Alesi is a racer through and through and remains so, he has so much experience and passion and wants to take part in one of the greatest motorsport events in the world. He knows that critical opinion will try and rip him to shreds, for his age or whatever else. But he doesn’t care, he cares about driving fast, trying to impress the fans and completing a dream.

Don’t dump the Lotus baggage on him, I believe Lotus promised him a drive in his contract as an Ambassador. Why shouldn’t he hold them to it? Yes, it makes Lotus look silly bandling money behind Alesi when they can’t sort their engines out but that is not Alesi’s problem to solve. If promised you you can race Indy when it is your one and only chance, you would make sure they lived up to it.

In these days when we are all complaining about how indycar is run, internal corruptions and drivers with no passion, what could be more back to roots than Crazy Jean Alesi, an F1 has-been in a brand new indy500 graduating team, chasing the 500 dream. Isn’t that the kind of thing racing is truly about?

Watch some youtube videos, see how he reacted to finishing sixth in an F1 car at Montreal in a Prost Peugeot. A car which was about as useful as a lotus engined indycar. Get behind him and give him support for trying, if he isn’t good enough they wont let him race, simple as.

Yes, buying a ride with a team that didn’t even exist a week ago (this deal was literally put together last Friday and this team had no plans for a Indy 500 effort until then) and on a oval for the first time in your life, is the definition of a “respectful and serious” effort.

This is a field-filler deal. They needed somebody to be the the 33rd qualifier. This is #33. Its not serious. Its certainly not respectful to all of those who busted their asses over the years at IMS, just trying to make the race (back when the field of 33 wasn’t determined by the engine manufacturers before the track even opens).

The Indy 500 has fallen to a point where a 47 year old, who hasn’t driven a open-wheel car in a decade and has never driven on a oval of any kind, has to beg literally anyone to run him in a engine nobody wants, so they can fill the traditional 33 car field. Its sad to see it come to this. But that’s where we are.

Meanwhile, Buddy Rice, Tomas Scheckter, Paul Tracy, Alex Lloyd, Davey Hamilton, Vitor Meira, Bertrand Baguette, Jay Howard and John Andretti will all be watching on TV (maybe) this year. Maybe one of them can come back in 10 years and play race driver then at Indy. If its good enough for Jean and Michel, why not?

He was the defending champion of the better series in 1999 with 3 oval wins in his rookie year.

Most of us figured he was going to cream the IRL in 2000.

To be fair to Alesi, Milka ran AN oval before her first Indy 500. As in ONE oval (Kansas). It’s one more than Alesi has driven, yes, but is it really that much more? Milka had been out of open-wheelers for several years as well, prior to her Indy debut.