As drivers I think we all have to be conscious of what we eat and make sure to eat healthy. I always try and avoid junk foods. Usually the night before a race drivers load up on carbs to prepare for the race the next day.

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I admire Michael Schumacher because I think he just did the job better than everyone else in his era. I think now it’s hard to beat Sebastian Vettel but I also would like to see how he did if he swapped places with Fernando Alonso at Ferrari….

I think in Europe it’s basically anything goes. I have been blocked many times over there and it has totally been against the rules but in the end unless you get wrecked, the officials don’t seem to care. INDYCAR has done a good job in enforcing the rule most of the time and in reality I do think you need a rule against blocking. I think driving defensively is acceptable and creates the best racing, but all-out blocking is dangerous.

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I really like ovals. I had a great time on ovals in Star (Pro) Mazda and learned a lot in those days. It is a really cool experience at such a high speed trying to feel the most minute balance issues with the car to make it just a hundredth — even a thousandth — of a second quicker on a high-speed oval like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The key to success on ovals though is all about the car. If you’ve got a solid well-balanced car that gives you confidence you’ll be one of the quickest out there. The most important thing I think though is experience. I think the guys who are the best at IMS right now are the guys with experience like Tony Kanaan last year.

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There are indeed lots of opportunities in sports car racing which I think is great. I think it is very important to get a good base of experience in open-wheel racing if you can because it will help you no matter what career path you choose. I think sports car racing is still heavily dominated by more experienced guys who have been in racing for many year which unfortunately doesn’t leave much space for young drivers quite yet. It is certainly looking up though now that the two series in North America have merged (to form the Tudor United Sports Car Championship)!

As my Dad says, race cars all do the same thing. They go, stop, turn left and right! Of course, some cars do these things at quite a high level of speed. The F1 car was obviously very cool because I had to read a manual before getting into the car about the steering wheel. A lot of incredible controls and different settings for almost everything. Part of me feels like it’s a bit over the top but hey, if that’s the way they like to do it, they can do whatever they want! Understanding it all, though, is part of the job; being a racing driver is a lot more actual work than just driving. We have to live and breathe the sport, study every aspect of our car and learn everything the team wants us to know and then some.

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When I won the WHT race I already had won the 2008 Skip Barber National Championship which gave me a fully funded ride in Star Mazda for 2009 so I couldn’t turn that down. I didn’t have the funding to do anything like Formula Renault so I had to take the scholarship of course. The only way you can take on the European ladder right now is if you have a lot of funding behind you. Unfortunately, that is all that matters. Formula 1 teams seem to only be taking drivers bringing 15 million euros or more and that is unfortunate for young guys coming up without a huge group of funders behind them. However, if you do choose to go to Europe and race in the support series for a few years like I did, you will without a doubt be a better driver for the future whereever you end up choosing to go in racing. I have more experience now than I would have ever got by staying in America.

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I wanted to get to the next race and start fresh!

Thank you! It is harder than ever to get support for anything, but at the moment I’m just trying to get introductions to people through people I already know. If you can get in touch with people who might be interested through a person who you are already friends with, that might open a door more easily for you. I’m hoping it does in my situation at least! Always be looking for business-to-business deals as well. Those are happening more often than regular corporate sponsorship these days.

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I just had to capitalize on all I learned in 2009. I made some mistakes in 2009 and my Dad made sure to make me aware of them, and we prepared to correct them for 2010. I just felt much more comfortable after a year in the series and everything went smoother. I knew what I needed out of the car and the team gave it to me. It was a fun year!

The team package is obviously important because if you sign a contract with a team for a lot of money and they perform at a low level, it’s not good for your future. I have never been in a position where a team offers to pay me for a season though so I wouldn’t really know what that is like, hah! I’ll give you an example for a young driver coming up though. When you find the budget to go racing, you want to take it to the team that will give you the best opportunity to win. However, it shouldn’t always be based on the team’s prior results because sometimes you can get with a team maybe not quite at the top level but they have great people and you work with those people really well. Then you can develop the car to a higher level and turn that team into a winning team.

