Learning Curve.

We're now five rounds into my first season in the DTM and, although my results don't look great to the untrained eye, I think it's been a good start overall.

Taking the Norisring out of the equation, because that was something of an anomaly for us, the general trend has been 'getting better'. I've learned a lot and, up to the Lausitzring, it's been a steady progression, which has been good. I think the Norisring was difficult just because of the nature of the track, and the nature of our car on the track, but I'm really looking forward to Zandvoort now.

Of course, running in a 2006 car has been frustrating because, as a competitive person and a competitive driver, you want to be challenging and winning races, but I have to keep reminding myself that that's not the goal - well, it is the goal, but it's not a realistic one.

I have Christijan Albers as my team-mate and, given a 2007 or 2008 car, I know that he would be challenging at the front of the field, so he's a really good yardstick to have at TME Futurecom. All I have to do is keep aiming at Christijan and I think that, if I can perform well against him, then people will notice that. I have to earn my stripes, do all the right things and earn the right to move up into a one-year old and a new car. That's the realistic goal this season.

The feedback I've been getting has been good, and I really couldn't be happier with the team or with Audi. I'm so well supported that it's been a joy and a pleasure to work with them. I don't know how to describe it really, but it's really different to what I've been used to because it is such a family. You have all the tools there that you need to get the job done, and it's been very enlightening.

Other than testing, I've never been to any of the circuits that we race on in the DTM, except for Brands Hatch, so it's been a new experience learning them all. I've been trying to learn Zandvoort on the computer for the next round, but the other drivers have all been really helpful too. I know that I can go to anyone of them and ask a question because they've been there and done that - even Oliver Jarvis has been to a lot of the tracks before. It's been a really good resource to be able to go and ask questions of such an experienced bunch.

I've liked all of the tracks that we've been to. It was good to go to Hockenheim because I'd never been there before, but we didn't really have a very good weekend and I guess you always favour the circuits where you have a really good race. Whatever the outcome, however, it's been a great experience to race at places like Mugello, Lausitz and Oschersleben and, with the DTM retaining much the same calendar for 2009, it will be experience I can call on in the future.

With the Norisring, I thought it'd be good for us because I'd been racing on street circuits for the past three years but, of course, I know now that it's nothing like the street courses you get in America.

There are only four corners, but it's really tough - both on the car and on the drivers. Not physically tough, but every lap is different - you can place the car exactly where it was the lap before but, if you have 2psi more brake pressure, the car reacts completely differently. It's difficult, and it suits different kinds of car better than others, so a lot depends on your set-up, the car that you're in, your braking...

Driving a 'tin-top' is massively different to the open-wheel cars I've been driving over the years. It's different in so many ways - it's a big, heavy car, with carbon brakes, differences in power and the way it is delivered, a different way that the car rolls, and so on. The only other car that I've raced where I had a roof over my head was the Daytona Prototype in the Rolex 24 but, again, the DTM car isn't really that similar to the DP either. It's a proper race car though, but I'd probably say it's more like an F3 car than anything else I've driven.

I've had to adapt the way I drive and the way I prepare for the weekends because things are done so differently to how they were done in America. It's been a bit of a culture shock as, having had to get used to doing things the American way, I'm now getting used to having to do them the European way again. It's been different, but it's been good. It's not a better or worse way of doing things, it's just a different way, but it's good to be able to adapt yourself like that.

The DTM's policy of trying to balance the field by means of success ballast hasn't really had that much effect on us - until now. I'm hoping that that's changed because, in the last week actually, they decided to lower our weight a little bit and group us with the 2007 cars, so I'm hoping that that will make a difference to us and we can be more competitive and mix it in the field a bit.

It was becoming very segregated, with all the 2008 cars getting to final qualifying and the front of the grid, then all the 2007 cars, and then Christijan and I, who may mix it up a little and get a couple of the 2007 Mercedes but weren't really racing anyone other than ourselves. So I hope these changes will mix things up a bit, make the 2007 cars more competitive and allow us to be more competitive also.

We had a five-week early summer break between Lausitz and the Norisring, but I don't know where it went. I went back to Indianapolis for a bit because, obviously, it was my home for a while and I had a few loose ends to tie up. My friends are all there and I took the opportunity to go and see them and do some training in the warm weather, because it's been pouring with rain in Britain recently and that isn't exactly motivating when you have to get up and go outside. We also had a test, but nothing special other than keeping the momentum going for the season.

I'm really looking forward to Zandvoort now, because we went to the Netherlands with Champ Car and it was really, really exciting because everyone knew everything about what we were doing. You can go to some tracks and the fans turn up because they love racing.

It's really good to have that kind of enthusiasm when you go to a race track and, obviously, Zandvoort is very steeped in history. It is one of the tracks I always wanted to race at - when I was racing single-seaters, I always wanted to do the F3 Masters there - but never got the chance to. I'm really looking forward to going there and seeing what it's all about. The track looks fantastic, and I'm hoping it'll be good for our 2006 car.

Brands Hatch will be good too. I love Brands - the long circuit is awesome, but the little track is good too. It's good for spectators because they can see pretty much all the way around, apart from the hairpin at Druids, and it'll be good to be surrounded by my fans and my family. It'll be very different coming back to race in my home country seeing as I haven't done that for a while now.

The organisers confirmed this week that Lewis Hamilton will be demonstrating the McLaren at the DTM weekend, and that should put a few thousand onto the crowd. I watched the British Grand Prix and was really pleased for Lewis - he drove a fantastic race and was flawless in those tricky conditions, so he deserved to win.

I grew up racing at the same place as Lewis, although not with him because he's a couple of years younger than I am. But we were both karting at the same time and his dad and my dad were good friends, so it'll be really nice to see him again, see what sort of success he's made of himself and see if he's still the same Lewis that I remember from eight or nine years ago.

Hopefully, I'll see you at one of the next few races too.

Katherine