So far this season I have taken around 37 flights, which is quite a lot in my mind. Most of the time I only fly to European countries but we still sometimes have long-haul flights, for example the Macau Grand Prix in a couple of weeks.

Don’t get me wrong it is nice to travel and get to see some nice places but most of the time we go straight from the airport to the hotel, to the track , then straight back to either the hotel or the airport.  So mostly we see the inside of a one car or another, with a bit of tarmac in between.

It’s not quite the holiday most people think. Racing is about early mornings and late nights like most jobs.

I go everywhere with a 20 kilo bag full of my race gear.  Not my race car.  The cars go from race circuit to the team factory and on to the next race circuit in these giant purpose-built trucks.  Everything is packed and stacked unbelievably neatly so most race teams manage to squeeze 4 race cars and everything you could possibly need into two big trucks.  I then in a not so orderly fashion squeeze all my worldly racing goods in to the 20 kilo bag – race boots, gloves, visors, fire-proof race underwear, suits.

I have to laugh as we get to the car rental parking we usually come out with the most ridiculously small rental car. If there is more than one of us drivers travelling together, you should see the effort we put in trying to fit these massive race bags into the tiniest boot.