Bakk Chat: Back to the future.

Thursday, 27th December 2007

Dane reflects on a trying 2007 campaign.

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I managed to get out during post-season testing and it went really well. I was testing with Super Nova and got to grips with the team quite quickly. We worked well together and I felt that my pace was very much improved from what it had been during the year. I'd been working on myself and was obviously 100 per cent fit with my back, and all of these things make a difference when you're racing these cars. Now I'm quietly confident for the coming season.

The tests with Super Nova were for the forthcoming GP2 Asia Series, and there are a lot of things that I am hoping to get out of that campaign. The Asian series is run over five race meetings and, this year, I missed five races due to my back, so it should put me back up with the rest of the guys from last year. I'm just trying to gain back as much track time as possible so that I can be as competitive as possible for the next European series.

On top of that, we get to go to some great events... Dubai, so I've heard, is a good circuit, and Bahrain we've been to, but we also go to also Malaysia and Indonesia. We get to travel around and we'll be racing in some really tough climates - Malaysia is going to be extremely hot and humid - so it's going to be good. It's a shame we can't be racing with the new GP2 cars but, to be honest, I just need some time in any car. With Malaysia and Bahrain being run with the F1 guys, for me, it's a win-win situation - I get some track time and we're with some of the F1 races, so I'm quite pleased.

I don't think that running with the older-spec car is going to be a disadvantage come the next European season either. For me, it's going to be the same as everyone else. I'm not going to get any more or any less than any of the other drivers, so it's relatively fair in that sense, but I'm going to feel better prepared because I'm going to be driving all the way up to the first race, whereas everyone else will have done just a few tests.