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 lost sleep in France, and how he contributed to the team's work on reliability at Silverstone

The weekend in France didn't really start too well - I was staying in one of those CentreParc type of places with lots of small cottages that families stay in, and when I got there on Wednesday night I wasn't able to lock the door, so I left it open that night and then when I left the next morning. Unfortunately when I returned at nine that night the cleaners had locked the door, with the key still inside, so I had to go and get the spare key from the front desk. I still couldn't open the door with it, so at eleven they started drilling the lock. That didn't work either, so in the end I had to break the window to get in and get some sleep!

That said it all about France, really - I was a bit disappointed because it started raining just before the start of the first session, and the conditions made it really difficult all day. The tarmac was quite warm, and it seemed that as soon as it stopped raining the tarmac dried up very quickly, so we always seemed to be on the wrong tyres. It was just a strange day - at the end of the second session it was dry, but it had rained really heavily until just five minutes before, so we went out on intermediates. Some of the other drivers went out on slicks, and they set the quickest lap times and made ours look pretty bad.

So we didn't really get anything out of the Friday sessions, and therefore we weren't able to make a tyre choice. Fortunately we are allowed to nominate the tyre to Michelin at 12 o'clock the next day, so we had one session on Saturday to do further tests, and the choice was a good one because the team had a pretty good weekend after that - we got both cars to the finish, but the only chance we had for scoring points was if someone at the front fell off, and unfortunately no one did. Mark had a slight problem with his brakes halfway through the race, when he was close to Juan Pablo Montoya, and if it wasn't for that then I think he could have scored at least a point.

I had a bit more fun the week before when I went to the Goodwood Festival with my girlfriend – I had actually been asked to drive, but I really just wanted to take some time off and see all the great cars there. We didn't bother with the Formula One cars at all, but went to see the Silver Arrows and all of the old Indycars, which were great. It was a brilliant day out, and in a way it was a good lead up to the British Grand Prix in Silverstone last weekend.

We arrived at the track and had pretty much the same programme as usual, and I was running with Mark's engine from Magny Cours. I usually run with the race drivers' old engines – it is a test the team does to gauge reliability, to run the engine out of mileage to see if it lasts. Reliability is the key component in Formula One these days, and we don't want to see our cars blow up on the track, so this is one of the things we can do to ensure that they don't.

I tested here at Silverstone before we went to Australia earlier in the year, so I already knew the circuit in a Formula One car. On top of that I came here for the three day test recently - I was supposed to have some time in the car then, but unfortunately we were limited to one car so I couldn't get any running at all. But because of the first drive there I could get up to speed quickly, and I really like the circuit – it has a lot of quick corners, and it's really challenging.

The other thing that is good about Silverstone is that I live not far away, so I can sleep in my own bed and drive to the circuit, rather than stay in a hotel somewhere – it felt a bit like a holiday, except I was at home! It also meant that I could invite my family to see me at work – I don't get to see them too often, so that was really great for me, to be able to spend some time with them.

We were really concentrating on the tyre durability, although I was happy that I was able to post the team's best time in the first session at the end with a new set. The tyres were actually pretty similar, so it was a little difficult for the team to make a decision. When that happens, you look at data - at the first lap performance and how they last over a longer distance.

That's why I just ran round and round in the second session – we did three long runs in the afternoon. In order to get through the programme we went straight out on one set of tyres, and we did what is called an ABA test, which means we did one stint on the option tyres, one on the prime tyres, and then another one on the option tyres. That way you get a proper comparison and can make a proper decision on which set to race with.

This time, though, there wasn't a huge difference in either the first lap times or how they lasted, and normally if that is the case you would go for the softer compound, but Silverstone is a high speed circuit, and on a circuit like that it is usually better to run a stiffer tyre with a little bit harder compound because of the higher G forces.

Mark and Christian were doing tyre testing as well, as we didn't need to do any sort of aero testing – since we went testing there not long ago we already had all the information we needed – but it all helped and the car was good for the race. Mark did really well to bring another point home for the team – he might have been able to get more except for the reliability of the cars in front; I guess the other side of us working on reliability is that everyone else does too.

After the race I had a quick drive home to relax before a day in the factory with the engineers, going through the data and the programme for the upcoming test – I flew to Jerez on Tuesday for a test on Wednesday, to look at a few new parts, which we might run in Hockenheim depending on the results of the test. Hopefully it will give us a bit of an improvement for the race next week in Germany.

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.