You look at these guys, they are able to drive so quickly, and then you sleep over it and, a few days later, at the few next tests, you suddenly feel everything is working and you feel very comfortable. I think I have been lucky to be able to get a feeling for the car quite quickly although, for the F3000, it's taking me a little bit longer to learn to progress in the car.
For me, jumping into the 3000 and using my Volkswagen [experience], the way I approached it, it was always daunting at first, but I think I'm very quickly getting used to it. It's like watching a movie for the first time - at first, you don't really understand it, you watch it over and over, and then everything is very clear and slow and you can really feel everything. Speed is not such a big problem, you get used to it.
Q:
Can you just take us through what racing you have done? You mentioned karting back in your teens, but when you first started out, what you started out in and perhaps just run us through what you did each year?
RN:
The karting I mentioned was just hobby karting that you go to the local karting track and you pay. I've actually never been in a race kart or racing competition in Australia or anything.
The actual first time I sat in a race car was with the Austrian team in the Formula Vauxhall, or some people know it as Opel Lotus. I sat for the first time in November 2000. That year, I did one test with them, and I set really good lap times and the team was very amazed and they re-invited me for the second test. This time, they brought their race driver along and, although it was in the wet and dry conditions that are quite difficult, I was only one second behind him, so the team was quite amazed. This guy has driven Indy cars also, a past Indy car driver, so he knows what he is doing and I was only one second behind him.
