Stefan's blog: Eyes on the McLaren prize

A little under two years ago I was nominated for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award and the prize of a future test drive in a McLaren Formula 1 car. For those not familiar with the award, six young British drivers are chosen each year for their success in categories all around the world, and put through a rigorous two days of testing and driver evaluation in a variety of race cars as well as a lengthy interview. At the end of all this a winner is finally chosen, and traditionally revealed at the annual Autosport Awards at the famous Grosvenor House Hotel in London. On 2 December 2007 the result was announced and my name was added to the illustrious list of previous winners. After two long years of waiting, I'm now gearing up for the McLaren test – the chance of a lifetime for any driver.

Three weeks ago I visited the McLaren Technology Centre for a seat fitting.

McLaren's headquarters are in Woking, which is not far from London, and the first impressions of the futuristic building are straight out of a James Bond film. As you arrive at the gates you can't actually see the building as it's hidden behind rolling grassy hills. I signed in at the main gate and received my key card which would get me through all the various gates and doors and would also work the elevators. As I turned the corner I got my first glimpse of the magnificent building, with glass walls extending up to an aluminium curved roof. The building is arranged in a semi-circle formation, with an artificial lake completing the circle to represent the Chinese symbols yin and yang. At first it seems that the lake is just decorative, but the water in the lake is pumped through various heat exchangers and is used to dissipate the heat from the wind tunnel as well as to cool the building itself.

After parking up, I took one of the underground entrances into the factory. The tunnel had white walls that looked almost like they were made of glass, they were so smooth and shiny. Combined with the white floors and a tall white ceiling it almost felt as if you were in some kind of futuristic sci-fi spaceship! Eventually I reached the elevator, swiped my key card and selected the floor I needed. The elevator was a glass tube and the shaft was also glass, so as I shot up through the middle of the workshop I could see out over the vast open-plan building. I was now on the second floor, a suspended walkway above numerous race-winning cars and even championship-winning Formula 1 cars, including Johnny Rutherford's 1975 Indy 500 second place finishing McLaren M16.

I had a quick tour of the factory and was shown the gymnasium complete with a 25-metre swimming pool and various equipment made for racing drivers' specific needs, including upper body strength, neck strength and left leg strength for the heavy brake pedal in the cars. I was then shown where the most important testing for an F1 team takes place – the wind tunnel. To finish the tour I got to witness some testing being run on the simulator. It was unbelievable how good the graphics were! It was almost like watching an onboard camera shot and the simulator is so accurate now that the team can test car components and setups and get valuable data and feedback that translates to the race track.

I could have carried on exploring all day, but I had to drag myself away to the workshops to begin the seat-fitting process. Walking through the 5-metre wide corridors I could look over the sea of CAD/CAM machines all working away producing newer and better car components.

I arrived at the bay and the team quickly discovered that this wouldn't be any ordinary seat fitting! At 6ft 3¾in, I'm probably the tallest driver in the IRL, as I think I now even have my brother covered in the height department. This year it was not a problem in the Indy Lights car, and not even in the IndyCar, but in Formula 1 the car is built around their current drivers, and unfortunately for me Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen aren't exactly towering giants in physical terms. After first sitting in the car I was feeling really nervous, because it was tight. I knew that and so did the team. However, my nerves were fully settled as they assured me they would get me to fit in the car and one of the engineers piped up that they had never failed to fit a driver, apart from one other. Some guy called Wilson, he said. Rather nervously I asked if it was Justin? And he immediately answered yes. I let out a laugh, but my heart sank! The engineer then realised the connection and it all became clear.

Anyway, after extending the pedals as far forward as they would go (and more) and adjusting my seating position we were now ready to mould a seat and I was feeling a bit more confident that I would fit. I sat in the car, in a carbon fibre shell of the cockpit which was covered by a thin rubber sheet, as they added expanding foam to the gap between the rubber sheet and carbon shell; this expanded and filled the voids around my body, securing me in the car. I was sitting there for around 2 hours while the foam set and went hard, and in that time I was able to run through the steering wheel controls. The steering wheel was literally covered in buttons and switches and dials. You sometimes see them on the onboard camera shots on TV, but it was great to finally find out what they are all for. After the seat had set, I climbed out of the car. Now, for a racing driver you'd think this would be the easy bit, but climbing in and out of the car was a task in itself, as there were all the aerodynamic wings and fins sticking out from the sides of the car. The seat was then taken out to be covered in a layer of carbon fibre to finish off. Believe me, it was a lot more time-consuming and complex than I'm able to put down on paper in this short blog, but after everyone involved put in a lot of hard work, I fit in the car and I'm raring to go.

The test will take place in early November. For the next month my fitness training will be stepping up a notch in preparation for the test, with much emphasis on strengthening my neck muscles so that I can handle the g-forces that I'll feel driving through the corners at well over 140mph. To prepare for that I've been lifting over 50lbs with my neck with over a hundred repetitions.

At Homestead-Miami Speedway for the last Indycar race I had a chance to catch up with a past award winner, the newly crowned 2009 IndyCar Series Champion Dario Franchitti. Dario won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 1992 and he assured me the F1 test will surpass any expectation I could have.

Before then I will be heading to Kentucky to run my first test on an oval with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. I'm looking forward to my first run on an oval in the Lights car and I'm trying to find sponsorship to allow me to run a full season of Firestone Indy Lights next year. Completing my first F1 test will certainly help me develop as a driver in the off-season so I can come back next season even stronger.