Fast Frog

So GP2 gets the show back on track again at Magny-Cours this weekend, and the bad news is that I'll be missing another race, as I continue to recover from my Monaco back injury.

But much better news for me is that, all being well, I should be back in the cockpit for the German races at Hockenheim in two weeks' time. And I have to say that I really can't wait.

The last few weeks have been the longest I have been out of a race car for many years, and I've really been missing motor racing. Watching the World Cup kept me going quite well, right up until the final, but losing on penalties was really tough.

In the early rounds they were a bit shaky, but Zinedine Zidane was awesome in the quarters and they deserved to go all the way, I think.

I'm a big football fan, so I guess if I had to have some time off, then the past few weeks were pretty good ones to pick - although it wasn't exactly my choice, obviously! Still, it was good to have something to divert my attention.

Sure, it has been nice to spend some time with my family at home in France while I've been recovering, but when you're a competitive driver at this stage in your career all you really want to be doing is racing, so I'm very hungry and motivated right now, as you can imagine.

I've kept in touch with what's been going on by talking to the team and going to the GP2 mid-season test at Paul Ricard a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to get an idea of how the teams were going and to see my mates from Arden. From what I could see, they were having a few problems with set-up and it was quite frustrating for me not to be able to jump in the car and help them work it out.

I-Sport went very well there and Jose Maria Lopez always looks quick at Ricard, but it was difficult to tell exactly what the times meant because ART were running their own programme and not particularly chasing lap times. That meant there was no real reference as to how fast the circuit was.

I think Lewis Hamilton looks pretty strong for the championship now. He has a good points' lead and ART are a very good team. His only real rival for speed is Alex Premat, and he hasn't had quite as good a season as he would have hoped for.

Nelson Piquet Jr should be closer, but his problem is that he's so much quicker than his teammate, Alexandre Negrao. The team only have one driver's feedback for a development direction. That's one area where ART really score. In some corners Alex is quicker than Lewis and vice-versa, so they can compare data and really work well on what's the best set-up for the car.

Obviously they'll have had Magny-Cours set-up in mind during the test, and the trick there is to have the car very low and pretty hard. The track is so smooth that you can get away with a very stiff set-up and it really works.

I can say this with some confidence, because my dad runs a racing school at the circuit, so it's the track I know better than any other. To be fast there, you have to be quick through the fast second corner and through the two fast chicanes. There's also a 180-degree corner, which is very important for a good lap. If you can get all those right, then you'll be quick, for sure.

It's very disappointing to be missing the races there, obviously, but I can deal with it because I have positive news about getting back in the car.

My doctor told me last week that Hockenheim should be no problem for me, and the healing process has progressed very well. He told me that even if I have an impact in the same area of my back, it shouldn't cause any extra injury.

It was a big relief for me the week before last to be able to take off the corset I have been wearing for the past few weeks, to help my recovery. The only time I have been able to remove it was to have a shower each day, but I had to wear it at all other times, even when I was asleep. That has been pretty uncomfortable, so it's really nice to be able to roll over as I want to each night - and best of all with no pain now.

I have had to be very careful in training, though, not to cause any further impact on the compressed vertebrae as they healed. That meant I couldn't do any running, and I have had to stick to cycling and swimming in order to keep my fitness up.

But I should be able to do some running this week, and I'm looking forward to that more than you can imagine! It will be a real sign for me that the healing process is almost complete.

Salut,