For Jean Alesi, the final get-up-to-speed phase of his introduction to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was completed on Monday. The 47-year-old Frenchman hit a fastest lap of 211.516 after running enough laps consecutively at over the 210mph threshold to complete his Rookie Orientation Program.
Alesi expanded on the efforts from his first few days with the Fan Force United Lotus team. He ran 40 laps on Monday.
"We finished our program for being able to walk," Alesi joked. "I'm happy but I still expect more from the engine performance. We are still far away. The engineers are working on it. The top speeds we are reaching at the moment are still too low to be Lotus. So, they must tune the engine as much as they can to be competitive. With this crew and the Fan Force United team, I'm sure we can make a good race. This team has done such a great job for me so far."