I have to admit my performance in Formula 1 lately hasn’t been up to the mark with the races I’ve had in Monaco and Europe. My teammate Tiago Montiero was outpacing me and I was having a tough time racing and adapting to the circuits where I had never been before. The car has also not been behaving well, which made handling the car very difficult. Also, luck just hasn’t been on my side lately.
A lot has been said about my progress in the media after the recently concluded Canadian Grand Prix where I failed to finish the race. I feel that all this negative media publicity is giving people the wrong notion about my progress in Formula 1. I would again like to say that we are making progress with every race. In Canada, which was another circuit, where I had never raced before, I was having a decent showing till I hit the ‘Wall of Champions’.
My tyres were a bit worn out and that’s when I made this mistake. I was on a heavier fuel load and despite that I was outpacing the Minardis. I also managed to get my lost place back from my teammate before the first round of pits.
Even Rubens Barrichello, who started the race behind me, was having a tough time catching up with me. The reason the Minardi car out-qualified me was because of the lower fuel load and I won’t be surprised if they try the same tactic this week. We, however, will stick to our game plan and will remain unfazed by the happenings around us.
It feels special to be racing at this legendary Indianapolis circuit. It has such a vast history behind it. The track however is straightforward and not very challenging. However, the one testing aspect to this circuit is the top speed. This is the fastest I have ever driven where we managed to reach 346 kmph. Monza will be quicker than this but we will have to wait a bit till then.
The middle sector of the race is full of really tight corners and it’s very important to place your car on the right racing line to get the best time. You have to concentrate on the oval ring and keep the racing line in mind in order to get a fast lap.
I had a good practice session on Friday and I managed forty-nine laps of the circuit. This will definitely prove useful as we go into this race.
Besides this, there wasn’t much we did in the past five days since the Canadian Grand Prix. We will be testing our new car next week and if all goes well we will be able to use that in the next race.
