Back to Square One: Interview with Jamie Green

As far as Jamie Green is concerned, 2006 might as well have not happened. The British driver went into his second season in the DTM tipped to fill the void left by 2005 champion and fellow-Brit Gary Paffett, but one year later he is still in the same position.

Last year was supposed to be the stage for Green to move from a fast driver to a race winner. He had put in some impressive performances in his debut season behind the wheel of a car that wasn't quite a full works package, but for 2006 he had been bumped up to a top Mercedes ride.

It all went to plan, briefly. Green backed up his reputation as a stunning qualifier by taking pole for the first race of the season at Hockenheim, but things started to go wrong before the race had even started.

Green's car developed a misfire on the warm-up lap, and he then spun while trying to warm his tyres. He took up his place on the grid, but he was already back in the pack by the first corner, and he retired at the end of the lap.

There were more poles during the season, but no victories. A first win had looked on the cards in his home race at Brands Hatch, but he slid off the road in the closing laps and handed the win to Audi's Mattias Ekstrom.

Jamie Green at speed in his Mercedes-Benz at Hockenheim © LAT

So for 2007, Green is in the same position. He still has a reputation for being a fantastic qualifier, but he is still chasing his first win, while fellow young gun Bruno Spengler has already netted four victories in just one year with the HWA-Mercedes-Benz outfit.

"The nature of this sport is that people will always talk about something, and for the last year it's been that Jamie Green hasn't won a race," says Green, who has remained in one of the top cars for this year.

"You do tend to get a bit tired of the same old stuff, but at the end of the day I'm responsible for that, and it's down to me to change it."

It's clear that Green's hunt for a victory has frustrated him over the past year, although he hasn't let it boil over just yet.

"When you're not winning, you become more ambitious," he says. "It's a natural thing when you class yourself as a good driver and everything has happened apart from that first win. It's difficult, but all you can do is look forward and try to improve."

Green was no stranger to winning in the years leading up to his DTM drive, and he admits that it has taken him too long to adapt from single seater racing to touring cars.

"There is a lot that goes into winning a DTM race," he says. "It's a different type of racing to what I have done in the past, and I think it has taken me too long to adapt to that, which is disappointing.

"In F3 you don't have pitstops, and it was quite hard to overtake because of the downforce, so if you qualified well and made a good start you could stay there.

"In DTM, you can't just stay at the front, and someone else might pit on a different lap to you and they can get ahead of you without passing you on the track."

However, Green is yet to lose many races because of pit strategy. In his opinion, he is throwing chances away much earlier in the afternoon than that.

Jamie Green leads at the start of the DTM round at Zandvoort © LAT

"Last year one of my key problems were the starts," he says. "There is definitely a knack to getting a DTM car off the line, and I haven't really hooked it all together.

"I don't want to make excuses though, because at the end of the day the buck stops with me. My teammates had the same as me, and Bernd Schneider won the championship, and Bruno Spengler finished second to him.

"Last year I did make some very good starts, but you need pretty good ones 10 times a year, not a great one then a diabolical one, and that's where I went wrong."

Green is very honest when it comes to being critical of himself, and he admits that there is another area that he must improve on. DTM races run for around one hour, and that can come as quite a shock to a driver used to 20-minute sprints in the junior single seater categories.

"I'm probably better at doing a single lap time than most, but not quite as good over a long distance," he says. "That's what I've got to work on."

A DTM car is a heavy piece of machinery, and the cars move around quite a lot through the corners. That puts a strain on the tyres, which often drop off in performance quite a lot over a stint, so looking after the tyres is a crucial skill for the 20 drivers in the field.

"Last year I improved my understanding of how to drive the car over a long run," says Green. "I have got better during my time in the DTM, but I still think there is room for improvement.

"I've got to be careful not to undo too much of my good work over a single lap though. If I change my style completely, I may lose some of my one lap pace as well. It's not easy to change, you need a balance, and I'm still trying to improve that. I haven't cracked it yet, but it's getting better."

It would be unfair on Green to just focus on the things he isn't getting right, though. From the moment he made his DTM debut in 2005, one thing that could not be disputed was his sheer speed, and he has backed that up with six poles and a total of nine front row starts from his first 21 races.

"The ultimate thing for a racing driver is to show how quick you are, and qualifying is your opportunity to show that," he says. "I enjoy trying to show what I can do.

"Even in the race, I'm capable of using the best of the tyres to get a good lap time. I set the fastest lap in my first ever race. But you don't get points for fastest lap, and what is required in the race is a very different story."

This year will be make-or-break for Green. After two years in the DTM he will be expected to have adapted to the series. Another season without a win would be completely unacceptable, but he knows that as well.

He should get a boost from the fact that Mercedes-Benz clearly have faith in him though, as he remains in one of the 2007-specification cars, while former champion Paffett has only been given a one-year-old car for his return to the series.

Green is fortunate, in a way, that speed is not his problem. It is a lot harder for a driver to simply become faster than it is for a driver who is already fast to hone his skills in specific areas. Twelve months from now, don't expect to be reading another pre-season feature about Jamie Green chasing his maiden DTM victory.