AT&T Williams F1

My first grand prix weekend with the AT&T WilliamsF1 Team was a hugely enjoyable experience. The team made me feel very welcome and I thoroughly enjoyed driving the FW29 in the first practice session on Friday morning. It was a dream come true to drive a Formula 1 car during a grand prix weekend. The track was damp throughout the session, which made driving conditions quite difficult and I decided to be careful and keep a couple of tenths in hand in each sector. The only advice my father, Satoru, gave me prior to the session was not to crash the car! The team put me on a different testing programme to Alex [Wurz] and I was able to collect some useful data when a dry line began to appear in the closing minutes. In total I completed 21 laps and was pleased to set the sixth fastest time. The Albert Park circuit was more difficult to drive than I expected because, from the outside, it looked like an easy stop-go circuit. But the reality was very different: it was bumpy and surrounded by walls, and I found it quite challenging. I’m next scheduled to drive the FW29 during Friday practice in Sepang, after which I’ll concentrate on my GP2 programme because it’s not easy to jump between an F1 and a GP2 car. There is a big performance difference between them. The GP2 season kicks off in Bahrain and I’m very pleased to be racing with DAMS this year. They are a really good team and, in Nicolas Lapierre, I have a very experienced team-mate who can help me a lot. I missed the final test at Paul Ricard last week because I was in Melbourne, but winter testing has gone well and I’ve usually been in the top five or six on the time sheets. DAMS is my first experience of a French team. I don’t speak any French, beyond ‘bonjour’ and ‘merci’, which makes my mechanics laugh. At the moment they are trying to teach me some new words, but I’m sure what they mean… I don’t think I’ll write them down here! I’ll be in touch again after Malaysia.