That shrinking feeling

Giancarlo Fisichella lies down on the psychiatrist's couch.

"So, what seems to be the problem?" asks the doctor.

"Well, two things," says Fisi. "First, when I'm winning I'm feeling guilty. When I'm not, I'm not 'appy."

"Tell me about the guilt."

"This success I'm 'aving. While it's making me very 'appy, it's coming too easy. I feel a fraud. Everybody else working away like 'ell, and me just turning the wheel, pressing the pedals and going faster than them all, 'ardly even trying."

"But isn't that your job, what you're supposed to do?"

"Yes, ees good, very 'appy. But it's like it's just magic, like I just think what I want the car to do and it does it. Like I 'ave a direct line from the surface of the tyres all the way up my spine and to my inner ear."

"Your inner 'ere?"

"No, my inner ear. How good's your Italian?"

"Poor."

"So lay off."

"Okay, sorry, but I'm still struggling to see why this success troubles you. Are you saying you prefer failure? Now that's a very interesting concept."

"No, no, absolutely not. No, very 'appy with success, didn't like it in Malaysia when I wasn't as fast. But I know how 'ard you 'ave to work in a car that's not the best. I remember the Jordan in 2003. The team didn't 'ave the resources, you know, and the car wasn't great. I try it for the first time at Silverstone and we got it balanced okay and they ask me how it is. Isay fine. They say, 'Okay, if it's fine, now go out and drive it three seconds a lap quicker'. I say, 'Hey, come on, it's not that fine', you know. But I was working 10 times as 'ard in that car to finish 10th as I did in this one to win and it's not like I suddenly became a better driver."

"Are you familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs?"

"'ierarchy?"

"No, h... Er yes, that's right."

"No."

"Well it's about how man has an ascending order of specified needs and once he's satisfied one, he then moves onto the next. At the bottom of the pyramid is basic stuff like food and shelter and at the top is self-worth."

"Mmm. Anyway, I 'ave this understeer but it still is so fast, this car..."

"And I'm wondering if this guilt you speak of is rooted in not feeling worthy of success."

"No, I like very much the success. Very 'appy."

"As if on some level the difficult years have conditioned you to accept failure."

"And is strange, you know, this car. Because it feels like it's not a car even, feels like it's just an extension of my body."

"And whether it's made you too meek."

"It feels like I can do anything with it. And this is allowing me to reach areas of performance I never even knew I 'ad. You know, there are places you just couldn't go with a Jordan or even a Sauber, but this car can inspire. Is beautiful."

"Almost like you've accepted your lot in life and the security of that has been taken away from you by this success and that's why subconsciously you made sure you didn't have too much of it when you got the good car."

"I tell you what. I'm gonna go out there and destroy them all from now on. This is my time. I can do anything. Schumacher? Raikkonen? Montoya? Alonso? Pah, watch me. I'm flying. I'm surfing the wave. I'm never going back to 'ow it was before. Thanks doc, I feel great. You've been a big 'elp to me. Very 'appy now. You're very good."

"You think so? I don't know, I wonder if there aren't better guys than me in the field."

"Don't worry doc. All you can do is give it your all, even when the circumstances aren't great. And if you're good and you keep applying yourself and you keep your belief and your focus, you can do anything when the right time comes."

"Oh, I don't know."

"Yes, really doc. Look at me; an overnight sensation after nine years in F1, after years in the wilderness when it would have been very easy to lose my belief. You just keep pushing, you just have to keep remembering your circumstances and understanding that when the right situation comes along, you'll be ready for it - immediately."

"I've got some really tough gigs ahead of me. I don't know if they won't overwhelm me."

"Oh doc, how tough can it get?"

"I've got Jacques Villeneuve in here next."

"Oh."