It’s been almost a month since we last raced in the GP2 Series and now we’re finally back in action this weekend supporting the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.
It may be a long time since I’ve been out on track in my DAMS car, but to be honest I’ve been flat-out, mainly with training. Apart from one weekend off, I’ve been really busy. I know a lot of the other people in the GP2 paddock have been off for holidays, but after the season we’ve had so far I don’t feel I earned one. Since the last race at Hockenheim, I just threw myself straight into training and focusing.
Of course, Hockenheim ended what had been a pretty miserable few weeks on a genuine upturn. I felt really comfortable with the car, and I felt that a front row in qualifying and a podium in the feature race were definitely do-able. And then, of course, I won the sprint race to send us into the summer break on a high.
Normally I’d be writing a preview on the way from the DAMS workshop in Le Mans to the race. But with the break we’ve had it enabled me to go to Le Mans last week instead, doing all my preparation for the race weekend. Hopefully we’ll hit the ground running after the summer break and keep making those steps forward.
Instead, I’m at my friend Darren Turner’s Base Performance Simulators, near where I live in Oxford, just making sure I’m in the groove of driving a GP2 car at Spa before I head off to Heathrow airport and get the flight to Belgium.
Can we build on what we gained at Hockenheim? I think so. The nature of GP2 is that it’s always very difficult to validate what’s been done until you get out on the track. But let’s look at it another way. From where we were at Silverstone two race weekends earlier, we’ve moved forward massively and I’ve taken my second win of the season. It’s all about keeping together and moving in the same direction.
Of course, we all love Spa and Monza, which comes the following weekend, so this is the stage of the season where everyone looks forward to some proper, historic, very fast tracks. It’s funny, because although I’ve usually had bad luck at Spa and struggled for results, I’m still really looking forward to it.
It looks like we’ll be using the hard Pirelli as the prime tyre at Spa and the soft as the option. That’s a nice combination and the same configuration as last year – the hard is definitely what you need in the race and the soft is a great qualifying tyre. But regardless of the tyres, I’m just looking forward to getting back in the car. Even the weather’s looking OK, which is unusual for Spa, so fingers crossed it will be a smooth weekend and we can kick on and make more progress.
