"It demonstrates the confidence they've got in me...."

Every ambitious racing driver wants to get a go in a modern Formula 1 car, and I’m lucky enough to have enjoyed a day testing with Williams Martini Racing at Barcelona on the Tuesday of the two-day test.

It was less than 48 hours after taking my first GP2 Series win of the season on the same track that I pulled out of the garage in the Williams-Mercedes FW38, and as soon as I did that there was a whole lot of media speculation – so that was very cool! I can’t tell anyone exactly what Williams were doing, because obviously that’s all top-secret stuff, but everyone could see that there was some pretty radical development going on, most visually on the wings.

I knew in advance what the team were going to try – unfortunately the test wasn’t all about proving how quick Alex Lynn is and that I should get an F1 race seat immediately! But on the other hand it makes me really proud that the team gave me such a big responsibility and it demonstrates the confidence they’ve got in me. That was nice from my side, and on Wednesday Felipe Massa is carrying on with the work, so hopefully at the end of the test they can sign it off as a job done.

I did 86 laps altogether, which is a fair amount of testing – it’s 20 laps more than the Spanish Grand Prix race distance. I think the team got everything out of it that they wanted to, so that’s good. As far as how my performance was, I get asked that all the time, with people saying, ‘How do you reckon you did?’ But you never really know, do you? Everyone down the pit lane is trying different things and there’s no comparison. As long as the people who matter, and the people in the garage, think I did a good job, it’s not important what the lap times were like. They’re the people I have to prove myself to, and I’m happy with the feedback I got from them at the end of the day. So yeah, I think I did a good job.

As far as driving it was concerned, last year when I did the same test it felt really strange, but this time around it seemed particularly normal. Right from the first lap I was really comfortable to jump in and drive it. It fitted me like a glove!

So that was great, but now it’s all about focusing on the next GP2 round supporting the Monaco Grand Prix. I’ve just travelled straight from Barcelona to the DAMS team base in Le Mans, so I’d better sign off now as I’m just about to head in for a debrief on the Barcelona GP2 weekend. After that we’ll start preparing for Monaco, so there’s a lot to do!