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 delves into the topic of tyre testing and reveals what it was like to watch the first F3000 race from the F1 paddock

It was good to arrive in Imola to prepare for this race, mostly because I have already raced there before and know the circuit quite well. It was definitely a lot easier to run my programme there than the previous three races, because I was able to go out in the first session, find the braking points and get up to speed; I didn't have to learn the circuit, so that made my job a lot easier.

I was quite pleased with my planned test program as we used several sets of new tyres in the second session. That is an area that I want to work on as much as I can, in order to learn how to extract everything out of the tyre when it's at its best. Because I'm not used to that at the moment, I usually push too hard on my first lap and take the car over the limit, which results in a time-loss. I need to understand how to use the new tyres properly. It's really the same in every formula; it takes a while to learn how to work the tyres.

We went to Barcelona for two days between Bahrain and Imola, and I did around a hundred laps on the first day working on aerodynamics and brakes. On the second day I was supposed to work with new tyres; unfortunately it rained all day so I wasn't able to, but I got a pretty good idea of what is needed in Imola, and it really helped me. Slowly but surely I'm getting to a point where I'm 100% comfortable with the car, and that's when you can start focusing on lap times. At the moment I just need to keep my head down and keep improving in these areas and I'll get there.

A lot of things became very clear to me at Imola about my role, especially where tyres are concerned. I've mostly been evaluating tyres on longer runs, which is not that difficult; the engineers look for consistency and that is a lot easier for a relatively inexperienced driver like me than, for example, first lap performance.

On the first lap the tyres are usually at least a second quicker than the second lap, and it's about going out there and knowing you have that much extra grip and being able to use it. You have to drive the car in a different way; you have to lean on the tyres a lot more, which is not easy, and you need to understand and get a feeling for it because otherwise you won't be able to do it.

What normally happens is that on the first lap you get by far the best performance out of a tyre, and then it goes off a little bit on the second and third laps. After that it's usually pretty consistent if it's a good tyre; the laptimes stabilise. This means that, for example, if you only use two sets of new tyres during a session you only get the opportunity to feel that extra grip level for two laps; the drop-off from the first to the second lap is huge, and the tyre degrades quickly. Before you realise this and understand how much extra grip you have during that initial lap, it can sometimes be a bit frustrating as you go out to post a good laptime, but it's not until the lap is over that you realise how much extra you could have pushed.

So the only chance you have to learn how to use this grip level is to use new tyres, new tyres, new tyres in short stints, because then you finally get up to the level where you can actually feel the full potential of the tyre. I've not worked much with this before, but we did it here in Imola and it was a great help. On the time sheets everybody sets their time on the first lap in an outing, and if you do not get everything out of the tyre you won't get a good lap time, so it's a very important area for a driver.

I'm happy that the programme gave me that opportunity. My sector times were pretty good in both sessions on Friday, although I was struggling a bit to string a whole lap together.

One unfortunate thing that came out of Imola was that I picked up my second pitlane speeding fine of the year to go with the one I collected in Australia. In Friday free practice the speed is limited to 60km/h and for the rest of the weekend it's 80. My car was programmed for the 80km/h limit so it was very fortunate that they only caught me at 62km/h!

Another reason I was looking forward to Imola was to watch my first Formula 3000 race. I stood on the pitwall to watch the start, and it was fun and a bit sad at the same time. I had a great time there, but watching the race at Imola I realised that this chapter is finished for me. I really thought I would miss it a lot more, but while I was watching I realised that I moved on a long time ago and just hadn't realised it until now.

I thought about the last F3000 race I was in and how I won it, and now I'm in Formula One and I'm getting more and more used to it. And it's nice that I am now doing laps twenty seconds faster than my old competitors!

It was great for my old team, Arden, to win and to come third in the first race, and it's really nice to walk around the F3000 paddock and see all the old faces. I guess it's always been like that; if you're good in F3000 you get into Formula One if you're lucky, and everybody knows that, so they don't treat you any different, and I don't treat them any different. In fact I think it gives them a boost to see someone go on from there; it gives them something to believe in for themselves.

I did miss it when I saw the podium celebrations, though, although I didn't miss the champagne spray so much; it really stings your eyes, and the smell you get in your clothes is really, really horrible!

Unfortunately life didn't go quite so well in my new team. Christian ran my car in qualifying because he had a crash in the beginning of the second free practice session. They changed out the engine, so he didn't get a penalty, and I think he did a good job because he didn't get much running before qualifying. Mark did a good job; everyone was very optimistic after the last practice session; he ended up 14th but there was only a few tenths separating him from the top drivers, and he managed to qualify in 8th.

The race didn't really work out for us this time; Mark had an electronic problem with his car that prevented him from scoring points. Next up for me is some straight line running at Lommel, Belgium, on Friday, mainly for aerodynamic testing.

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.