Giancarlo Fisichella is preparing for his 200th Formula 1 race at next weekend s Monaco Grand Prix. The 35 year-old Italian is currently in his 13th season in F1 and will be only the ninth driver to reach the 200-race mark. By the end of the 2008 season, Fisichella will have made the fifth most-number of F1 starts.
“I still feel young,†Fisichella said. “I still feel happy to work in F1, to be an F1 driver. The only problem is travelling around the world all the time, but apart from that, I still enjoy it. I wouldn t be here if I didn t.
I don’t think I’ve changed much, but I hope I’m a better driver than when I started. I’ve learned quite a lot – how to manage the race, how to manage the qualifying session, and to put more attention on testing and talking with the engineers.”
Fisichella is also happy with his move to Force India this season.
“It was a good but difficult decision,” he said. “I was moving from a top team to a new team, which in the last couple of seasons had been on the last rows. But so far we’ve done a fantastic job, we’ve made a big step forward, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s really encouraging. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we are getting closer.”
