How does IndyCar racing differ from Formula One?
It’s pretty similar. If you look at an IndyCar you won’t see a huge difference. It’s just a different style of racing because they have three different circuits. Predominantly you are running around on a street course. But you also race on oval circuits, and oval racing dominates around 40 per cent of the championship. The cars also reach much higher speeds than in Formula One – I think we were touching 248mph sometimes, so it’s pretty rapid stuff – but there is a lot of risk involved as well. You also got involved with the Le Mans 24-hours race… Yes. In fact, that was one of the routes I took before I got into Formula One. I had already ventured into the World Sportscar Championship [the series that the Le Mans race used to be part of] and been there with Nissan as a factory driver. I set the record with Nissan as the youngest driver ever to achieve pole, which I think stands to this day. After IndyCar I went to Peugeot and won Le Mans in 1992. I have been back several times since a
