I’m very, very excited about the new season. It’s always good fun going to Melbourne, it’s a great city and I like racing on street circuits. The Albert Park track is very bumpy and you have to contend with all the road markings – when it’s wet those are very slippery! It also has some really good changes of direction with right-left, right-left turns in rapid succession. Full-time racing circuits tend to be very smooth and have plenty of grip. You don’t get that with a street circuit: at the start of the weekend they’re pretty dirty and gradually they clean up as cars sweep the racing line and put down rubber in the braking zones. It’s nice to feel the track evolve underneath your car and know that it’s going to get quicker throughout each session. Albert Park always tends to be a pretty exciting race. It’s great that Australia has a grand prix and a source of pride that it’s everybody’s choice to kick-start the season. If we went to Malaysia or Bahrain for the first race then I’d be able to ease into my career with Infiniti Red Bull Racing but in Oz, I assume the weekend will be right up there in my face! I’ll enjoy it and hopefully use the positive energy of the crowd to give me a good result.

It’s great to be starting the season next week. We didn’t do as much running as we would have liked in testing this year, so we have work to do in Melbourne, but it will be good to get to the first race. It’s hard to know where we are; it’s fair to say that we’re not the favourites to win and we have to catch up with others that have completed more mileage, but we’ll do our best with the great people that we have working for the team. We have achieved a lot together and I know everyone is working flat out as normal. It’s a good event to start the season and there’s always a great atmosphere. We often have unpredictable weather in Melbourne and on Sunday we have a later race start than at other events. Looking to the track, Turn 12 is important and fast and I like the start into the Jones chicane, where the track is very narrow. Formula One racing is something that I love and I can’t wait to get going.