How's your stay in California been so far?
Quite short! At the moment quite difficult - I had a problem with the landing the other day. We missed our flight connection and came one day later, they lost my luggage, so I'm looking forward to the weekend!
Has that distraction affected your preparation for the race at all?
A little, because I'm wondering where is my luggage, my helmet, all of my racing stuff is inside - so it's a change of plans. I wanted to relax and enjoy California for the first couple of days, but I can't at the moment. Tomorrow is switching to racing mode.
I want to talk to you a bit about the sponsorship and marketing side of Formula E. Do you feel like being in this series has influenced your name and reputation for the fans?
Depends - Formula E is a great championship with great names and a great atmosphere. For sure, the big names in the championship is a good involvement for it on the marketing side. And for the drivers, I think all of this packaging can work really well together. The strength when we are together is better.
For marketing, this is one of the best championships to be involved with, because it's a green sport, and in the center of the most important cities in the world. The package is pretty interesting for marketing, and to have the best drivers of the world coming from many different categories to be all together and fighting each other in this show is one of the key points of this championship to keep going.
This is a last-minute assignment for you - Miami and Long Beach. Are you going to be finishing out this season with Team Trulli?
Good question. I don't know at the moment. I jumped aboard the Trulli Team in Miami, and this is my second race with the team. Obviously, I hope that I can stay as long as possible with the Trulli Team, but at the moment I'm not able to answer this question. I will do my best in Long Beach, to score the most points I can for the team and for myself. After Saturday night, we will think about the future.
The FanBoost concept is also new for you. Have you had much time to look in to how it works for you?
Not really, because I am a rookie in this championship. This is my second race and when you don't have a lot of followers from the beginning, you have to catch up. But I think FanBoost is a cool idea. The spectators can have a lot more of a connection with the drivers, and I think it's good for people to feel part of our results. It's a really good thing
Jarno Trulli was your friend before Formula E
He was my friend, and used to be one of my heroes before I reached Formula 1. Jarno had an amazing career in Formula 1, and he's a driver I respect a lot.
How is it driving for your friend, who also co-owns the team, and who's also your teammate?
It was an amazing feeling in Miami when everything happened. We got a lot of positive feedback about our partnership. It's been great because we always raced together in Formula 1 for a few years. But in F1 a lot depends on the car, the team your're on, but here it's all the same team, same car, same goal - it's been really a great feeling to be racing on this team together with him. We were competitors but it's good to be partnered with him, we work really well.
We have a lot of contrast. You race because you want to achieve a goal, but then you have a lot of respect for your team mate. It's a good feeling.
What a dynamic. If you were to give people one reason to vote for you for the FanBoost, what would you tell them?
Obviously, I think the Trulli team is really great and we have a cool lineup. We're the Italian squad. We don't have many coincidences like this in the other Formula E teams. We have more years of Formula 1 experience in this team than in any other team. The respect we get in this business is quite high. We want to get results and we are strong!
Image: FIA / Formula E
Brothers in arms