Then from there it was European [F3000] Championship. I surprised people again and my supporters thought why not give the
FIA international series a shot and, from there, we arranged a test with Team Astromega in Valencia in January this year. There was Mario, of course, and I think Ricardo Sperafico, one of the twins, was there, and Nicolas Kiesa was testing and I was the third quickest out of the lot. I did half the amount of laps compared to Mario, and I was only seven-tenths behind him. For this reason, in the new F3000 car, Sam Boyle, the team manager of Team Astromega, was quite impressed and so that's my short career to date.
Q:
One of the big challenges for you this year will be learning new tracks because of your limited experience, but it seems that you haven't had a great deal of trouble acclimatising. Is that right?
RN:
For testing, we have two days, and normally it takes me one morning to get up to speed. In that respect, it's not a problem for me to learn the tracks, but the problem is that, throughout this season, we have twelve races and only two of those are where I have been before. The problem is with F3000 is that it is not like
F1, where you get free practice, then two more free practice sessions, qualifying and then the race. We go straight into qualifying - two times 45 minutes - then straight to the race. There is going to be a lot of tracks where I'm just going to go straight in qualifying, so I think it's going to be really daunting for me and it's going to be a big challenge, but I'm really looking forward to it.
Q:
Are there any shortcuts you can take in learning those tracks, through video games or anything like that or getting to the tracks early and walking them, or running around them, or riding push bikes around them or anything?
RN:
Yes, that's what we always try to do, of course. Wherever I go test or race I play on the computer, the simulator and, before I arrive there, I try to do two or three laps for the road car and do a few runs, jog around a couple of times, and it helps you to a certain extent. But, once you are in the race car, finding the braking point, finding where you should be in the exit, it's really totally different. It helps you a little bit but, of course, the more you test, the more you know the track, you can just start off at such a high level and it makes life so much easier.
Q:
Yours has been a remarkable assent to this level of motorsport. Have you done this on your own, or you have got a bit of crew, some friends around you?
RN:
Actually, the team that I raced for last year in the Formula Volkswagen - his name is Walter Penker and he is the team owner - has been helping me out quite a lot. He just gives me some advice, but he is not a race driver himself, he has just been working with a lot of race drivers and sees their mistakes and tries to teach me to avoid them. But, as in people helping me, I think, more or less, I've been working alone. I try to learn as much as I can from other experienced drivers around me, and try and do what they do well and try to avoid what they do wrong. That's what I've been doing so far and it's been working.
