Bjorn Wirdheim is a fresh addition to the Formula One paddock. Intelligent, humble and hard working, the F3000 Champion made his debut in Melbourne as Jaguar's third driver - a stop on his way to a fulltime F1 racing career. In an exclusive column for Atlas F1, Bjorn will share his experience over the 2004 season and tell us in his own words about the technical and personal challenges he faces throughout the year.

This Week: Bjorn reveals why he accepted Jaguar's offer, how did he prepare for Albert Park, and what kind of work he does during the weekend

I finally had my first race weekend as the third driver for Jaguar Racing, and I have to say it was an amazing experience to be involved in their Grand Prix programme in Melbourne. I think for me it is a great opportunity to experience all of the Formula One circuits, to get to know how the team works and to learn all the new technical things you have to know to give good feedback in the car, because Formula 3000 and Formula One are very, very different.

I'm pretty happy actually only testing this year, because I think it would have been very difficult to be a racing driver without any previous Formula One experience. I feel now that there are so many things that I have to take on board, and it takes a while to get used to everything; it takes a while to learn how to drive the car and to learn what kind of feedback the engineers want, for example. So if I also had the pressure to present race results it would make it much more difficult. I'm pleased about the situation, although I will definitely miss racing, but it's just a perfect opportunity to get a head start for next year.

I guess there are some people wondering how this opportunity came about. I was given a Champ Car test as part of the prize for winning the Formula 3000 championship last year, and I tested with Patrick Racing at a circuit just outside Phoenix, Arizona. I broke the track record actually, and the team offered me a contract, but then Patrick himself decided to sell the team and Emerson Fittipaldi decided to buy it.

We were still talking to Emerson (this was at the same time as everything was being decided about that championship), and I was looking at all alternatives and was in England to see my manager Christian Horner at the time that they decided they were going to stick to the rule about no former drivers testing in Formula One. Jaguar got in touch and offered me a test which went well, and then we entered into negotiations. There was still an opportunity to get a race drive in USA but my main focus has always been F1 and therefore I made a decision in Jaguar's favour.

I was really excited to finally get on the plane for Australia as a Jaguar driver. We started off in Sydney and did an event where Mark [Webber] was driving the car near the harbour; he was in a really small square space where he was going to do a few donuts and then we would hold a pitstop competition. Mark made some nice tyre-marks that the city council weren't too happy with and according to unconfirmed rumours the organiser got arrested for it on the spot!

I really enjoyed driving at Albert Park; I think it is a nice track, and it reminds me a bit of a street circuit. I guess it is a bit of a street circuit; it's not like Monaco or anything like that but it is very narrow and there is gravel so there is some margin for error, unlike Monaco. It was good for me to drive there; one important thing for me this year is to learn all of the circuits - I know 12 of them, but this was one of the circuits that I've never been to before. I did 55 laps, so I know it pretty well now.

When learning the tracks I haven't been to, I use computer racing simulators. These are very well advanced, and you can learn quite a lot from them, actually; you learn which way the circuit turns, and so on. Before heading to Australia I did that and it was pretty good, and then I downloaded some onboard footage from Rubens Barrichello's pole lap last year, and I watched that and got a pretty good feeling for where to use kerbs and where not to. And I obviously got all the data I asked for from Mark Webber and Antonio Pizzonia from last year so that I could look at to see how they were braking, how they were using the throttle, the steering, and things like that.

We arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I cycled along the circuit once and then did a few laps in a normal road car as well, so by Friday free practice I had a pretty good idea already; I knew what to expect anyway. I spoke with Mark and he said the circuit is pretty slippery in the first session normally, and I spoke with the engineers and they told me what to expect, and then after that when I went out in the first session it was just really important to learn the braking points.

You just build up to a new track, really. I've always tried to build up to the times steadily; there are some drivers who are willing to take risks and they maybe might find the limit a bit faster than I do, but that's always been the way I've done it. I think this is the best way to approach Formula One; you have to be sensible because if you try too hard because you want too much you could easily end up making a complete fool of yourself. But it's a fine balance because time is usually very limited for a GP driver.

I attended most of the debriefs and the briefings over the weekend, just because I want to have some idea of what is happening. I find it really interesting, actually, and I just want to get as much information in as possible right now. We had a debriefing after the free practice on Friday, and we went through the results of my runs and it was a successful programme, and after that the engineers took that information into account when they were deciding what tyres to use.

I don't know yet how much they value my feedback; it's pretty early, and I think my feedback will improve a lot with experience, but at the moment they seem pleased. I'm sure I can do a lot better when I get more experience, but I know they got a lot of important information out of that test, and the focus for me was to do consistent laptimes so they could see how the tyres were degrading.

Qualifying was interesting from within the team, and it was very positive. Of course it is a shame what happened to Christian [Klien] because he wasn't able to do his lap at all, but everyone was really pleased with Mark because he had a lot of pressure, especially this weekend, and he did a really, really good job that he should be pleased with. There weren't really any expectations within the team, but we were all very happy to be on the third row!

Unfortunately in the race Mark had a problem with his gearbox, and the team will have to take a look at that, but on the bright side Christian had a good race because he made it to the end, and I think that it was important for him to get that experience in his first race.

So now we go to Langkawi, an island near Malaysia, where we will be getting ready before flying to Malaysia for the race. We will be training hard; no one can accuse Grand Prix drivers of having an easy life! But hopefully we will also be able to have a bit of a rest on the beach at some time in between.

På återhörande,             Bjorn Wirdheim's column is written exclusively for Atlas F1 by Bjorn himself, with the assistance of David Cameron. Click here for Bjorn's official website.