Fast Frog

It's hard to believe it's almost the end of the season already. It's been a pretty crazy year, with some good results at the start, but then the accident at Monaco, which really disrupted the season. The most important thing is that I made a full recovery from the back injury thanks to the doctors who helped me and I can look forward to the last two races this weekend knowing that I can fight!

Monza was one of the most competitive races for Arden last year - we always seem to go best on fast tracks - so we're optimistic that we can have a strong weekend again. It will be very hard for anyone to get on terms with Nelsinho and Lewis because they're just flying at the moment, but we'll do our best. We're definitely aiming for a podium. That has to be our target and I don't think it's unrealistic.

It will be interesting to see what effect the re-surfacing at Monza has had on the track. New Tarmac always means less grip and I know a few of the F1 guys had some problems when they tested there last week, but those cars will have put a lot of rubber down, so it should be better by the weekend. I hope so, because Monza's a track where you're always fighting for grip anyway, as you run with so little downforce.

It's a difficult circuit to get a balance for. It looks pretty easy in terms of the layout, but the car is so different there that your preparations and set-up are like no other circuit. You can gain a lot of time braking for the chicanes, but you really need the car underneath you to be confident.

You're going from something like 185 mph to about 35 and from sixth gear to first, as hard as you can, so you need a lot of stability and control, which isn't always easy when you're running with no wings. Anyway we'll see. It's a great track and it normally gives us a good race.

I spent last week at the A1 GP test, driving for Team France, which was a lot of fun. It was good to be back with a French team again, although it's a shame that my old engineer Chris Gorne has left the team for a new job in New Zealand. He was a cool guy and we worked really well together last year to help team France to the title.

It was good to work with Alex Premat again, too. He's another cool guy and we made a good driving team last year. We don't know yet if we'll be doing A1 GP again, but the first race is next month, so I guess we'll have to make a decision pretty soon after Monza.

We've also got a few decisions to make for next year, too - maybe doing GP2 again - so I'll certainly be sitting down with my manager Didier Coton to make sure we choose the best path. Whatever way we go, it'll definitely be flat out!

One last thing: I must say congratulations to Heikki Kovalainen for getting the race drive at Renault. We were teammates at Arden last year in GP2 and he's the strongest teammate I've ever had, as well as being a great guy and a good friend. He really deserves his success and I hope he goes well. I'm sure he will.

Salut,