Q. This year, the car will be an open-cockpit car. Are there any advantages or disadvantages in having an open-cockpit compared to a closed-cockpit?
A. For me there are two main advantages of an open-cockpit car. Firstly you have a slightly better vision from the driver’s seat than you do in a closed-cockpit car and secondly you have fresh air coming into the car for you to breathe in. Although you have air conditioning in the closed-cockpit cars, it is always the same air going round in the car so the oxygen quality isn’t as good. In the open cockpit the higher levels of oxygen from the fresh air is much better for our levels of concentration.
There is a general feeling that you can gain a slight performance advantage from racing in a closed-cockpit car as the car is more streamlined; creating better downforce, but it is hard to quantify what this speed advantage would be and, in any case, it would be very minimal.
Q. There is a lot of excitement about the new Aston Martin Racing LMP1 car. What are the main differences between this year’s car and last year’s?
A. This year there are a number of new regulations being introduced which means this year’s car is different in many ways to last year’s. There are a number of new aerodynamic regulations including the addition of a sharkfin engine cover which has been introduced to reduce the likelihood of the cars flipping over as some have done in the past.
The new regulations also mean that the cars will be running with less power this year, in keeping with the championship’s efficiency focused regulations, which will probably be the biggest difference for the drivers.
This year, Aston Martin has designed a much smaller and more compact engine compared to last year and it will sit lower down in the car. This means that the car is likely to be better balanced and have a better centre of gravity which will assist us with our racing.
Q. What have you been up to since the end of the 2010 racing season?
A. It’s been a busy winter for me. I’ve been spending a lot of time on my training for the season ahead; working on maintaining my fitness levels during the ‘closed’ racing season. Living in Geneva means that I do a lot of outdoor fitness work in the Swiss mountains which are only a couple of hours away from where I live. In the winter my focus is on skiing, Nordic walking and ski mountaineering which is ideal for working on my stamina and muscular endurance and which is so important in this type of racing.
I’ve also been doing a bit of snow driving over the winter. A totally different type of racing to what I usually do but it’s fantastic for keeping fresh and improving my car control skills.
At the start of the year one of my sponsors; Crans Montana Ski Resort, which I am an ambassador for, played host to the Aston Martin Racing Partners day. It was a fantastic three days in the Swiss Alps spent skiing, networking ahead of the 2011 racing season and discussing PR and marketing plans.
In March we co-organised, with my good friend and eight times Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, an event for 15 guests and sponsors at the World Rally Resort in Sweden. The guests were taught how to ice drive, as well as experiencing being a co-driver with me on one of the stages that is used by Mikko Hirvonen to test his WRC rally car in the winter. It was also another fantastic opportunity for the guests to share their common interests in motorsport and to get to know each other.
Q. You are competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans again this year. In 2010 you finished in sixth place, what are your ambitions for this year’s race?
A. Last year’s sixth place result is my best finish to date at Le Mans and if it hadn’t been for a mechanical failure we may have secured a fourth place. It’s still early days as I haven’t raced this year’s car and there is a lot of development work that goes into the car between now and Le Mans but I’m confident that we have a strong package.
My aim for this year is firstly to have a trouble free race and if we can achieve this then a top five finish would be amazing.
Q. You had a strong season in 2010, including three podium finishes, what are you goals for the 2011 racing season?
A. I was really happy to secure three podiums out of five races last year. This year I will be targeting at least the same number of podiums again, but we first need to see how the car performs and what the competition is like in each event.
It was a great achievement to win in Japan in 2009 and we will be doing our best to get another win this year.
As any driver will say, Le Mans is the big one, so my main goal is to improve on last year’s result there. It is such a prestigious race and to do well there again would be a great achievement.
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