Tell us a little bit about your motivational speaking roles.
Well I have a funny history of how I became a race car driver. One day a friend of mine heard my story and he thought it would be interesting to tell his employees about how I reached the goal of finding my dream. So I went and spoke and the next out I was hired to speak. So I started butting a presentation together with photos and videos. That was three years ago and I’ve now made 300 presentations. Not only in Mexico but in the U.S., Latin America and South America.
That’s seriously impressive. How do you find the time to fit all that in between races?
Between the sponsors and the rest of it I’m very busy! After this race I have four presentations next week. Also I work for Fox Sports as a commentator for GP2 and GP3, but nobody sees me because it’s broadcast at 2am when the European races are on! (Laughs).
What’s it like working with Sean (Rahall)? The combination of youth and experience appears to be a lethal combination after breaking through in Virginia.
I’ve only met Sean this year but I think he’s the next Scott Pruett. He’s very fast, he’s very consistent, has a great attitude and is very professional. With my experience and his speed it’s been a good combination. The team has delivered a great car and we haven’t made any mistakes. Hopefully we can have a strong end to the season.
Even with Sean’s young age do you feel you’ve learned off each-other?
Yes. Sean’s very enthusiastic. Going around the circuit so many years you can lose that enthusiasm. Not the interest but the spark. So he keeps me young!
Can you put 8 Star’s recent success down to any one thing or was it a mixture of small ingredients?
I think it was just a matter of time and fine tuning things. We’ve all been learning during the process, even as drivers. I made a mistake in Indianapolis in relation to the rules which earned us a penalty so we learned from that. The team learnt to form a better strategy, so with all that fine tuning we’re a better combination and the latest results have shown that.
You must be excited about the race in Austin?
Yes! A lot of people come from Mexico because this is in a way my home track being so close to Mexico. Also a lot of sponsors are coming so yes I’m excited but it also comes with a lot of pressure., but that pressure makes you give your best.
I was reading an interview where you first started out trying to forge a career outside of Mexico, it was hard because you didn’t have much support not being around your own countrymen. Have those barriers helped with your resolve in terms of getting to where you are now?
For sure. Especially with the support of my family, who are here with me this weekend. I’m very motivated. I feel great!
Have you had much thought about turn one at CoTA, as it seem to present a lot of opportunities for passing – especially on a full tank.
Absolutely. For the guy who’s going to pass it presents a safe opportunity to pass because you can match the other driver’s braking and they’ll in turn be compromised. It’s a great place to pass because it’s wide and you need to be in front by the middle of the turn because after that it gets narrow.
Do you think you’ve got your racing line fairly well defined after practice?
We’ll have to see what the weather does but I think for the race we’ve put some good time in the rain so we’re pretty comfortable.
Is a qualifying set-up much different from your race set-up?
Not very much. I think we have been more focussed on having a good balanced car. You know when you’re on full tanks that the car will understeer, but we try to set up the car on low tanks because we know that’s when the race will be decided so in a way we try to focus on race pace.
Luis Diaz