I think every series has its plus and minus. When you think about it, Formula 1 is like “Wow!” But when you actually live Formula 1 you don’t get to experience all that wow. I remember Red Bull used to have that thing called The Red Bulletin, and when they started it they used to give it away for free on the weekends and then you would go and see the picture of the people at the races and you’d say “Oh my god! There is this actor, and this actor…” and you’d never get to see them, because you get up in the morning, then you have a meeting, and then you’re eating, and then you get a massage, and then you drive the car. So I never really got to experience any of the craziness of Formula 1, and then I went to the other extreme that is NASCAR and it’s like “Yee-haw” every week! But it’s cool you know? I really enjoyed it. There are a lot of races and you don’t get to understand until you leave NASCAR, how much else you are missing in life. It’s great racing, it’s a great series, but when you have a family with kids… I love racing don’t get me wrong, but there is a lot more to life than racing. When I had the opportunity to come to IndyCar with Penske and win the Indy 500 and fight for the championship and everything, it was great and to do sports cars with Acura, it’s been an amazing experience. You know, you look at the installations and how everything is done, it just looks so Formula 1 but with a great atmosphere.

I think how I manage the brake pressure and the attitude of the car, I can really understand what the attitude of the car is and how it needs to be driven. I think that allows me to adapt to a lot of race cars.

Both I think are great race cars, both a lot of fun to drive, but the difference is the IndyCar is very much a one-off car. It’s like if you put everyone in a Mercedes on a Formula 1 grid but with two engines. So it makes it a lot more even, but since it’s a spec series there is a lot less things you can develop and work on. Whereas in Formula 1 there is really no limit to what you can develop and what you can create, so that’s the main difference.

Not at all, I feel more comfortable driving the sports cars right now than I did in the IndyCar. I think it suits more my driving style a bit more, I think it feels more like the Formula 1 cars I used to drive, like the Williams was really well balanced and a lot of fun to drive.

I don’t think they’re gutsy! I never felt that I was putting myself at risk or anything when I’m making those moves. For me it was more of a calculated move, I think putting the wheel on the grass, I was trying to go as slow as I can and I went a little too low. It wasn’t so much gutsy as a mistake, but I saved it and it wasn’t bad. But it’s like they say you know? How bad do you want it? And how far are you willing to go to take it?

I don’t know! I’ve done quite a few rain races and they’ve been good, I think the best experience was in the damp in Formula 1 at Spa 2002. We went from wet tyres to slick tyres in the last run and you’re trying to push as hard as you can with every little dry patch and just hoping the thing doesn’t step out. And I think I was on pole by like, a second!

No, like for me with flat tracks you want to make a diamond, like if you call that a double apex; low entry and you want to apex the middle of the race track. But it really depends on how the car is handling, some cars can roll through the middle and there are tracks where you have to rim ride. I thought that was one of the coolest things in NASCAR when you had to run the wall, because you’re driving straight at it and hoping the thing would stick. The first time I did that was at Atlanta and I was really good at it! I had a shot at the win actually. 

I think it depends where you want to go in the roots. Do you want to be a open wheel guy? Do you want to be a stock car guy? And on the basis of that, where do you want to go? Because if you want to go to NASCAR you probably have to start with dirt or those small ovals, like Bandoleros and all those things. Whereas if you want to go into open wheel you have to do karting.

The level in Europe is higher. It’s tougher, meaner, it’s very different because the tires are very different. The tracks have a lot of rubber, so it’s tough. My kid had some experience in Europe, and you know we win a lot of races here and we go there and are competitive, but he still struggles and is not as comfortable as he is here. He goes out here and knows exactly how to drive it, but that style there (in Europe) doesn’t work. So he’s got to adapt, and in a way it’s good because if you look at the big picture you’ve got to learn to adapt to everything.

Honestly I think this weekend (IMSA race at Sebring) has been a bit of that, it’s been tough because we’ve done a lot of testing, we’ve been really good here in the test and in the open test we were really good. Then we came to the race weekend and we have been struggling, and the only thing you can really do is sit down with the engineers, with the co-drivers and go through the car, understand the car and how we can make it better, and through the weekend we kept making it better. Finally we went out in qualifying, we calmed the car down. Yeah we have a little bit too much understeer, but it’s finally calm and good to see. It’s good to see you’re working with a good group of people, and one of the great things about Team Penske is how deep the team is, how much engineering background, how many great people are involved in the programme to make things better.

No. That was a simple answer! There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity!