Interview: Pizzonia Takes it Easy in Melbourne

Jaguar's Antonio Pizzonia knows little about the track that will host his Formula One debut next week, but he has seen enough to realise where the most danger lies.

"The first corner should be quite interesting. I remember watching on TV last year," the 22-year-old said on Friday in reference to the first-corner collision between Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello that put almost half the field out of the 2002 season opener.

"Hopefully I'm not going to be on the gravel on the first corner.

"I don't know much (about the Melbourne track) to be honest. It's my first time here. I've heard it's a nice track. It's going to be quite dirty on the beginning, which is normal.

"Obviously for the first race everyone is always really excited and wants to win (but) I'm not going to be pushing too much in the first two races because everything is so new to me."

Pizzonia, who finished eighth in the Formula 3000 last year and Australia's Mark Webber, 26, with one season at Minardi behind him, represent the most inexperienced driver lineup on the Formula One grid this season after the departures from Jaguar of Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa.

Not that it has dampened Pizzonia's enthusiasm. "I'm very excited. It's a big moment for me after 12 years of waiting and thinking about Formula One," Pizzonia said.

Pizzonia said he hoped to racing at "100 percent" in time for his home Formula One debut at Brazil's Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo on April 6th.

New Rules

Pizzonia also told reporters in Melbourne that he thought the new rules this season would make the sport more interesting.

Under new Grand Prix regulations designed to cut costs and liven up the sport, a single lap qualifying format has replaced the old one-hour session. Refuelling has been banned between the Saturday afternoon session and Sunday's race start.

"I'm sure it's going to be quite interesting because you may see very slow cars starting in the front row and then are probably going to have to pit after five or 10 laps, but it's good for the public and I like the idea," he said.

Pizzonia, who has two brothers and two sisters, grew up in the Amazon region far from Brazil's motor racing centres of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and has been nicknamed "Jungle Boy".

His parents Reginaldo, 56, and Lucilene, 48, are flying out from Brazil on Saturday for next week's race.

"My parents are coming to the race, it's a 35-hour flight or something. It's their first time in Australia as well," said Pizzonia.

"I am from the jungle and I don't mind," he said earlier this year. "When I first came to England it was a big shock for everyone...no-one ever came from the Amazon to Europe to race before."