Caterham’s Tom Webb: On our first day we had to learn what shape Petrov’s backside is

Tom Webb, the head of communications at Formula 1 team Caterham, shared his first experience of meeting and working with Russian driver Vitaly Petrov via his column in the Sun Newspaper.

«His first official day in the factory was a whirlwind of meetings, race car seat fittings, photographs, filming and interviews, all of which he handled extremely efficiently whilst trying to keep a pretty aggressive cold at bay,» wrote Webb.

«Vitaly’s first visit to the factory had actually been the night before he was officially unveiled.

He stopped at reception to drop off one of his crash helmets so it could be used in a photoshoot in London the next day.

The security guard who greeted him just before midnight had been sworn to secrecy about the mystery visitor who would be arriving that night.

But the temptation to text his friends and tell them who he had just met must have been immense.

As soon as Vitaly arrived he was given a guided tour of the factory by our chief exec Riad Asmat and warmly welcomed by the whole team.

An hour later and the madness began — the news of his appointment was officially unveiled and the phones started ringing.

Vitaly, like most F1 drivers, carries at least two phones at all times and while he was doing phone interviews with media from around the world, he was juggling texts and calls to family, friends and fans back in Russia.

A couple of hours later and he was changed into his race overalls and sitting in the race car he would soon be testing for the first time in Barcelona.

All F1 drivers have a seat that is precisely moulded to the shape of their bodies, giving them both an extremely secure environment to protect them in the event of an accident and a cockpit in which they won’t be sliding around.

To make the seat the drivers have to sit in the car while a foam material is pumped around their torsos to make a precise mould of their shape.

This is then used as a «buck» to create the actual seat which is made at the factory from carbon fibre.

Nick Smith, chief mechanic, and Charlie Haggstam, Vitaly’s No1 mechanic, oversaw the seat fit.

And they started their first day working with our new driver learning exactly what shape his backside is! It’s not all glamour, this F1 lark.

Vitaly is quite a bit taller than his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, who he replaced.

So Charlie and Nick’s other task was to adjust the position of the pedals as far forward as they would go in the chassis to make sure our Russian new-boy fits in his office.

Once all the basic changes had been made it was the turn of the electronics department to take over, going through Vitaly’s preference for the steering wheel controls so that adjustments could be made in time for his first outing on track.

Each driver has a different preferred place for all the buttons on his wheel.

And with up to 15 buttons and controls to cope with, as well as driving an F1 car, it’s the job of Yan Gleyo, control engineer in the electronics dept, to make sure everything is where it should be.

While the mechanics and engineers were working on acclimatising Vitaly to the 2012 car he will be racing, he also had to carry on talking to journalists from around the world who all wanted his take on one of the biggest F1 stories of the winter.

Live on Sky Sports News one minute, speaking to BBC World Service the next, he took it all in his stride and impressed everyone he met and worked with on his first day in his new family.»