Jean Alesi has been here before. He’s talked up Ferrari in springtime, only to spend the autumn explaining why optimism turned into another long, red sigh. This time, though, he sounds less like a former driver clinging to hope and more like someone who’s finally spotted something solid in Maranello’s work.
What’s changed, in Alesi’s eyes, is not the volume of the promise but the shape of it. After three grands prix and the first Sprint of 2026, he’s convinced Ferrari has started the year with what he calls a “real” Ferrari car — a machine that looks like it belongs in the title conversation, rather than one that needs a dozen caveats and a favourable calendar to feel relevant.
Alesi is also candid about why fans tend to cling to his words. He remains a beloved figure among the Tifosi despite winning only once during his five seasons in red, and that affection means his verdicts often travel further than they should. He knows, too, that his predictions have often aged badly.
“In the beginning, I suffered because I said we had found something,” Alesi said. “At the end of the season… I said, a catastrophe. It was a catastrophe, but I didn’t say anything wrong. I just told the facts.”
The facts right now are encouraging — and still faintly brutal.
Ferrari sits second in the constructors’ standings with 90 points, built on three grand prix podiums. Charles Leclerc has delivered two of them, Lewis Hamilton grabbed his first for the team in China, and the early-season rhythm has at least looked purposeful. But Mercedes has won all three grands prix plus the Sprint in China, and Ferrari is already 45 points behind. That’s not a gap; it’s a message.
The more revealing detail, though, is where Ferrari is strong and where it’s still being exposed. There’s talk that the Ferrari can attack the Mercedes W17 off the line, helped by an allegedly smaller turbo. In other words: the launch phase and the first metres are no longer a guaranteed loss to the silver car. That matters because it changes how you race Mercedes — it gives you an opening to force them defensive, to make their drivers use tyres and battery earlier than planned, to complicate the first stint rather than simply surviving it.
But the advantage appears to evaporate once Mercedes clears what’s described as the one-second “overtake barrier”. Once the W17 has clean air and a cushion, Ferrari can’t live with its pace. That’s a familiar kind of pain: quick enough to be seen, not quick enough to be feared.
Still, Alesi’s tone around Ferrari’s drivers is telling, particularly with Hamilton. The seven-time world champion’s first months in red have inevitably been noisy — and at points, unfairly so, according to Alesi, who bristled at the Italian press turning critical.
“He has won seven world titles,” Alesi said. “It’s still fine for him to be part of the development of a big project, even if it’s difficult. The season is still very young and he always feels good.
“The Italian press criticised him at one point, and that was not justified, but again we saw in China and Melbourne that he is there.”
It’s also an implicit reminder of what Ferrari actually bought when it signed Hamilton: not just lap time, but a reference point. In a season where Mercedes looks like the benchmark and Ferrari is trying to close a defined deficit, Hamilton’s value isn’t limited to Sundays. The team needs a driver who can articulate what’s missing when the car’s good but not great — and crucially, who can do it without being seduced by a couple of podiums into thinking the job is done.
Leclerc, meanwhile, remains the yardstick inside the garage. Alesi was effusive about him, and lumped him into a very small group.
“Charles is Charles,” he said. “Charles is highly regarded in my eyes as a driver. Max and Charles are the top for me.”
That’s praise with an edge, because it frames Ferrari’s situation starkly: the driver line-up is not the problem. If you have Hamilton’s experience and Leclerc’s speed and you’re still watching Mercedes disappear beyond reach once the race settles, the fix has to come from the factory.
There may be a mechanism that helps that along. Alesi pointed to Formula 1’s engine Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities, expected to kick in after Miami. The idea is straightforward: if a power unit is deemed to be lacking compared to Mercedes, the rules would allow scope to develop and close the gap. For teams like Ferrari — and Red Bull, as Alesi noted — that could become a critical pressure valve in a season where Mercedes has begun by setting the pace.
Alesi’s broader point is that 2026 won’t be decided by who nailed the first three rounds; it’ll be decided by who develops smartest and fastest once the calendar stretches and the easy gains are gone.
“It’s a long championship,” he said. “It’s all about the development of the car, which is now better than most other cars, but a little less than Mercedes… So it will be a difficult battle in development.
“And don’t forget Red Bull. They have Max Verstappen… and Max is Max!”
That last line lands because it’s true in the way the paddock understands instinctively. Mercedes may be the early standard, Ferrari may finally have something Alesi recognises as properly “Ferrari”, but Verstappen’s presence means the year can’t be treated as a two-team script. If Ferrari wants to turn these promising Sundays into a championship chase, it needs to do more than start well — it needs to make Mercedes feel hunted, not merely followed.
For once, Alesi isn’t selling a dream built on vibes. He’s pointing at a car that looks credible, a driver pairing that has the tools, and a season structure that could offer a route back. The uncomfortable part is that Ferrari’s early form also confirms how far ahead Mercedes already is — and how quickly “a real Ferrari car” must become a title-winning one.
