Doornbos compares F1 to Champ Car

Q: How different is the Champ Car experience to that of Formula One racing?
RD: The Champ Car reminds me a lot to my International F3000 year in ’04 because you drive with big cars, no tire warmers, no power steering, and steel brakes… so you drive it a little different than F1 cars, but at the end of the day it’s great fun, just like F1! And in the end it is all about winning – so the material might be different, but the will to succeed has to be the same.

Q: You recently races two street circuits – Las Vegas and Long Beach – on consecutive weekends. How exciting were they, compared to purpose-built race tracks?
RD: Ha, I always really enjoy driving on street circuits! That’s the reason I moved house to Monaco, so I can do it every day!

Q: Are you satisfied with your 2007 performance so far? And where do you see room for improvement, in terms of driver and team?
RD: Yes, I’m happy that we scored good points from the first races and the podiums are good for overall motivation. But we need to improve the car more because all the teams are pushing very hard to find the ‘sweet spot’ in set-up with the new Panoz Champ Car. And therefore I’m just on my way to the Portland Raceway where we start testing for three days. After that you will see me in the paddock in Barcelona.