Luciano Burti may have only taken part in Formula 1 for 14 races, but he did compete against some of the greatest drivers ever to grace the sport.
After his cameo at the 2000 Austrian Grand Prix, Burti raced for Jaguar and Prost in 2001 before a horrific crash at the Belgian Grand Prix ended his Formula 1 career.
However, he lined up against the likes of Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya and many more top drivers.
READ MORE: Luciano Burti shares his chat with Michael Schumacher that proved he was an elite driver
Schumacher went on to win the title that year, nearly doubling Coulthard’s points tally in second as Ferrari began their most recent domination of the sport.
Burti was speaking on the Beyond The Grid Podcast about his short time in F1 but wanted to highlight the talent of a less celebrated racer.
While Burti was very impressed with Eddie Irvine during their short time together at Jaguar, it was Jean Alesi’s raw talent that blew the Brazilian away.
Alesi spent more than a decade in the paddock, racing for the likes of Ferrari, Jordan, Benetton and Sauber along the way.
While he only one a single Formula 1 race, Burti believes he had a much better driver than his statistics suggest.
Luciano Burti admires the ‘raw talent’ of former F1 teammate Jean Alesi
Two of Burti’s teammates during his brief spell in F1 were Eddie Irvine and Jean Alesi and when asked to compare the two, he said: “I think Eddie [Irvine] was more clever, he knew how to deal with the situation in a better way.
“So, in terms of overall performance, I think Eddie was better, it was more difficult for me to be ahead of him.
“But, Jean [Alesi] in terms of talent, raw talent, like I remember driving in the wet and the Michelin tyres were so good already in the dry but in the wet it wasn’t a good tyre.
“And Jean was able to be like the quickest Michelin tyre, even ahead of the Williams cars.
“He had a car control and a raw talent that I had never seen before.
“We went to Monaco and the car wasn’t good and Jean was like five seconds faster, he was really, really talented.
“In a normal situation, Eddie was more clever to deal with the whole thing.”
Jean Alesi never fulfilled his potential in Formula 1
When Jean Alesi arrived in Formula 1 midway through the 1989 season with Tyrrell, he was on his way to winning Formula 3000 with Eddie Jordan.
There was plenty of promise and he finished in the top 10 of the Drivers’ Championship that year despite his shortened campaign.
Another strong season with the team in 1990 earned him his dream move to Ferrari, where he spent five years but only achieved a solitary victory.
That came during his final year with the Scuderia in 1995, coming out on top at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Michael Schumacher went on to win the title and the following year replaced the Frenchman at Ferrari.
Alesi headed in the other direction to Benetton, finishing 4 in back-to-back Drivers’ Championships before finishing his career with spells at Sauber, Prost and finally working for Eddie Jordan once again after he had provided him with the opportunity to step up to F1.
The Frenchman was exceptional but erratic, often making mistakes that cost him the chance to race amongst the elite on the grid.
By the time he started working with Burti, he was coming to the end of his Formula 1 career but Alesi is remembered fondly for his time in the sport.
The post ‘Really talented’: Luciano Burti says one-time F1 race winner had ‘raw talent’ that he had ‘never seen before’ appeared first on F1 Oversteer.