When you reflect on your storied career as a racing driver, which F1 destinations are calling you back?
The great venues from a racing point of view tend to be in the city, which is not necessarily where I’d go if I was thinking of a vacation. It’s unlikely I’d go to a city unless it was for a long weekend; I’d always think of a beach or a resort holiday. The Ms work well: Monaco, Melbourne, Montreal. Singapore is a modern classic now, because again you’re driving around within the city. The reason why I – and a lot of other people within Formula One – enjoy that is because you’re not only getting the sport event but you also get to live a little bit of the local lifestyle. You can go to a bar or restaurant and meet people who ask who you are – and they’ve got no interest in Formula One so you can meet them on a different level. Whereas if you’re at Silverstone [in the UK], everyone you bump into wants to talk about Formula One, so downtime can still be like an extension of your work.

Did you have much time to explore and be a tourist while on the F1 circuit?
I did in the early days. Now, I’m retired from racing and work more with television and have a seven-year-old son, so I tend to come in at the last minute and then leave immediately. But I do like to spend time in Brazil ahead of the Grand Prix [as well as] Japan and Australia to hang out, meet locals and have a nice time. We’re very lucky that we do a world tour on an annual basis but these days there’s less opportunity to hang out and kill time. The only place I do that is Japan. I love Tokyo. I love the cultural differences and the fact that despite visual differences between the locals and yourself, they just let you do your thing.

You’ve been in and out of so many hotels and suites. Are there any particular hotels that you’re a fan of?
I’m not a loyalty card kind of guy – I’m a what-suits-me-at-the-time person. I really enjoyed staying at Hotel Zoo Berlin, which sounded like it was going to be too cool for school, but it was great. The bar worked, the reception worked, the room worked, and there was enough natural light for the mirror. How many places try to be so cool that they don’t have enough lights and you can’t find a socket for your charger and you can’t even work out how to put the lights on? Very often I’ll get walked to a room and someone will say: “Would you like me to explain the room?” In my mind I’m thinking: If you need to explain how a room works, this is too complicated. A room should be absolutely logical from the master light switch and everything should be functional instead of experimental.

You are best known for your F1 career, but you also dabbled in the hotel industry as a one-time hotelier. Can you tell us about your time in the hospitality business?
I was involved for 10 years but I sold up about five years ago, despite what it says on Wikipedia. I always wonder who does the Wikipedia entries? We should really do it ourselves. The reason I got involved was because I lived in Monaco (pictured below) for several years and I wanted more roots there [as well as] something to do in-between racing. There was an opportunity with a hotel very close to where I lived. I brought a number of things to it: investment and publicity but also a Formula One-style work ethic.

In Formula One, all hands are on deck when they need to be, so I tried to get the same sense of team into the group. For a period of time it worked, and I’d be in there puffing pillows in the lounge myself and talking to guests. I tried to instil the attitude of what service really is – it’s not annoying people and engaging in a lot of conversation with them, it’s getting people checked in quickly and getting them to the room. Our hotel was a business hotel and business travellers have found you, booked you and got to the front door, so you can trust them to work the rest of it out.

Were you training the staff personally?
Yes, as I was there with them on a regular basis. I would phone up the hotel and if I didn’t get the voice and the reception I was looking for, I would walk around and find out who answered the phone; I could have been a potential customer. I’ve walked into multiple-star hotels all around the world when the phone rang, and they’ve had the choice between you and the phone, but they picked up the phone. I want to give you my money, get my room key and start spending money in your establishment. Don’t piss me off right at the beginning. I probably won’t come back and I’ll probably end up eating outside of the restaurant. So it’s about those little details and empowering people to prioritise things – would they want to be kept waiting for 30 seconds or would they want to be served?

Do you miss having that involvement in the hotel game and is it something you might return to?
Maybe, if there’s an opportunity in the future. I’m not actively looking right now as I have different investments. I have a production company and we make documentaries; I don’t know much about TV but I do know about teamwork. If you have some of the best guys then you can bring them together and make them realise they need each other to be a great team and a tight unit. We’ve just taken investment from Channel 4 to take 20 percent of the business, not for the money but for the contacts. There are also a couple of projects I’m keen on and pitching via the business – we just bid for a sports-rights broadcast given to us by the BBC because they have to give a certain amount of rights out to tender. So we’ve now got the American football rights for the UK.

What’s your impression of the UAE as a destination?
I’ve been to both Dubai and Abu Dhabi on holiday for personal vacations as well as for business. Dubai is a great short-hop destination for the family: my wife and I, and our seven year old and 17 year old. Somewhere like Atlantis is a good compromise because you know the kids can be active and you’ve got a beach and you’re in the sun. It’s not where I’d go if I was with my wife on our own but I can see how it works as a great stop-over.

Where would you go for a couple’s retreat?
I’d go to the Maldives and any of the various islands around there to get that Robinson Crusoe-type experience, on a boat somewhere. That way the scenery keeps changing and you’ve got complete privacy, other than the crew watching you canoodle on the foredeck. But they tend to stop looking after a while. People can only watch for so long before they get bored.