You’ve no doubt gathered that we have a new partner in the shape of McLaren-Mercedes, who will be supplying our engine and transmission system among other things. I firmly believe that this partnership is a major step in the right direction, towards midfield.
Even if I feel that the lack of test days means we’ll probably need a few races before we get fully up to speed, I am confident that we’ll put in a good performance and improve on last year.

I recovered well over the winter and began my preparations early. Now I’m feeling fit and well prepared for the new season – which is set to bring quite a few changes. All in all, I am happy with these changes. I think they’ll help me to develop even further. Giancarlo Fisichella remains my team mate and I’m very glad about that. He’s a brilliant racing driver with a lot of experience and a really nice guy into the bargain. He pushes me and challenges me, which helps me dig deep for my best possible performance. This year I’d like to make things difficult for him and beat him by a clear margin. That is my goal.

The atmosphere within the team is very good. Everyone is highly motivated and itching for success. Torro Rosso showed us last year that it is possible. A small team with a relatively low budget managed to outperform many of its bigger rivals. That must be our goal too.

Before I arrived in Australia I made a stopover in India – a PR appointment for our boss, Vijay Mallya. Now I’m in Melbourne, counting the hours until we finally get out on the track and see how things stand. After the tests there’ll be lots of issues to discuss and many differences of opinion.

Is Brawn GP really that strong and have McLaren-Mercedes been experimenting in testing or are they really in trouble? How are things looking for Alonso and Renault and how will Kimi perform this year? So many questions – the answers to which will be revealed during the first few races and throughout the course of the season. I’m sure it will turn out to be an exciting one. I’m looking forward to it and hope for your support. After Melbourne I’ll report back with my initial impressions. Until then I wish you all an exciting start to the F1 season.

Yours, Adrian

When the season began in Melbourne we were all full of expectation and hoped to pick up points along the way. Now with just one race to go we remain without a single point, which is very disappointing.

Although I’ve had a lot of bad luck this year with technical problems and with Kimi in Monaco, we didn’t perform well enough in 2008 to get among the points. Monaco was the exception.

The truth of the matter is that throughout the year we simply weren’t strong or fast enough in qualifying. Our race pace always tended to pick up which meant we were able to battle with other teams on occasions. But then the technical gremlins kicked in which prevented us from getting better results. Still, there’s no point in looking back, and we hope to take a step forward in 2009.

That’s what I’m counting on and I will be preparing very early and intensively for 2009. After the last race in Sao Paulo I plan to take a few days off to relax. I’ll look forward to not having any deadline stress or obligations. But knowing me, it won’t be long before I’m back in the driving seat. Another series of tests begin in November.

First of all however I need to do a good job in the last race in Brazil and get the best out of the car. Who knows, maybe I’ll have some of the luck there that’s been escaping me all season. Or at least I might avoid the bad luck. I hope Lewis Hamilton manages to finish it off in Brazil and become World Champion. He’s been the strongest driver in the best car over the season and I think he deserves to win it.

It looks like Giancarlo Fisichella my team mate will stay with us, which would be good news. I enjoy working with him and I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s greatly experienced and is still pretty damn fast.

I’d like to thank you once again for all your support and hope that you will continue to spur me along next year.

Till then, take care

Yours, Adrian

It all started in late 2007 with the first test drives. Once I drove the car there was a great desire to get the seat and race with this car. When I was informed I would get the drive, I was absolutely over the moon. Six months earlier I would have never dreamt of driving in DTM and having Ralf Schumacher as my team mate during my first year.

The Mücke Motorsport team made my transition as smooth as possible and ensured everything was prepared perfectly. I knew that it would be really competitive in DTM, but I must say I never thought it was going to be that competitive just within the 2007 cars, let alone the rest of the grid. At the first race in Hockenheim, it was unbelievable how many people were there, on the grand stands, in the paddock or even on the grid. There is so much going on around you that it was a real challenge to keep my focus on driving the car.

After the first race there wasn’t much time for relaxing, as the 2nd race in Oschersleben was only a week later. I was lying in 10th place and top Mercedes 2007 car, when 10 laps before the end Tom Kristensen spun off the track, and took me out in the process. Even though I had a DNF it was great for me to see that I was able to show a good performance this early in the season. My summary of the weekend: the performance was very encouraging; the unfortunate end of the race was not my fault. Since Oschersleben I knew: I could drive into the top 10. A great feeling!

In Mugello, the upwards trend continued. For the first time I made it into the 2nd segment of Qualifying. In the race I was lying in 9th place for a very long time before 2 new cars managed to pass me during the last laps. Still the race was great for me as I finished top 2007 Mercedes and was fighting with Bruno Spengler for a long time in the new 2008 Mercedes. Also I managed to keep Gary Paffet behind me during the entire weekend which was great for me. It was a very positive weekend, which further encouraged my motivation.

The 4th race of the season at the Lausitzring was further encouraging. In Qualifying, once again I managed to beat Paffet, even though the Eurospeedway in this configuration was completely new to me. At the end I finished 11th again and had a nice fight with Gary Paffett in the process. My résumé for the first 3rd of the season was positive as I was steadily improving.

The second part of my season review will focus on the middle of the season. Until then I wish you all a nice build up to Christmas.

Your Maro.