Hi Morgan. Food is so important in a racing driver’s life. To keep fit, you need to eat well and do lots of training as you know but you also have to find out the foods that agree with your stomach when you’re under stress. I’m a bit peculiar as I have intolerances to rice and eggs, so I can’t eat those around a race weekend but rice and pasta are great sources of carbs to eat before a race, together with either, grilled fish, chicken, turkey and vegetables as you like them cooked. Don’t forget your hydration is at least as important as the food, so drink lots of water or drinks with electrolytes when the day is very hot and you sweat a lot.

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Hi Daniel. When racing in Europe it’s very important to choose the championship that will give you the best experience-to-exposure rate. Currently there are a number of Formula Renault 2.0 championships around Europe that could be a good stepping stone into European racing and they could give you a chance to experience the level of competition, learn the tracks and find your way up from there as results come! Best strategy is to look at the championships you’re interested in, look up the teams that are doing well in those championships and find their contact details online to get in touch and see how much it costs and what the options are! Good luck!

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Hi Yoann. The fans are the ones who make professional sports possible, so it’s always a pleasure to have them giving you support when you have a good one and understanding when things don’t quite go to plan! Always great to see the grandstands full on a race circuit, as it creates an amazing atmosphere!

Hi Matt. Car setup is a very personal thing for the driver because each person feels the car in a very different manner. For instance, for me it’s very important for the car to give me feel through the steering wheel. If the steering wheel is too light or has no feedback, it takes much longer for me to get comfortable with the reactions of the car. In general, though, I like the car with a positive front-end and stable corner-entry balance, as I very rarely drive the car over the slip angle of the front tyres as some other drivers like to do.

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Hi Jonathan. It really depends very much on where you want to end up. If your dream is Formula One, it’s important to start as early as possible. Normally, kids start when they’re around 10 years old and make it into F1. For other championships like endurance racing and all sort of non-pro racing there’s no age limit to start. I know everyone aims at F1 initially, but there is lots of life in racing outside of F1 and it can be very rewarding too!

Hi Hudson. Motor racing can be what you make it, in a certain way. If you become a professional driver, you end up travelling a lot and doing much more sponsor/business/pr work than actual time in the car. On the other hand, the less professional the level of racing you do, the non-driving activities become less and you can have more fun driving. Nowadays it’s very difficult to find a championship where you practice a lot as the costs are too high to run a race car constantly, though.

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Hi Ali. Even though they’re both single-seater cars, the Formula E and F1 cars are fundamentally different. Starting from the wheels and tyres: 13” inch wheels and slick/intermediate/wet tyres in F1 and 18” wheels and one-tyre-fits-all-conditions in Formula E. Then, the Formula E car is fully powered by an electric motor that generates around 270bhp with a big battery and a 5-speed gearbox, whereas the F1 has a turbo ICE engine with an electric motor attached to it, driving an 8 speed gearbox. The aerodynamics are much more complex in an F1 car, so the Formula E car can race pretty close, comparatively. Lastly, Formula E pitstops will see drivers changing cars, rather than mechanics changing tyres during a F1 pitstop.

Hi Hiro. I think no one can say no to a good opportunity in F1. For me, F1 has always been a dream and I was lucky enough to make part of that dream come true, but the reason why I race is winning and being competitive, so I need to be in a competitive car to enjoy it. At the moment, I am competitive in everything I do and if a good car was offered to me in F1, I wouldn’t say no.

Hi Celis. My worst experience in motor racing was hitting a dog during a GP2 race in 2008. Not only was it very shocking to hit it at over 280km/h, but also the image of the dog in front of me will never leave my mind.

Hi Michael. Qualifying is one of the most exciting parts of motor racing and when it goes well, it’s an amazing feeling. To get the most out of a qualifying lap and considering you’re comfortable with how your car is handling, the first thing you have to do is understand the tyre warm-up procedure. Getting your tyres up to temperature evenly so that they’re ready for the flying lap is very important, and that depends on the work you do with tyre pressures and how you work them during the warm-up laps. A good way to warm tyres up is to accelerate and brake hard as that builds temperatures on the surfaces of the tyres as well as the inside of the wheels from the brake disks. Other than that, focus is very important during qualifying. Try to keep your mind clear of everything else, apart from the work ahead and let it go away when you’re driving to just feel it and get “in the zone”. Good luck!