I would choose Ferrari because of their history in the sport; and driving for Ferrari is such a prestigious honor.

If you do enough research before you get on track you should already have an idea of where you are going to brake. Once you get on track you go to that point and if its too early you adjust for that and if it’s too late just bring it back slightly. Turn in points will depend on how you are driving the car and what kind of balance the car has. Sometimes your turn in point will change depending on the balance of the car so you have to be prepared to adjust your driving on the fly.

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I think it is definitely an advantage. My Dad has been all the way to the top level of the sport so most importantly he knows what it takes to get there. His guidance has been huge. After driving on Pirellis which lock and flat-spot extremely easily, I tend to use more rear bias than normal.

It all depends on the track really. Some tracks are a lot more difficult than others with blind corners or elevation changes. The rain will also change things massively! As a driver you have to be prepared for anything.

The Skip Barber INDYCAR Academy — or the Skip Barber school in general — is absolutely the best way to do it. It is so hard these days to get into racing without any kind of financial backing so that is your first and really main hurdle. I wish I had the correct answer for that question but it’s a never ending struggle for any driver.

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I would recommend a place where I train in Indianapolis called St. Vincent Sports Performance. They are an incredible group of people who work with all kinds of athletes from Olympians to NFL, NBA, NHL and racing drivers, of course!

A lot of people like to take notes. My Dad is a big note taker but I am not. He has always tried to get me to take more notes but that’s just not the type of person I am. I have definitely learned to take more notes over the years but I prefer technology so I will always take the notes on my phone or keep things on my laptop and have the data at hand whenever I need it. Most of the things you learn as a driver start to become things embedded in your brain which is helpful!

I used to overdrive in qualifying, a lot. I would push the car so hard that it was beyond the limit and it would slow me down. I would have the rear of the car so sideways while keeping the throttle down it would look very nice but not fast! To fix this, I had to do some mental training. It was more of a mental problem than a physical one. I worked with a mental coach for a year and a half and was able to give my best qualifying performances this year after the work with the coach. I still have the tendency to overdrive in qualifying but I’ve toned it down and almost fixed it on more occasions. It’s a never ending effort to improve your driving!

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I think the most difficult thing to deal with is the stress of the off season every year. I have never had security in multiple year deals or anything like that. After every season of racing there is a time where you don’t know if it will continue or not. I have never had the funding from my family so it’s not a question of “what should I race next?” It’s been more like “how are we going to find this money to go racing next year, and what if we don’t?” This question is more prevalent than ever right now. I hate every bit of it because all I want to do is go racing. I want to get to work with a team I’m driving for and focus on the job, racing and winning. Unfortunately, it’s just not that easy.

I believe anyone has a chance. I don’t necessarily have an answer exactly to how you would do it since I’m not familiar with your disability but if you’ve got the pure driving talent, someone will notice. Again the funding question is hard to answer. Go to anyone you know and anyone those people might know and ask them for help. See if you can find someone (who has money) who really believes in you and your program and will help you get off the ground.

The moment I really thought I could do it was when I started moving from karts to cars. 2008 was my first full year in cars and I was able to win the Skip Barber championship, so after that it seemed pretty real.

Racing in the rain is one of my favorite things to do. I always seem to go well in the rain – winning the Walter Hayes Trophy Formula Ford race in England in ‘08 was a great learning experience in rain/sleet! I feel like I’ve got a very high level of car control and confidence when the “danger” level is higher in the rain. You have to do recon at a very quick rate to find where the grip is on track before everyone else. A lot of people try this but also find themselves flying off the track. That is another element to racing in the rain! It’s all about keeping yourself on track.

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Honestly man thats exactly what I’m trying to do right now as well hah! THAT is the biggest question in racing. Most of my racing has been funded by scholarships I’ve won from the Mazda Road to Indy and the Sahara Force India F1 team. Now that all of that is gone I’m pretty much starting at zero for next year! All I can tell you is keep calling people. Make it personal and get close to as many people as possible. Ask everyone you possibly know what business they are involved in and see if you know other people you can connect them with. That is how a lot of deals are getting done these days, business to business. I wish I had a better answer!

