As far as luxury goes about the only thing I do is... I go first class all the way. I live on the road so when I'm out there I'm getting the nice hotel suite I'm getting the luxury car I'm eating the good food and I make sure I take care of myself on the road.

I've been in California for about 15 years now. You're always in your car and insulated. I miss New York so much.

The red carpet is kind of a surreal experience. There's nothing normal about it so for me the most important thing is to maintain some normality right until the point you get out of the car.

We were racing at circuits where there were no crash barriers in front of the pits and fuel was lying about in churns in the pit lane. A car could easily crash into the pits at any time. It was ridiculous.

The thing about New York is you can leave your house without a plan and find the day. You can't do that in Los Angeles. You need to get in your car all this you can't just drive around like a lunatic. In New York you can literally walk outside and wind up anywhere.

You don't have to worry about whether the car is set up right or not you know it is and it's down to you. Ultimately that's what every driver wants.

It's not just the kid who's spent every penny from his job to upgrade his car to tell the world he cares about sports cars it's also the person driving around in a fuel-conscious hybrid electric car because it's more a message to the world than an effective means of saving fuel to be quite honest.

Have you heard about the Irishman who reversed into a car boot sale and sold the engine?

I think the true test of a pop song for me and I've talked to a lot of other writers about this is you take your demo you pop it in your car and you drive down Sunset Blvd. to Santa Monica and that's the Hollywood car test.

It was all that stuff about taking your parents' car when you're 13 sneaking booze into rock shows and ditching school with your friends. I could relate to that as a former teenager rather than as a present parent.