Turkish GP

A lot has changed here in London in the short time since the last F1 race. The UK has gone back into Covid lockdown and it’s pretty dreary outside. Luckily, from a racing point of view, not a lot has changed and my F1 prep is continuing pretty much as before.

As you can imagine, there is lot of caution about how we work in the team, to keep everyone safe, but I’ve still been able to have my planned days at the factory, time in the simulator and keep the same training routine.

When I’m not at Grove I’ll be at my apartment where I have all the training equipment I need. But after almost a fortnight here, I’m excited to be heading for Turkey this weekend. Of the circuits that were added to this year’s calendar, this is the one I’m most looking forward to.

I had some prior knowledge of Imola, Mugello, Portimao and the Nürburgring in other categories, so they weren’t completely new to me when I got there with Formula 1. But I’ve never driven at Istanbul Park.

It definitely looks like an exciting circuit from what I’ve seen of the old races. The data the teams have from Istanbul Park is quite old and probably irrelevant – as the last race there was back in 2011 – so it should mean the playing field is more level than at some Grands Prix.

Generally, our team has been doing well on new or returning tracks, or when we’ve been working to a more compact schedule – at Imola, the Nurburgring and even Mugello we were quite strong.

That gives me confidence we can get on top of things quite quickly this week, then build on that throughout the weekend. I’m feeling good and positive, so I hope I can continue my recent form and be in the fight for some points.