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It was actually easier than I thought it would be. I think what helped that though was the skip barber racing school. They have such good instructors and the regional races you could do before stepping up to the national level was great preparation. The cars were also not at a super high level so it was a good step to go to from karting. Biggest difference overall though is everything happens slower because the car is so much heavier than the kart!

SAFEisFAST.com Video: Making the Transition to Cars

I think the key is to do as many laps as possible. Every lap you do on track you learn more! Focus on your reference points – brake points, turn in points, apexes are all things to focus on. If you feel like you can brake later, gradually move your braking reference forward. Also try and think about what the car is doing, how can you improve it. Try not to get ahead of yourself and focus on consistent improvement.

I think your first step would just be getting to local race tracks and talking to as many people as you can. Get a feel for what’s around and what you can get into. I started in karts when I was 10 which is a bit different to your situation but there is no age limit to karting! Get into a kart if you can because you’ll learn a lot and it’s a lot of fun.

I think it definitely is worth the money. I’ve worked with driver coaches myself even in GP3 and it is a big help sometimes. A driver coach can get a lot out of the driver by asking the right questions and getting a young driver to think on a deeper level about whatever they are driving.

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Mazda Road to Indy Scholarship, to be honest. I wouldn’t be where I am today without that!

I have actually done a lot of mental training over the last few years in regards to qualifying. I have always been a better racer than a qualifier. I have slowly improved my qualifying performance and this year it really showed. I was able to get my first pole and out-qualify one or both of my teammates six of eight weekends. It was always different in GP3 though because of the Pirelli tires. They would only last one lap so it was all about being absolutely perfect on your one ultimate lap which is a very difficult thing to do. Indy Lights was different because you could keep pushing for almost eight laps in a row and constantly improve. I always try to listen to music before qualifying but really just focus on my reference points and doing what I know how to do. Don’t try and make any magic happen; there is no magic in racing!

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Thank you! That’s a tough question to be honest. The racing world has always been money driven but it’s even more so these days. The only reason I’ve been able to move through my career without a lot of big sponsorship has been through the Mazda Road to Indy. I’d say the best way to get into it is the Skip Barber Racing School series and then get yourself into the Mazda Road to Indy. I wish I had some secret formula to give you but unfortunately there isn’t one!

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I’d say I’ve actually done a decent job getting through 12 years of racing with only two big crashes! Racing is always going to be dangerous; it’s just part of the sport. There is no mental preparation for crashing because if you think about crashing, you’re going to crash. If you are out of control, do everything in your ability to reduce the damage to the car but if you’re going to hit, take your hands off the wheel.

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Technical knowledge is probably the most important thing you can bring to a race team. Technical knowledge is important but it’s mainly technical feedback that you need to be able to relate to a team. This is one thing my Dad has had me work on ever since I was in karting, and now I’m really confident in my feedback to the team. Ask whatever team you’re with a lot of questions; do everything you can to immerse yourself in the setup of the car and learn what every change might do.

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At first it took me several test days to get really comfortable in a new race car. It took me seven days of preseason testing in the Indy Lights car in 2011 to fully get to grips with it and when I showed up at the first race in St. Pete it all “clicked.” Since then though I haven’t had the luxury of that much preseason testing so it’s been a major learning curve jumping straight into something like a GP2 car and performing right away. As my Dad says, “race cars all do the same thing.” It sounds silly but they really do. Whenever you jump into something bigger and faster, you still have to work on the same things to get to the limit of the race car that you did in the previous class below.

It’s been great because he knows the racing world so well. He also knows what it takes to be a professional racing driver and what kind of sacrifice and commitment it takes. It’s been a tough relationship because he is always trying to get the best out of me which is not always fun from my perspective growing up but in the end I’m glad he did because I’m a better driver because of it. The biggest thing we focus on is how I can turn my weaknesses into strengths.

It might be surprising but I was never really the kid growing up to try and test the limits on the road. I care too much about my racing career to make stupid decisions off the track. I think I’ve had two speeding tickets total since I got my license when I was 16. The risk just isn’t worth it!

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