My motivation is as strong as ever - Fisico

The Italian ING Renault F1 Team driver, Giancarlo Fisichella, gave us his feelings as he arrived at Istanbul Park. The Roman is eager to get back on track for the Turkish Grand Prix after the three-week summer break.

"Great, really great. I was with my family on my boat in Fromentera near Ibiza. The weather was fabulous and it was good to be with my family, even if you’re an F1 driver! In this job we’re under pressure all the time so getting away from the hustle and bustle of the paddock is vital. It allows you to recharge your batteries and come back with your motivation as strong as ever. I kept up my fitness training programme to stay in top form."

"I like it very much. It’s a fast circuit with nice curves, in particular turn no.8 a triple left-hander that goes ion forever. The layout is a mixture of all the difficulties that you’re likely to meet on a race track: tight corners, slow corners, long quick curves, heavy braking. Funnily enough it’s not a circuit that’s very hard on tyres or brakes. It also provides good overtaking opportunities in corners 1, 12 and 9. I’ve always raced well here and I hope I’ll have a good grand prix this year."

"We’re going to have a new floor which is a bit quicker than the old one, and I think it’ll improve the car’s handling. But the gap between the front-runners and us will still be quite big. The team’s aim is to begin the design of the new car, which is fairly normal at this time of the year."