Formula One news

Column: Back in action

The Bahrain Grand Prix was not the best start of the season. I hoped for more obviously than to stand still at the grid and getting out of the car without a single lap of racing. Right after I got out of the car the engineers and I started to check out the problems of the car. It was bad luck, but the team is working hard to get it all sorted.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday evening and went straight to bed as it was getting late already. Today, Wednesday, we first had a meeting with the team. We talk about the car, things we can expect from the car's behaviour at the track etc. etc.
After that I put on my trainers to run around the track. I ran two laps and that was pretty tough as temperatures and humidity are very high here in Malaysia.

The Malaysian Grand Prix is always good. It's not one of my favourite tracks but it's a big challenge. Last year I remember I got out of the car and could barely walk! The seatbelts in the Minardi were too tight so my legs weren't getting enough blood. Apart from that the race is very hard mentally thanks to the humidity here. This year I'm sure we won't have the same problems in the car with my seatbelts because we did a lot of testing already and improving my position in the car.
I'm looking forward to the start of the race. My goal is to finish the race so we can learn more about our car.

Qualifying should be good again. I think the new qualifying system is a great improvement in the Formula 1 race weekends. It's good for both the fans and drivers. In this way of qualifying you can get the maximum out of the car with low fuel, unlike last year where you could only run one lap and bring the fuel amount you want to start the race with.

The race in Bahrain was also really good to watch. You saw lots of overtaking and I think the main reason is why you see so much overtaking is because all the team have so many new things to run with. New engines, new tyre rules, new aero parts etc. That means the differences between the cars are bigger I think and so for example one car would perform better halfway into the race while another one's performance would go down. I expect the Malaysian Grand Prix to become even more exciting!

Anyway, bring on the heat Malaysia!

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