Anybody who gives their car to a valet isn't a car guy
The fact is I don't drive just to get from A to B. I enjoy feeling the car's reactions, becoming part of it.
The car drives really really good so far. No changes on the next pit stop. It's great, I can hold it down right along the bottom here in the corners I'm just ridin' around out here just waiting until later to make a move
The first time I fired up a car, felt the engine shudder and the wheel come to life in my hands, I was hooked. It was a feeling I can't describe. I still get it every time I get into a race car.
When I'm doing longer runs I can be very consistent on the lap times because I know what the car is doing all the time.
The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.
When I joined Formula One, I knew that what I found is that the cars are so much faster, and it took me a little while to understand where to always put the car.
I think what I've found is that in IndyCar, the balance is a bit more all over the place compared with Formula 1! You have to get used to that and work around it. Again, as a driver, you can help the situation by the way you brake and apply the throttle to make the balance better.
The way I drive, the way I handle a car, is an expression of my inner feelings.
My favorite change is taking traction control away and launch control, because my starts are pretty good, I think, and I make always some places up in the start and I think that will be great if that comes back to the driver's hand.
There are a lot of drivers who can carry a car. It doesn't happen very often very successfully. I think it takes a certain amount of sensible bravery. It's no good to be brave and just keep crashing.
If you have more downforce, everything becomes much easier. Drivers drive better, engineers they have more room for setup, the tyres are working better because you switch them on earlier and you have less degradation.
The trick at Le Mans is to get the car 'in the window.' Everything is critical: the tyre pressure, the brake temperature, and that means you have to push the car a lot to get it into the window - it's about getting everything to work right and getting the car to flow through the corners.
I love driving cars, looking at them, cleaning and washing and shining them. I clean 'em inside and outside. I'm very touchy about cars. I don't want anybody leaning on them or closing the door too hard, know what I mean?
Every lap I'm learning more about an IndyCar, because it's not an easy car to learn. It's tough to get your head around it and know how to use it in the best possible way.
I think it's impossible to drive a Formula One car with one hand.
The first race is really just something that we will all need to get through. Until people see the cars in action I don't think they will understand how quick they will be, which means they are going to be tiring to drive.
We share the emotions of driving race cars. It's cool to have a dad who understands what you mean when you talk about oversteer or traction. But it's not a help at the race.
When you're doing Sebring in the back straight at 185 or 187, and the car's moving, you gotta know what to do with it, how to read it. Just the science of understanding shocks - forget spring rates - is mind-boggling.
There are a lot of impractical things about owning a Porsche. But they're all offset by the driving experience. It really is unique. Lamborghinis and Ferraris come close. And they are more powerful, but they don't handle like a Porsche.
Real cars were made here in America: Fords, Chevys, Plymouths. These were large chunks of Detroit iron - cars that had the size, weight, and handling characteristics of aircraft carriers but worse fuel efficiency.
And I'd get back to the cars being physical challenges to drive - to tame the beast. The cars we have at the moment are fantastic bits of engineering, but it's a little too comfortable, a little too easy. I think I'd go back to making the driver a bigger variable.
In a rally car when you put a 20 kg spare wheel in a car which is weighing 1,300 kg, you feel it.
I think it's always better to be in an F1 car because, in general, the car behaves itself.
First time I looked at a Formula One car in person, I just stared at the cockpit, figuring I'd never get in there. The drivers wear the whole car like a tight-fitting suit.