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Hi Cathy. I think I’d choose Rio or Sao Paulo first as I’d love to race Formula E at home but a race in Sydney or Dubai could be very cool as well.

Hi Romain. We will need to do Driver-In-Loop simulator work before each race weekend as there’s very little time to learn the tracks and street circuits are normally harder to learn than normal ones because the visibility and grip levels are much lower.

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The Mille Miglia was definitely a very unique experience. On the one hand, I saw some of the most amazing places and sceneries of my life, enjoyed the company of great people and drove a great car. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so tired and spent in my life. The rally is very demanding, hours are long, you get little sleep and that lovely D-Type Jaguar was roasting hot inside. I can’t wait do it again though.

Hi Rod. Winning Formula E would be great for a number of reasons. Firstly, it would be my first championship win in motor racing, even though I’ve come close a few times. Secondly, Formula E is another step in motor racing history, leading the way into making racing more sustainable and relevant to our current world situation. Thirdly, I love winning!

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Hi David. I don’t know if you will think I’m being biased but I am going to say I’m the faster one. Karun is a great driver though and he is going to give me a run for my money so I can’t slip up or be complacent. We have got to work hard together and fight hard on the track.

Hi Senna. Nice name. Jet-lag can be a big problem to frequent travellers. People tend to cope with it differently, but I tend to make sure to get in a gentle training session (swim, run or bike) when I arrive at a place with a different time zone. Other than that, trying to eat light foods and not sleeping during the middle of the day are key to the shortest adaptation period possible.

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Hi Romain, that is a good question. I can see many new electric sportscars popping up around and would love to own one, when they’re developed!

Hi Callum. Formula E races will be won and lost by strategy and clever decisions. It’s more important than ever to have the best energy efficiency to laptime ratio. This involves different driving styles on each track and lots of work on the car setup to allow for some confidence while driving a car that recovers lots of energy only from its rear-axle, through the electric motor.

Hi Hollie. Every new championship is an adventure that can be successful or not. Formula E is an amazing achievement already as the cars are reliable and the structure of the championship is very well organised. Racing only on street tracks always offer higher risk of injuries but that’s part of racing and I really enjoy those street tracks.

Hi Neal. Finding funds to race in Europe is always tough, especially if you’re a foreigner. Normally it’s less difficult to race in your own country as the sponsors get more local brand exposure (except for F1, of course). A few countries, such as Brazil and the US have sports sponsorship policies where sponsors can deduct some of their taxes if they’re supporting their local talent, so maybe you could look into something like this. Best of luck!

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Hi Myles. Karting in Europe is extremely competitive and a fair bit more political than in America. It’s very important to find the right team with the best equipment to be racing at.

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Hi Greg. I did learn quite a few tracks with the racing games and did lots of simulator work during F1, so racing games definitely are something I enjoy. For actual race preparation, only professional simulators can really help a driver but for learning about circuits and getting a feel for how fast a car is, racing games can be very realistic nowadays.

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Hi Ademir. My favourite race was GP2 in Monaco 2008. I was in a good groove with the car and team, the competition was very strong that year and it was a very tough but rewarding race. Monaco was the only race where I really remembered Ayrton on the podium, so being on the top step of that gave me a great feeling.

Hi Celis. I believe that the first thing that road cars could adopt from Formula E in the future would be battery technology as the race for better batteries and powertrains will be very fierce between the teams in the next few years. Let’s hope it’s soon!

I had a very disrupted career as I stopped racing between 10 and 20 years old, so definitely not the most traditional way. Regardless of that, the best way for a driver to have a real chance in racing is for he or she to go through the steps in a structured manner. Spend a few years in Karting, search for the most competitive championships to learn race craft. Then move on to junior single-seater series or GT cars. Always aim for the highest level you can find or afford as this will always give you an indication of how competitive the driver can be and how far he can make it. The most important advice however is to be able to dream but not exclude other options outside of Formula One as there are plenty of great championships to race in.

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