I’m loving my role as a McLaren Young Driver, spending time in the simulator at the McLaren Technology Centre and attending some Grands Prix with the team.

It’s what counts, isn’t it, on the Sunday, rather than pre-season testing. If you lock up, you do a little mistake, it’s nothing, but if you do it on Sunday, you lose a place or you have to box for a flat spot or something like that. It’s a much bigger problem.

I can’t remember what made my dad take us karting for the first time, I can’t remember really. I was into motorsport by then and I knew everything, and every driver, it was around 2009, 2008. That’s when I first properly knew about Formula One. Those were the days.

Joining McLaren didn’t add a lot of pressure but of course you want to make sure you can impress them.

In the ideal world, if I was perfect, I’d be able to beat every teammate that I have, in every race.

I am sure as everyone knows that I am not the happiest if I don’t do a good job in qualifying or the race.

A team like McLaren doesn’t want to keep changing drivers at a time when they’re developing the car. They want consistency.

I kind of look up to Lewis, not as a hero, but as a very good driver who is very fast. Everyone has to admire his pace, especially in qualifying. He is a driver I support, in terms of him being British, and I want him to win, but he isn’t an idol to me.

The Pirellis you can push for a couple of laps and then you’ve got to start saving. It’s not easy.

If McLaren give me a car, that’s fine, but I don’t tend to buy fancy stuff anyway or super-nice clothes.

I don’t know who I would have been if I never watched MotoGP.

The first time I used a simulator was in 2014 when I was competing in the Ginetta Junior Championship.

I don’t race cars.

I think the F2 tyres are probably one of the hardest things to adapt to, harder than the Formula One Pirellis were to get used to.

McLaren were one of the first teams I liked and supported.

I used to watch some F1 races but I was never straightaway thinking ‚that is what I want to do.‘

I guess for every driver the aim is to beat their teammate.

The McLaren prizes can only help me in my quest to ultimately reach Formula One.

I raced with my brother from when I started to 2014 when I finished karting.

How you go about testing is just very different to just being in the situation of qualifying, having to go out, having to nail the lap.

For my career, I wouldn’t go racing if I didn’t enjoy it. I still need to have my say, and not just get put with a team and get told to deal with it.

My dad kind of liked racing and motorsports, but wasn’t a big fan, it wasn’t like he watched every race or whatever.

F2’s much harder physically on the arms and almost on the whole body than F1 is.

Every driver is different, so I just hope whatever I do is going to be good enough, because it’s not that I just want to be with McLaren. I want to win with McLaren.

If I want to do well in racing I need to be more focused so I stopped going to school. If I wasn’t a very good driver it would not be a wise decision, but it gives me an advantage over my competitors.

To be announced as a race driver for McLaren is a dream come true.

I watched the Indy 500, and I was thinking that if they left earlier they wouldn’t have to go so fast.

Growing up I’ve watched Lewis and aspired to have some of his attributes, mainly his speed. His raw pace is probably the best of everyone on the whole grid, so there are bits you want from different drivers.

The ‚Pro-Sim‘ is pretty much the best simulator you can buy, because of the steering motor and the pedals. The force feedback we get through the steering is pretty much exactly the same as what we get in the actual car in terms of how heavy it is.

The racing is quite boring, sometimes. It’s hard to see how it pulls in fans.

I had to drive with a roof in LMP2, and I managed to get used to that quite quickly – although it’s still not a Halo, it’s still different to what I’m used to.

I wanted to race cars. I didn’t like school, and all I wanted to do was work on cars. But right before I graduated, I got into a really bad car accident, and I spent that summer in the hospital thinking about where I was heading. I decided to take education more seriously and go to a community college.

I saw MotoGP on TV first, before I saw F1 and other types of car racing. It’s what I got more into. It was cool, there was good, exciting racing.

It seems like F1 is kind of going down that route, opening it up more to the public and letting them know what is going on, what you do, instead of just driving and going home.

The biggest difference in the wet between F2 and F1 is that there’s so much more power in F1 as being on the throttle earlier has a bigger advantage.

As a British driver, you get compared to Lewis and I get that. But when he came to McLaren, they were doing well and had a championship-winning car. I’m in a very different situation so I don’t compare myself to his stats.

I left school to concentrate on racing. It was a family decision between my mum, dad and myself.

I’m definitely more one of the drivers who would want to do Daytona, Le Mans, and the Indy 500.

I used to watch MotoGP quite a bit, I liked MotoGP. I had a motorbike before I had a go-kart and before I had a motorbike I had a quad bike but I was too dangerous, and before I did quad biking I did horse riding, so it’s been a long journey.

I did suffer a lot since karting, with my size and everything, not really having a clue what to do when I started karting. So I suffered in every category: F4, F3, F2. Not so much F2 but I’ve had to kind of play catch-up quite a bit and in some ways, F1 was a bit nicer with power steering.

I need to do well and show I’m a worthy driver in F1.

Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else.

There are no small accidents on this circuit.

F2 cars have downforce; they’re quick. But it’s difficult for your brain and eyes to keep up with everything that’s going on once you’re in an F1 car. You get used to it and you learn to stay calm, because if you react too quickly the opposite will happen. Being more relaxed is when it becomes more natural and controlled.

I probably work harder, putting in a lot of time and effort, than a lot of drivers because all I think about, and all I do, is to do with racing, trying to make myself a better driver.

I definitely wasn’t anything special when I first started but I think I adapted quite quickly into racing and it became a bit better slowly. All of cadets, the first four years of karting, I only won one proper race, one! Which was the British Open Championship at PFI and I started 21st and I won.

You can only get to a certain point when you feel confident with the simulator and it always changes when you get to the track and you actually drive it for real for the first time.

Every time I get in the McLaren I feel more comfortable, my confidence increases and I feel more at home with the team.

I want to be part of that long list who have achieved great things with McLaren, won races and championships.

Even though I had won in other categories, I didn’t have any expectations when I came into F1. Qualifying fifth, finishing sixth? I didn’t expect it.