drivers-diary.com

Monaco is something of an interesting event for the World Series drivers and teams. It is often called the crown jewel of the Formula One calendar, undoubtedly a great privilege to drive the streets of Monte Carlo, and good for the drivers to be able to showcase their talent once a year in front of the F1 teams and fans… However, while all of this is true, the Monaco Grand Prix weekend is also something of a pain for the drivers and teams… (more…)

If you know what the problem is, you can usually find a way of fixing it. However when you’re struggling to find the problem, it’s virtually impossible to find a solution and that about sums up my weekend at Spa-Francorchamps! (more…)

Monza was a tough race weekend for me – I can’t say I’m not pleased to have scored a point, because I’m thrilled. However I know we could have done better, and that’s what makes it so difficult. In racing you can sometimes pick up points where you least expect them, and that’s a great feeling! Other times, you really feel like you earned them, and for whatever reason you walk away with nothing, or much less than you feel you deserved. For me, Monza was one of those weekends… (more…)

Anyone who has ever met or encountered a racing driver at any time of their life has probably heard of the “racing driver’s book of excuses”. Popular men and women have a “little black book” which they leaf through to find dates. Engineers have books with set-up sheets and important data. Authors have books which they have written themselves and poured blood and sweat into. Racing drivers, rather like school children who haven’t done their homework on time, have a book of excuses. (more…)

As a female racing driver people might think of me as one of life’s warriors. Fighting the good fight and all that, but when I get out on track that’s never an issue. When I’m off the track I’m actually much more one of life’s worriers… (more…)

There is one big problem being a female racing driver, as with being a minority in anything… Standards are set by the majorities – in this situation, manufacturers make racing cars for men, not women. (more…)

If I was the kind of girl whom believed in omens I would have given this job up a long time ago…

I didn’t exactly have the best of starts to the relationship with my new World Series by Renault car. Certainly not love at first sight, but more along the lines of turning up to meet someone who had obviously posted a rather modified photograph of themselves on the internet… Nevertheless, I just focused on my first outing onto the track because race cars, like most things in life, are more about what’s on the inside than what they look like. (more…)

It can be difficult being any sportsperson because we’re competitive, and we hate it when things don’t go our way. At the end of last season, after I’d had a pretty miserable end to the year at Barcelona, I decided it was essential to find a way to unwind and get rid of all that pent-up aggression. So I took up boxing! (more…)

Everyone thinks that racing drivers have little to do in the winter off-season. Unfortunately, this is somewhat true, but not completely. We obviously spend a large amount of time in the gym – working on our strength, conditioning muscles, making the heart and lungs work better. But the thing we generally spend the most time doing is waiting for the phone to ring… (more…)