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James Thompson: The season starts now.

Wednesday, 2nd May 2007

This year, the team is a very compact unit and we’re racing because we want to be racing. N.Technology is passionate about the sport, I’m passionate about driving and we both want to win.

Welcome to my first column on Crash.net and a look ahead to the next round of the World Touring Car Championship this weekend in Zandvoort.

Of course, there has been a big gap since that tough weekend in Brazil, but I think there have been massive improvements with the Alfa Romeo 156 since the first round at Curitiba, mainly because N.Technology has put in a phenomenal amount of effort. Together we had come up with a load of ideas pre-Brazil, but we just couldn’t put everything into effect in time.

Now however, the fruits of that labour are clear after the official test in Monza last week...

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We were top of the times after Wednesday’s morning session and second overall at the end of the test. I was very comfortable in that morning session despite it being the first time I’d driven the car since Brazil, so I was relatively rusty.

In the afternoon session, we only did two laps and Dirk Müller went quicker than me. It would have been a big boost for the team to be quickest at the end of the day, but when you consider where we were in Brazil in comparison with where we were at Monza, and where we are going to be in a few races’ time, there are plenty of reasons for us to be very positive.

This weekend in the Netherlands will be a bit difficult for me because I’ve never been to Zanvoordt before, but I’m seeing it as an opportunity to build and learn more about the car.

Unfortunately I didn’t test at Zandvoort like everybody else pre-season so I’m going in pretty much blind really. It’s difficult; you’ve got to be patient and spend the practice sessions learning the ropes and just remembering that the main goal is results in the race.

You can make some preparations; for instance, I’ve done a few laps on the TOCA Race Driver game and it does help because the detail is particularly good and you get to learn which way the track goes and get a good idea of distances. On the down-side, you get no depth perception of the sections or feel for the controls so it really doesn’t beat experience.

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