Formula One / Ralph Ellis / 26 March 2009 /

The new Formula One season is on the starting grid in Melbourne. We met Williams' highly rated young Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima to get the lowdown on what to expect.

Hi Kazuki - we imagine a qualification for being a Grand Prix driver is having ice cold emotions - but do you get excited or nervous before the start of a season anyway?

Yes, it is true that keeping your emotions under control in the cockpit is really important, but if you are a racing driver, it is what you live to do and for that reason I tend to find that the winter goes very, very slowly and I really can't wait until the season starts again. And the closer we get to the first race, the more time seems to slow down. So this Sunday cannot come quickly enough!

Will this year be all about McLaren and Ferrari again, or will the new regulations make it a more even contest for all the teams?

Well, it is not for me to speculate as to how the other teams will perform, and in fact we won't truly know until we have had a few representative races. The first couple of Grands Prix can throw up the odd strange result, so we do feel that until we have had a mix of street circuits as well as races at the traditional tracks, the form is not really clear. The new rules will hopefully mix things up a bit, and I do think that we started work pretty early at Williams on the new car, so I hope we will be well placed to prosper under the regulation changes.

How has your testing and preparation gone?

There has also been a limit to testing this winter - of course now we can only test one car at a time, rather than running two cars and on top of that, the amount of track testing days that we are all allowed has been cut down. This is all part of reducing the costs, which of course is necessary, and it is the same for everyone, but occasionally it can be frustrating. For example, when we launched our new car in Portugal in January, we lost two or three days to bad weather and my first run in the car lasted just one lap before the rain prevented us from running any more. That was annoying, but over the course of three months, we have prepared ourselves well, I think.

Do you have to do a sort of pre-season fitness programme to get your own body right as well as the car. And if so what's involved?

I work quite hard on my physical programme during the winter. When I am not at the track testing, I will normally be in the factory where we have a gym and our simulator suite next door to each other. This way my trainer can organise cardio sessions which are immediately followed by sessions in the simulator driving under physically fatigued conditions, which is pretty representative of the conditions I will encounter during a race. My physical programme is all about building a solid level of general fitness with some highly specific work around neck and shoulder strength, forearm work etc.

What was the biggest difference for you last season in stepping up from being a test driver to a fully fledged GP racing driver?

Actually, all the main differences are outside of the car - suddenly the amount of marketing and PR work escalates hugely and of course I spend so much more time in engineering meetings working with my track engineers and data analysts on car set-ups, tyre choices, strategy plans etc. It is a big learning curve to begin with, quite bewildering, but now it is routine and second nature for me.

Tell us about the new car - the Williams-Toyota FW 31. We gather it's a complete new design and build?

Yes, in fact every car that will be on the grid in Melbourne is completely new. The fundamental differences are new front and rear wings that will hopefully promote more overtaking and of course the slick tyres which will place much more emphasis on mechanical grip. They are quite different to drive, but now that we have all done days of testing, I think the drivers will be quite used to the differences.

You posted the fastest time in practice sessions in Jerez. Was that encouraging?

In one sense, yes, of course, but you really don't know what everyone else is doing in testing, from what fuel loads they are carrying to the type of simulations they are running out on the track, so we are always really cautious not to read too much into testing form - you can see a general pattern, but you really don't have a clear picture of the form guide from a single test

Last year's car was clearly reliable as you finished all except two races - can the new car achieve speed and reliability?

I hope so. Reliability is hugely important, but of course with such a lot of changes to the cars, there is a greater possibility that technical gremlins could appear than if we simply maintained the same technical platform, but it is the same for everybody. Over the past couple of seasons, most teams have demonstrated pretty watertight reliability, so it will be one of the interesting facets of this season to see who manages a good level of race finishes.

In Patrick Head you're working for one of the most experienced engineers in the sport. Do you find yourself learning about the technical side of the car, or do you just drive it?

For sure you learn what is important to extracting the best from the car, but in one way it is the job of the race engineer to know the detail down to every last nut and screw, and he then filters down just the information the driver needs to know. But it is true to say that it is interesting to witness how the designers have developed new ideas and found more performance. I think it helps to have at least a basic technical disposition if you are going to be a good driver.

Moving to Europe at the age of just 21 must have been a culture shock. What was your worst horror story when you were first settling in?

It was the food! You know how different Japanese food is for European tastes - well, I had that in reverse. And although I have been living here for a while now, my local Japanese restaurant does quite well from me, I must say

And how is living in Oxford now?

It's fine, I like it and it is quite a cosmopolitan place. The Japanese media frequently film me in very typical Oxford locations like in the dining hall at Christchurch College where they filmed Harry Potter, it seems to be exactly how people overseas think of England. But most importantly with the lifestyle I have, it is convenient - I can be at the Williams factory in 25 minutes or at Heathrow to get on a plane to go to a test or a race within an hour - and that's pretty important

The Williams team have a fantastic history - is that an inspiration or a bit daunting to try to live up to?

It is a great honour to be part of the Williams story, but I have to say the team spends little time thinking about its past achievements. It is all about tomorrow, the next race, the season ahead, and because of that, the main burden is the expectation of doing well in the future, so I don't feel the pressure of the team's past history too much.

Has Lewis Hamilton's success been an encouragement for other young drivers?

Yes of course.

What has it done for your own ambitions and confidence?

I think we are all our own people and we have to maintain a level of self-belief in any case, as F1 is pretty unforgiving if you lack confidence. So while I would take nothing away from what Lewis has achieved, I don't think it really impacts how I approach my job.

What's the best thing about being a Grand Prix driver?

That's easy - getting to drive the best race cars in the world every other Sunday alongside the very best drivers

And the one thing you'd change if you could?

There's not much I'd change - I regard myself as very fortunate and privileged to have this opportunity, the important thing is to make the best of it. I now have a complete season of experience to build from this year and I hope I can take the opportunities that come my way during 2009

How is the sport of Formula One growing in Japan?

It's a really big deal at home - maybe not as big as baseball, but it ranks as one of the major sports, it gets plenty of attention in the media and of course the involvement of some big Japanese companies like Toyota makes it a subject of national interest.

Thanks for your time, and we've a free £50 bet in aid of your favourite charity to say thank you.

That's no problem, but I'm not a gambler so I will let you decide what to do with that, thank you.

* We've put the £50 on Kazuki's Williams team mate Nico Rosberg to achieve a podium finish at [10.0], with any winnings to go to the Spinal Injuries Association which is the nominated charity of the Williams team, details on www.spinal.co.uk.

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