Today you resume your Friday morning testing role for Force India. When you are not with Force India you compete for Mercedes in the DTM touring car series. Does switching cause any problems? Not really. I know the DTM car very well and understand what you have to do to make it quick. Formula One is a very different world and I'm still getting up to speed. I won't pretend it's the easiest thing to jump between the two, though.
You attend every race as Force India's reserve. How do you handle sitting and watching? It is not easy - and I prefer it when I do one of the Friday runs, because it gets me more actively involved. But I always participate in the engineering debriefs, so it is interesting even when I'm not actually driving. You have had no regular single-seater experience since you won the F3 Euroseries title in 2006. Has that been a significant disadvantage? Not necessarily. The DTM is a bit different, but I have driven lots of single-seaters before and believe you can always adjust. It just takes a little time.
You succeeded Lewis Hamilton as F3 Euroseries champion. Are you frustrated or inspired by what he has achieved? A bit of both. There is frustration in there, for sure. In 2006, I beat Sebastian Vettel to the F3 title - and he was my teammate. These guys had backing that enabled them to get to F1 a bit quicker, but the DTM has been a major part of my life and is something I'll never forget."
A permanent F1 seat is the obvious target for 2011. Do you have any other options? I know where I want to be next year and haven't really thought about anything else, to be honest. @Email:sports@thenational.ae