That said, being in India as part of the country's only Formula One team competing in its home Grand Prix was fantastic. The fans are very knowledgeable and excitable, and there's no denying the support they have for Sahara Force India.
The race came at the end of the five-day Diwali celebration, which is one of the biggest festivals of the year.
The colours, noise, smells and spectacle of the country ensured India is now one of the most popular Grands Prix venues on the calendar. Obviously, I'd have loved to have scored points for Sahara Force India on its home grand prix, but my car struggled with understeer in qualifying, and then our aggressive tyre strategy didn't work out the way we'd hoped in the race.
We went aggressive, starting on hard tyres then pitting early to switch to the softs. We were banking on the appearance of the safety car, which we thought was highly possible as it's a new track and there was so much dust. If that had happened, then essentially we'd have got a 'free pitstop' and we'd have been able to capitalise on our strategy. Unfortunately for me, there was no safety car. We underestimated the tyre wear because not only did the track improve, but the track temperature was cooler on race day.
From a team perspective — and it's important people realise we always approach it as a team — Adrian Sutil finished ninth to score two points. Those are crucial in our battle to ensure Sahara Force India finishes no lower than sixth in the constructors' championship. Considering this was the first F1 Grand Prix in India, it was really good. All the drivers loved the track layout. It's very nice to drive, its very flowing and I like the speed of the corners. Most of them are taken in fourth or fifth gear, and that's when a Formula One car really comes alive. It was also a busy week for media and PR stuff.
There were lots of guests of our new chairman, Subrata Roy Sahara, but we also had visits from major Bollywood stars Shahrukh Khan and Gulshan Grover and Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, left, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag. I even met Culture Club legend Boy George at one of the parties! Now we head to Abu Dhabi and hopefully I can get back to scoring points for the team.