The weekend in Austria started off well for Giancarlo Fisichella, qualifying in the top ten, before a late race retirement ended his weekend early. Despite his Austrian disappointment, Giancarlo is looking forward to this weekend's race at Monaco, a circuit he loves driving on and always performs well at. From Austria to Monaco, read all about it as seen through Fisichella's visor...

The Austrian Grand Prix weekend got off to a great start as I scored another goal to end the charity football match in a draw at 4-4. OK, we were not able to continue our winning streak, but it was a reasonable result considering the fact that we were playing against some of Austria's former soccer players. I was also very happy that the Sicilian region had chosen me as their testimonial. My father was born in Catania and for this I am very honoured. It is a beautiful part of the world and as many of you will know it is where I keep my boat 'Fizzy' several months of the year.

Turning my attention from one beautiful part of the world to another, I am sure there will be many of you like me who hope that this was not our last visit to the A1-Ring. The scenery is spectacular; the track is quite good, with low speed corners leading onto good straights, a combination that offers some overtaking opportunities. It is a circuit I like and where I usually do well. Last year I finished fifth with Jordan and of course it is where I scored my first pole in 1998, so I felt confident that we could gain some more points this time.

A combination of horsepower and aerodynamic efficiency is essential in Austria to set a good time. Although we needed to find more speed, I was happy with the handling in the first session and finished at the top of the time sheets. Yet during the next session I could not find as much time and ended the session fifteenth. Even more curiously, when it came to the qualifying session the car felt completely different from the morning runs, so although I had a clean lap I didn't feel I could push it to the limit.

Even so I gained half a second from my previous best and finished tenth. In the end I felt qualifying was OK, but I guess that was also due to many mistakes made by my colleagues. As we were aiming for a top ten position I was reasonably happy and quite confident that I could improve my final grid position the following day.

My Jordan-Ford felt good in practice and warm-up on Saturday, and so going into the qualifying session I felt I could really push and get in the top ten. The first two sectors felt good - the engine, the tyres, the chassis, everything was working well and I was able to push hard. I could feel it was quite a good lap until in the last corner I made a mistake and that probably cost me eighth place. OK, ninth would still give me a good chance to pick up points especially as the weather reports were indicating rain showers for Sunday afternoon. That would make the race even more interesting.

When dawn broke on Sunday I didn't really expect to see much rain, and as it turned out we just had a little shower. But I don't think Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Sauber would have been the only victim after the second aborted start if the weather had been hotter. As it was, we finally got away at the third attempt. I had to run wide at Turn 1 to avoid a couple of drivers sliding wide as they jostled for position, as I did not want to get involved in someone else's accident, and so David Coulthard got past me. Before we had completed the first lap the Safety Car was brought out while the marshals removed Jos Verstappen's Minardi. Fortunately the situation didn't last too long and a few laps later we were racing again.

I had a lot of problems during the race as I was struggling with a lack of grip because my tyres were blistering quite badly. So I had to be really careful for the entire race. The rain shower did not cause me any problems. I just had to be a little more careful for a couple of laps, that was all, no real problems there. Where we have a problem is that we still need to improve the car if we want to keep up with the opposition. To have a difficult race, and then to have to retire with just six laps to go is very disappointing. I know it is disappointing for my team too, but I was pretty upset for a while. At least an electrical fault has been discovered and I know the team has been working flat-out to give me a good package for Monaco this Sunday.

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I have to admit it, Monaco is my favourite circuit. It is a challenging and technical track and one that really suits my style of driving. I have had some great results and podium finishes there so I am really looking forward to the race on Sunday. It's a fantastic location, with its unique street circuit and beautiful harbour setting, and I'm not just saying this because it's where I live! I just love the place. The atmosphere during Grand Prix weekend is incredible, it's like Formula One and Hollywood all rolled into one. Just remember to bring your camera, binoculars and autograph book!

For me, Monaco is another 'home' Grand Prix like Imola or Monza; all my family and many of my friends join me for this weekend. It is great to see them and it is a good way to relax in between media interviews, team functions and the personal appearance I make in the Formula One Paddock Club to meet our guests. On Sunday I have another appearance to make for my sponsor Crems/Arizona, so this weekend more than most is very hectic but the buzz around this place is great. This is one time that I make the most of having my boat moored here so that I can go back to sleep on it. It's one of those things, but I always sleep so well on my boat. However we have taken the precaution of booking a hotel room just in case the sea does not stay calm!

Earlier this week, in between my training programme with Marco Rustichelli, I had some television interviews to do - it was great! I really enjoy doing TV interviews, and of course it's good for me and my team to have so much interest all the time. Then it was back to training; running, cycling and work on some specific areas, but nothing out of the ordinary. My level of fitness now is so good that some people mistake my fitness level and think that I haven't been exerting myself, but that's how it is when you are at a high fitness level.

It's always a big challenge to find a good set-up for Monaco and this time it is going to be even more of a challenge with the new qualifying rules. I will talk about it with my engineer but I am not going to tell you what is in my mind! Historically Monaco is very difficult for overtaking, but with the new layout around the swimming pool it will be interesting to see if it will be any easier to overtake there.

It's always very exciting to race at Monaco and I always feel very comfortable driving this circuit. It is not easy, and you have to concentrate to drive well, and of course you must be very precise as there is no room at all for any mistakes. Yeah, I really love this track. It's very demanding, very exhilarating, and to me, this is what Formula One racing is all about! I hope that I shall be able to match my previous performances here and it would be good to repeat the result I had here last year with Jordan (fifth), but maybe I will need a little help from the weather, so what may not be good for the spectators in the grandstands may be very good for me!

Ciao a tutti!

Giancarlo Fisichella's column is written exclusively for Atlas F1 by Fisichella himself, with the assistance of friend and freelance journalist Georgie Shaw.
Fisichella's official website can be found at http://www.giancarlofisichella.it.