If you checked out the images we posted of Felipe Massa's return to Maranello, you may have spotted the returning Brazilian driver chatting with one Jean Alesi and wondered what he was doing there.

The French driver raced for the Scuderia from 1991 through 1995, scoring a handful of podiums and a solitary grand prix victory in Montreal. Along with longtime team-mate Gerhard Berger, Alesi switched places with Michael Schumacher to Benetton-Renault in 1996, then bounced between a few other teams before retiring from Formula One at the end of 2001. Since then he's been competing in DTM and then headlined the new Speedcar Series.

With the ill-fated Asian stock car series now deceased, however, the racing world has been wondering what the retired F1 driver would try his hand at next, and on Tuesday they got their hint when Alesi showed up at Fiorano to test the Ferrari F430 GT2. Alesi's slated to race for AF Corse, the team run by Amato Ferrari, who shares strong ties with both Maranello and Maserati but no direct familial relation despite the common name.
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It's been a very long time since Jean Alesi has taken a title. Nineteen years, to be precise, when the French driver took the Formula 3000 championship for the second time. Over the course of thirteen years in Formula 1 and another five in DTM, Alesi has not taken the title home once. And after the inaugural Speedcar Series wrapped this weekend in Dubai, it was clear that it'll be at least one more year.

The Speedcar Series, for the uninitiated, is a circuit-based racing league that runs at events across Asia with 620hp 6-liter V8-powered stock cars. Most of the grid in this, its inaugural season, was composed of former F1 drivers looking to relive the glory days.

Somehow we doubt you had this one TiVo'd – unless you watch Al Jazeera Sports or ESPN Asia – but in case you were waiting for something (say, more geriatric has-beens to emerge from the woodwork), go no further. For everyone else, sleep well tonight knowing that Johnny Herbert ultimately took the crown after winning the final race in the series, beating out points leader Alesi who started the race in 14th place and mounted ambitious charge to the front resulting in a collision that took him out of the race. How about Jacques Villeneuve, who came to the series for two races to hone his stock-car skills against his former colleagues? He must have had Robert Duval on the radio yelling, "rubbin' is racin'!" as he slammed into everything on the track. Herbert, meanwhile, vows to defend his title next season as the pan-Asian Speedcar Series prepares to return.