent a rival team from winning the championship.

So former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi thinks Red Bull have been wrong to suggest that the drivers will be left entirely to their own devices.

“They are trapped because of the way they have discussed it,” he told The National. “They have tried to say they are clean and they don’t do it, but that is misinformation. It is not true.

“They will definitely use it,” insisted the Frenchman.

Ferrari’s team boss Stefano Domenicali also will not be complaining if Red Bull deploy a driver strategy on Sunday, denouncing the team orders saga as “nonsense”.

“There are team orders in formula one because it is a team sport,” he is quoted by Sport Bild.

“The rule cannot be controlled so it should be abolished. And if it is believed that a team has harmed the sport, then section 151 of the Sporting Code still applies.”

Even Red Bull’s Helmut Marko thinks the prohibition of team orders in F1 is wrong.

“The paragraph should be reconsidered,” the Austrian told sport1.de. “Either it is valid and real penalties apply, or we do away with it entirely, which is probably more realistic.”

Sebastian Vettel sounds unlikely to voluntarily fall in line behind Mark Webber as Red Bull pushes for its first ever drivers’ world championship.

Although heading for the championship lead in Korea before his engine failure, Vettel is now 25 points off Fernando Alonso.

It means Ferrari’s Spanish driver is the favourite for the title, with Vettel’s Australian teammate Mark Webber the most likely challenger due to his 11 point deficit.

But Germany’s Bild newspaper said it sounds unlikely that Vettel is going to give up.

“Nothing is going to change in my approach to the final two rounds,” he is quoted as saying. “My (engine) failure makes everything more interesting and difficult. But it is still possible.

“I am going to fight until the end,” Vettel vowed.

Like McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh who is in a similar situation, Red Bull chief Christian Horner said before leaving Korea that team strategy will be discussed internally before the season’s penultimate event in Brazil.

Former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi thinks Red Bull made a big mistake by not establishing a hierarchy some time ago.

“They needed to take advantage of the fact they had the best car,” the Frenchman told CNR Media. “It’s doubtful they will have the same advantage next year, so you have to say they have mismanaged this season.

“I think they’ve missed a great opportunity,” added Alesi.

Joan Villadelprat, a veteran F1 team manager who now operates his own Le Mans team Epsilon Euskadi, agrees.

“There has been a lack of solidarity at Red Bull, who have not been able to manage their superiority and are now giving the title away to Ferrari,” he wrote in his El Pais newspaper column.

“When a double world champion like Alonso takes the kind of advantage he has now, he does not fail,” the Spaniard added.

Jun.15 (GMM)  The Finn is currently driving full-time in the world rally championship, having ended his Ferrari contract one year early and failed to agree terms for a switch to McLaren.

A Red Bull seat for next year had been touted, but the energy drinks-owned company has instead secured its current lineup for 2011 of Sebastian Vettel alongside Mark Webber.

However, Italy’s Autosprint reports that Renault might be an option for 30-year-old Raikkonen.

The magazine says majority team owner Gerard Lopez wants to replace Vitaly Petrov with Raikkonen for 2011, to be the highly rated Pole Robert Kubica’s new teammate.

Fellow former Ferrari race winner Jean Alesi, however, is impressed with what Raikkonen has achieved so far in rallying.

“Imagine what it means for a driver to start anew in a discipline the exact opposite of what he has always done.

“For that, for his courage to challenge himself in such a way, I admire him,” added the Frenchman.

Autosprint also reports that Renault might have its eye on Adrian Sutil, the long time Force India driver who often admits he would like to finally step into a top team.