Puttin’ on the Ritz

This will be my tenth Monaco Grand Prix. It’s a great weekend ahead of us, while we got this thrilling challenge to go fast in the special event at Monte Carlo.

The one day longer weekend brings always a little bit extra for all the exciting challenges of motor racing.

I’ve got three podiums in Monaco. To win it back in 2005 is a memory, I won’t never forget. It gives you such an unbeatable feeling, while you get right every lap. Obviously, you want to feel it again and again, but it’s the trickiest race of them all to have a perfect day.

You never know beforehand how it goes in racing, and especially for Monaco you can’t even guess how it might go. Obviously, we have done some mistakes in the first few races so far, but you can’t afford even a smaller one, if you want to get things done in Monaco.

I have a positive feeling with the car. It has been good and competitive everywhere, but we have to understand more some details with temparature changes and the tyres, too.

The qualifying is always hundred times more important in Monaco compared to other places. You cannot exaggerate the importance of this qualifying. Obviously for us, the qualifying is something we really have to get right. Lately we have had some hard lessons of it.

To get to the front row does not help, if you are second and you have to start from the dirtier side of the circuit, it’s not easy to keep your place – or to improve it. I’ve been there before and it seems that every time I loose one position simply because you always suffer from the wheelspin.

Coming to Monaco we’ve got now two podiums in a row this season and we have had good points with both cars. So there is a good basis to build on further.

A podium should be a possible target for Monaco, as well. But to achieve it, we have to have a solid and clean weekend all way long since Thursday morning.

Most of all it’s a question of the best drive of the year – the 100% concentration with the 100% working car all the 78 laps of the Grand Prix. That’s the only way to be real happy after the race in Monaco.

Everybody in the team has pushed really hard and it has been good and very motivating time since we started the season. Now it’s time to enjoy the Monaco weekend!