Tiago Monteiro: Looking back to front.

Saturday, 24th March 2007

Everything was already agreed [with Spyker], but my sponsors wanted more too so we agreed to look elsewhere - I wasn’t motivated to continue struggling with a team where I couldn’t see any evolution in the short-term.

Previous Page

I was still surprised by the series though. It is a big show, a big event and, although everyone told me that Curitiba wasn't the biggest or the nicest of the events, because the track is not amazing, it was huge, well organised, very well done, a good show and had a huge amount of fans.

It was frustrating to be there and not be on the track because, as a driver, you always want to be racing, but it was a very good opportunity for me to understand more about the championship - the kind of problems the team has on a weekend, the kind of timings they keep, what they do on the cars. I had a lot more opportunity to learn all of this in a different situation so, all in all, it wasn’t that bad.

The Barcelona test session since Curitba went very well. We did 88 laps on the short track and it was good because it was my first official test since being confirmed as a driver with the team

It was also the first time I got to work with the engineer that I am going to be working with for the season. So it was a bit different from the other tests, and went a lot better than them. I'm starting to understand the car a bit better, to see how the front wheel drive works - it's such a different style of driving and you're fighting against drivers with a huge amount of experience, so it will be tough.

It is already a tough championship, so I have a lot to learn, not necessarily in terms of driving, but how best to use the car. It's not a difficult car to drive, but it is a difficult car to drive in the last tenth or two tenths. Those last two tenths are where the experience counts, so that is why I need to understand how to use the tyres and things like that.

In all, the test went very well and the times were not too not bad, and I'm in the process of getting acquainted with the team, the people, the car, everything... I'm not saying it’s like starting all over again, but a lot of things are new. I like those moments, when you work without pressure and you work at learning, understanding, getting to know people.