Romain Grosjean column: Racing on two wheels

Romain Grosjean will write for F1i throughout the season to bring you a drivers' perspective of life in a new F1 team

To be honest there’s not really a lot to say after Monaco so I won’t spend a lot of time reviewing it here. It was definitely a challenging race, thanks to the conditions and the usual track confines.

It was a tough one as ultimately I couldn’t overtake Pascal Wehrlein, but I had to stay focused, which I did, and brought the car home in thirteenth. It was a long race but for us it was one of those races where we use it as a learning experience.

We left Monaco much stronger than when we arrived. The car was good. There are still plenty of places we can improve the car, but since I changed chassis, my feelings inside the car are back to normal. I was able tell the guys what changes we could do, the things we could try and we could then see with clarity how the car was reacting.

After that it was back home for a few days. I competed in another cycle race on Sunday, the Time Megeve Mont-Blanc, before flying out to Canada.

For me, the most important thing in Formula One is to be able to enjoy life. You have to work hard to achieve your successes in this sport. Spending time with my family, my wife and kids, that’s a priority but I love to do activities that challenge me.

I ran the Geneva half-marathon recently which was a lot of fun. Last weekend’s bike race, for me, was the same thing. I honestly do these things, not to be a competitor, because if I was I could have arrived in Canada exhausted which wouldn’t be good, but because I enjoy mixing with other people and I have a love of sport.

It also gets me outside, where I can appreciate some stunning scenery and nature in general in and around my home base.

It’s no secret that you can always improve your fitness. You’re never perfect, which is great. The challenge for drivers in Formula One is to keep your weight down. That’s one of my biggest challenges as I’m quite a tall driver.

It’s very hard to keep the weight off but it’s what we have to do to achieve maximum performance. It’s the trade-off between having the muscles to be able to drive and being as light as you can, while at the same time having good endurance physically.

My physio, Dan, has created a special program for me to take all of this into account. We also focus on things like reaction and coordination. The goal is to be as complete as you can be.

I’m looking forward to competing in Canada this week. Montreal shares similar traits to another Formula One venue, Melbourne. I just love being there, I love the people, I love the country in general.

I have some good friends in Montreal, one in particular is the chef at the Sofitel Hotel downtown. Everyone’s very welcoming in Canada and in Montreal they’re delighted that they have a Formula One event in the city and that we race there every year.

The whole city really gets behind it and they close off many streets so pedestrians can hang out together at places like Crescent Street where a lot of the bars and restaurants are located. All these things combined really give Montreal an outstanding atmosphere and it’s a pleasure to go there and soak it up a little before we race.

And of course, once the checkered flag drops in Montreal we’ve all to get ourselves to Baku for the European Grand Prix. It’s definitely a challenge sorting out the flight schedule for all of that!

Add in the various changes of time zones - we’re going from Montreal which is six hours behind my home in Geneva to Baku which is two hours ahead - there’s really not much time for a break in between events.

It’s a tricky situation, I’m not a big fan of that kind of scheduling. There are times when the calendar does make sense, such as having America and Mexico back-to-back, or Malaysia and Japan for example.

Canada to Azerbaijan doesn’t make a lot of sense being blunt. That said, it’s up to us to prepare for it, we knew it was coming so we’ll hope for the best for both races.

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