Bjorn Wirdheim is a fresh addition to the Formula One paddock. Intelligent, humble and hard working, the F3000 Champion made his debut in Melbourne as Jaguar's third driver - a stop on his way to a fulltime F1 racing career. In an exclusive column for Atlas F1, Bjorn will share his experience over the 2004 season and tell us in his own words about the technical and personal challenges he faces throughout the year.

This Week: Bjorn recalls his introduction to motorsport at the old 'Ring and explains why he was penalised by the stewards last weekend

It was great to return to the Nurburgring; I know the circuit really well and I love to drive there, and in a lot of ways it is my home circuit, and the place where I discovered my passion for motorsport. I first came to the Nurburgring almost twenty years ago, when I was only four or five, because my father had started racing and he would bring me with him to the track when he took part in the Scuderia Hanseat, the course that they have for people to learn the old circuit.

It's a training course anyone could take part in; you just have to pay for it, it takes a week, and it was really good fun. And at the same time he was driving in the German Porsche Cup, and he raced in the 24 Hours around the long circuit. I think he went there seven years in a row, and I used to come with him whenever I could.

It was really amazing; I was very small, and I used to walk around in the pits and hear the noise of the engines and see all the Porsches lined up; I don't think I knew much about what was happening, but I just loved every minute of it; I guess that's why I wanted to be a racing driver when I grew up, and the Nurburgring introduced me to it all.

It's also where I took my first Formula 3 victory, on the short circuit, in my second year of F3. I've always really liked this circuit, and especially on that day! I like it because of the circuit layout; I think it's good, it's challenging with the quick corners. The only thing I don't like is the new part, because it's very technical and it doesn't go very well with the rest of the circuit; the first four corners used to be a chicane after the start finish straight.

I guess it was quite dangerous, though; I actually went wide there in my first year of F3, and managed to take out four or five cars; I wasn't very popular after that! The year after was obviously much better, and that was also with the old chicane. The reason I don't like the new section is its all very slow corners; I understand that it creates overtaking opportunities and so on, but it's a strange set of corners and it doesn't go very well with the old layout. I think it's a shame.

Last year at the Nurburgring was probably our strongest race of the season; we qualified on pole pretty easily but I made a pretty bad start, and Sperafico managed to get alongside in the run up to the second corner; he tried put me in the grass but I refused to move, so he took my front wing off and I had to pit. I came out just in front of the leaders, and I managed to close the gap nearly a second a lap for the rest of the race, so it was a pretty good even though it was the only race I didn't end up on the podium.

It was a lot easier to test there last weekend than at some of the other circuits, because the most important thing when you first start the session is to get to know the braking points, and I found them pretty quickly. Unfortunately we had a problem in the morning when I went out on my installation lap and there was a strong smell of fuel in the cockpit; I told my engineer when I came in and we realised there was a fuel leak. There was some fuel in the cockpit, but not much; I've heard horror stories about other drivers swimming in fuel, but luckily that wasn't the case with me!

It took quite a long time to sort it out and they didn't manage to get me out again until there was about ten minutes left of the session, but in the second session I got up to speed pretty quickly; we were making tyre comparisons on long runs, and we got through those points in the programme without any problems and got the information we wanted.

Mark ran the same programme, and they correlated pretty well. I got reasonably close to him for the last outing; there were only 0.8 seconds between us, but he found a lot of time on his last set of tires between corner 3 and 4, so he pulled out a bigger gap again.

The problem is I only have two sessions in a best case scenario, and for the last two races I've only had one hour of proper running, and although I know this circuit well it is completely different in a Formula One car. So I think sometimes it's a bit unfair to compare myself to Mark; I should probably compare myself to Christian, as he's in the same situation as me, and if I do that then I did a good job because I was quicker.

We noticed that in Barcelona there was only half a second between me and Mark, and that's a track I've tested on previously. There's a saying in motorsport that you find half a second just by sleeping on it, and it's pretty funny but it's true, because you come back and you know exactly what to expect and improve immediately. I think it would help a lot to do some running on Saturday as well, but that can't happen so the circuits I should really focus on and try to be close to Mark are the circuits I've tested on before: Silverstone, Indy and Monza; those are the three important races for me this year.

I should add that Mark and I ended up being penalised for a problem in the second session; he was right behind me when we went out on new tyres, and on the warm up lap I noticed one of the Saubers parked next to the circuit after the quick chicane. I thought to myself I'll do a really slow outlap to give the marshalls time to get him off the circuit, so I drove really slowly before starting my flying lap.

As I came around again, just before the hairpin, I thought that if the car is still there then there should be yellow flags on the way up the hill into the chicane, but I didn't see any yellow flags at all. So I was flat out through the chicane and I noticed the yellow flags really late, because the only flags were right next to the car.

I just eased off a little bit on the accelerator, and I guess because it was the first time I really ran with new tyres that day it was my quickest sector through there anyway, and therefore they decided to penalise me, and it was the same with Mark; he backed off as well, but still his sector was quicker. This really shows how much faster the first lap on new tyres is compared to the later runs.

I think if my sector time was a couple of hundredths slower I wouldn't have been penalised, but that's the way it was and there's not much we can do about it. It was really unfortunate for Mark because he got a penalty of one second added to his qualifying time, and I got a warning; if I get another one I won't be allowed to test at the next Grand Prix.

After the session the stewards brought us up to look at footage to show us there were yellow flags, and they showed this post at the exit of the quick chicane on the left hand side; you go through the chicane doing maybe 260-280 kmph, and you can just about do it flat out if you have a good car, so you are looking straight ahead when you do it; you're not looking over to the left to see where a post is, because it was impossible to see.

So it was just stupid really, and they got really upset about it because they don't understand that when you are going at those speeds the only thing you are looking at is straight ahead. I told them I didn't see the yellow flag, I only saw the yellow flag beside the car, and by then it was too late, and several other drivers were complaining about it in the driver's briefing, but they still penalised us.

Despite this problem I have to say it was great for the team that Mark brought home two valuable points after the race; it was a good boost for all the hard work everyone has been doing, and it gives us something to build on for the rest of the year. He had a problem at the start and was second last at Turn One, so it was a fantastic drive.

We've now got a three day test in Silverstone before going to Canada; unfortunately I won't have any track time as they are only taking one car because of all of the damage the cars received in Monaco, but I will go to the track and the factory and try and pick up as much information as I can before flying to Montreal, which is a track I've heard a lot about and am really looking forward to driving.

På återhörande,             Bjorn Wirdheim's column is written exclusively for Atlas F1 by Bjorn himself, with the assistance of David Cameron. Click here for Bjorn's official website.