We’re in a real golden period for the GP2 Series at the moment. Silverstone was just a few weeks ago, we were at Spa last time out, and now, this weekend, it’s time for Monza. All are classic tracks and I’ve always loved driving at Monza – you know you’re going to get some good hard racing.
Normally when I put this blog together I’m travelling to the event from Le Mans, where the DAMS team is based, because I’ve been there with my team-mate Pierre Gasly doing a couple of days of preparation. Well, this time we did that last week, so my last real day of getting everything into shape has been at the rather less-glamorous-sounding location of Bruntingthorpe. There’s a test track there and that’s where I’ve been spending time with my ever-young driver coach, Rob Wilson!
Rob is without doubt the best coach in the business. He was an up-and-coming driver in the 1970s and through the ’80s, but now he helps people like me, and even some right at the top in Formula 1. I’ve been going to him ever since I was 15 – I was still karting then, and the first time he coached me I’d never even driven a road car!
The MSA – British motorsport’s governing body – funds my days with Rob now, as it does for my fellow drivers on the Team UK scheme. I do six or seven days a year with him and James Wozencroft, who’s the Team UK performance coach, so he looks after our development and helps us stay on the right path.
What Rob does very well is allow us to focus on the basics and home in on them. There’s so much technical stuff in modern motor racing that it’s very easy to forget the basics of driving – they can kind of get lost in translation.
So, how were the preparation days with DAMS? Well, we had a bit of a disappointing weekend at Spa, but we’ve actually been very positive. You just have to take it on the chin sometimes. We’ve regrouped and understood what went wrong, and I feel that at Monza we can be competitive.
Because of the nature of Monza I’m really looking forward to it. In Formula 3 I felt a bit cheated because both my trips there were marred by rain, and last year in GP3 I had a title to try and win, so my points for a second place were really valuable. This time, if it’s dry, it’s going to be great, because you get racing like you don’t see anywhere else. I enjoy driving the circuit so much, and my favourite part is the Ascari chicane. It’s very very technical and you’ve always got low downforce for the long straights. It’s extremely difficult to get right, but when you do you’re floating from the left apex to the right to the final left, and it’s such a sweet feeling when you see the gearshift lights coming on nice and early – because you’ve got such a good exit – on the run down to Parabolica.
As well as racing, I’ve got something quite nice to tell you about. My partners Eye Respect are running a competition on my Facebook page and theirs to win a pair of their sunglasses and the chance to spend a little bit of time with me. I can’t quite squeeze us both into the cockpit of my GP2 car for a passenger lap(!), but it’s always good to meet people who are as much into racing as I am.
So, what’s the aim for Monza? Well, I’m still very much in the hunt for second in the championship, so now we just need to go and produce some good results. That would mean a podium in the feature race and a good reversed-grid race, and we can get that without needing to do anything spectacularly different to what we’ve been doing so far. I’ve no doubt I can be competitive.
