Coming home.

Once again, apologies for not having written much in the past couple of months - there's no excuse for it, even though the Champ Car World Series has been in full swing.

It's been a bit of a torrid time unfortunately, especially as the season started out pretty good with a sixth place at Vegas. We thought that that was the way it was going to go for the rest of the year but, unfortunately, we've had lots of issues that the team has tried really hard to solve. Everyone's confidence is low at the moment, but we just need a couple of good results to bring us out of that. Hopefully, the European races will be a turning point for us and we can aim to get back up there, because we really need it.

The car's reliability hasn't been so much of an issue, but the team is massively under-resourced and we've just been having issues. We've had a problem now for the last four or five races that we just haven't been able to find, so we bought another car - that's the royal 'we' - and, if needs be, we were going to put that together so that we could back-to-back it with my current car.

The third car is a spare for both Bruno and myself although, obviously, we believed that there was a problem with my car, so we thought that it could be set up primarily as my car and see if that was the answer. I suggested that the team put Bruno in the car because, with my inexperience, I can't pinpoint what the problem is. To me, it felt like we had a cracked tub or something like that, especially in Road America.

It was bizarre because I normally run really well there - I love the track, finished second there in Atlantics and was sixth, right behind Oriol Servia, with four laps to go last year. Then we were a couple of tenths off Bruno in the test but, when we got to the race, it was minus four seconds and that wasn't just down to me. We tried to sort it out, but really didn't get to the bottom of it, and had to use the race as a test session to figure out what was going on. Ultimately, the car caught fire in a pit-stop and, in a way, that was the best thing that could have happened to it, because it meant we had to start from scratch again.

I try to not let things affect my confidence and the belief that I have in myself, but this has got everyone down. The thing now is to keep positive, keep upbeat and keep confident, because I know, deep down, that it is nothing to do with me. Of course, you're wondering about other people, wondering if they're thinking it is down to me. I really hope that that's not the case, and I know that the majority of people aren't thinking that way - but maybe that's a little bit of ego talking as well.

Fortunately, it's not hard for me to keep the crew's morale high as I have a great bunch of guys. They work so hard - we're so under-staffed that they do the work of two people each - but they're really up for it. If they didn't love it, they wouldn't be here doing it right now, so I'm really fortunate that my crew are so awesome.

There's been something of a technical reshuffle within the team recently, because we knew that we needed to bring in some more help. Dale has said that he was looking at doing that from the beginning of the year and, when things weren't panning out as we had hoped, we had a little reshuffle to see if that could answer the questions that we had, flush out what the problem was and pinpoint exactly how to move forward.

There's a new livery on the car, one that matches my helmet design, and I'm hoping that that, and a change of continent, will bring a change of luck. In truth, I don't think we've been unlucky per se, maybe a little bit, but no more than anyone else. I think it's just been down to the problems we've been having.

We're now in Europe for the two races at Zolder and Assen and it's nice to have a couple of new circuits to try. The sum of my experience on both Zolder and Assen amounts to looking at them on television, driving them on computer games or finding in-car camera footage on the internet, so not very much! But, saying that, tracks aren't that difficult to learn - you should be able to know your way around in three laps and, in ten, be as fast as you are all weekend.

I can't speak for Assen yet obviously, but Zolder I really like. It's very European - of course - and has a nice feel to it, a bit like being back at home. It's a really good racetrack and really good for the fans.

Although things didn't start out too well for us, it proved to be a better weekend for the Dale Coyne team too. Radio problems in first qualifying meant that I missed the chance to get another quick lap in at the end of the session, and problems in practice meant that I was limited on time in second qualifying, only got ten laps and didn't really put it together.

The car was good for the race and, like qualifying, should have been good for a top six result, but I hit a kerb too hard early on and damaged both the car and my chances. That, obviously, was frustrating, as was the first caution, which came out as I was getting 180 fuel mileage and would have gone an extra three or four laps further than most people, which would really have jumped me up the grid.

There was some good news for the team, though, as Bruno held on to second at the end of the race, despite pressure from behind and a dwindling fuel load following a brave decision to try and stretch it to the end. The team was obviously very pleased with that, but we should have had both cars in top five or six.

Zolder was well supported and, hopefully, we can have more European races to make it a true Champ Car World Series. It's always nice to be in front of your home crowd, although I don't know if I'd want my friends and family coming to the races as it's just a bit of a distraction. Everyone's been asking who I've got coming because 'it's not far across the water', but I haven't really got one person coming over here because you end up worrying about them when you should be worrying about your job. But, for sure, it's nice to have your fans and your home crowd.

A race in the UK, should they decide to expand the number of European races, would be phenomenal for us because it's a whole other market - and Justin [Wilson] and myself would love to go to Donington or Brands Hatch GP or somewhere like that. I think they're definitely looking at it, but what they don't want to do is have another race where it doesn't work out for them because it's the wrong venue or the wrong market. They're testing the market over here and then, if all goes to plan, they'll go to Britain as well. It has to be financially viable and a good proposition for them because, at the end of the day, it is a business. I'd be more like 'let's go race at Brands, and Donington..... and Spa!' but they have to look at it from a different point of view, I guess.

Anyway, best get on with preparations for Assen.

Katherine