Biggest race of my career

Edinburgh, Scotland: Monday, July 4, 2011

Paul makes his debut in the Formula One British Grand Prix this weekend at Silverstone. Before heading to the Northamptonshire circuit, Paul spoke to Jim McGill about watching his brother karting, the demands of being a Brit in his home grand prix, and his memories of Silverstone:
JM: It's the start of the build-up to the British Grand Prix, your first Formula One race at the famous, and now revamped, circuit. What have you been up to over te past few days?
PdR: I went and watched my brother Stefan in the latest round of the British Karting Championship at Larkhall. In the first race he was fifth, the second race he started 23rd and finished third, so it was good; a very good result.
Then on Tuesday I'm doing factory tour at the Mercedes-Benz High Performance engine headquarters, then I'm in the simulator on Wednesday. Then Thursday it's just straight into it the real build-up at the circuit ahead of free practice on Friday; it's important that I just keep everything in perspective.
Can we just reflect on the last race at Valencia; was there an acceptance by the team after the race that the strategy just didn't work for you?
Definitely. It definitely didn't go the way we'd hoped. I felt I got the most out of what I had to do on track. First stint we struggled; second and third stints were very good, and the fourth stint? Well, we were where we were with the fourth stint; certainly not ideal.
With hindsight we were probably two laps too late with the first stop, and the third stop we were about three or four laps too late; so effectively there was a big time loss as the tyres lost their grip. It probably cost me around two-and-a-half second a lap. Put all those laps together, and that's a lot of time.
One of the big contributors to the situation was we had no real tyre information from the Friday because I had to sit out all but 10 minutes of the three hours of Free Practice after Nico (Hulkenberg) crashed, and damaged my my car. That obviously put us on the back foot, and in the race we all just missed a few things.
But it's woken us up a bit though. We know where the difficulties came from and we we all know we'll definitely do a better job in the future. I think if things had worked out right, we'd have been pushing (Nick) Heidfeld for the last point.
Are you in the car for both Free Practice sessions at Silverstone on Friday?
Yeh.
When was the last time you actually raced at Silverstone?
Quite a while ago. It was Formula Renault in 2003/04 on the old International circuit. To be honest, in relation to the circuit we'll be racing on this weekend, I think I have experience of three corners, and that includes Copse and the old final corner. I've never raced on the grand prix track.
So essentially, despite it being your home race, it's all new to you?
Yeh, it is all new. But it's actually maybe a good thing. We have Silverstone entering its new era; the new track last year, and this year the new pitlane complex, plus the new start-finish line. Effectively, what had been the very fast, old and famous first sector of Silverstone is now going to be the final sector. Now it will be the very last sector which will be the fast part, so it will be interesting to see how the drivers' approach will be in qualifying, and how the tyres will last in that final sector.
It actually might benefit me in some ways, but definitely confidence at Silverstone is a big thing, and it's about building that confidence in the right way, especially at Maggotts which is a very tricky section. It's crucial to get that corner hooked up correctly because if you don't, and you're just slightly off it, you're going to be in trouble.
What's your first memory of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone?
To be honest, watching it on TV. Probably one of the first memories I have is the year (Michael) Schumacher went off in his Ferrari and broke his leg. It's a long time ago, 1999 I think, but I've obviously done stuff there before.
Probably the biggest thing I've achieved at Silverstone was McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Awards. It was also the first place I drove a modern Formula One car and that was as part of the McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year Awards; that was on the National circuit. I also did the Young Driver days for McLaren there, again on the National circuit.
It will also be the first time you've raced in an F1 grand pix in front of your home crowd; what kind of buzz will that give you?
There's no doubt it will be a massive buzz. A lot of friends and family are travelling down to the race; to race in front of my home crowd? It's massive; it's probably the biggest race of my career so far. But at the same time, there's no extra preparation going into it, simply because it should just be like any other race on the calendar.
Of course, I imagine there will be a bit more of a media demand on me over the next few days and the race weekend, but at the same time I want to get out there and drive Silverstone. It's THE home of Formula One in the UK, plus it's a home race for the team because we're based just across the road from the circuit.
It's a very special event; hopefully we can have a good result. Hopefully the car will work as it has in the previous two grands prix.
After the glitches of the past couple of races, what are your targets for this weekend?
First I want to get in to Q3; then I think we have a genuinely realistic opportunity of scoring good points this weekend. It will be a tough challenge, I think, but it's one we're capable of meeting especially if we have the car working the way we want it.
It's definitely a realistic target if we get everything together, and we get the car working in optimal conditions.
If we get it right, I can definitely get back among the points on my British Grand Prix debut.

Source: pauldirestaf1.com