Nico's Italian GP Column

Posted on Tuesday 16 Sep 2008 and tagged with nico, italy.

The Italian Grand Prix was a missed opportunity. Had I changed onto intermediate tyres at my only scheduled pitstop of the race on lap 28, I would probably have beaten Robert Kubica to third place. As it was, I stayed on extreme wets because we thought more rain was coming and when it didn’t materialise I had to make a stop for inters on lap 33.

Strategic decisions like this are easy in hindsight, but in the heat of the moment you’re walking on a knife-edge. The weather was very unpredictable and we made the wrong call. It was as simple as that. However, had we known at the time that Rubens Barrichello had changed onto inters as early as lap 16 and immediately gone two seconds a lap faster, we might have thought differently…

While 14th was a disappointing result, there are plenty of positives to take from this race. We improved the balance of the FW30 throughout the weekend and were competitive in qualifying. Given my heavy fuel load, I was pleased to be fifth on the grid, but I don’t think I did a better job than at Spa the previous weekend, when I lined up 15th!

From here I’m returning to Monaco for a few days before heading to Jerez for the final mid-season test session of the year. The focus of the test will be on next year’s regulations and we’ve got a lot of parts to try, which should be interesting. Then I’m flying straight to Singapore for the next race.

I’m looking forward to the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix race for several reasons. Most importantly, I think our car could be quite competitive on the 5.067km (3.149-mile) track because I’m told the layout is similar to Monaco, where I qualified sixth and was competitive in the race until I crashed. I’m also excited by the fact that the race is taking place at night because I think it will bring an added dimension to the weekend.

One of the biggest question marks surrounding the race is what time zone to stay in. I’ve decided that I’m going to remain on European time because there’s no point in waking up at 7am if you don’t need to be at your peak until 8pm, when the race starts. As a result, I’ll be going to bed at about 4am every morning, so I hope the nightlife’s good! I’d better ask the guys at RBS where to hang out because they hold a lot of PR events in the city-state.

See you out there,

Nico