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I've never driven a Ferrari before, but here I am waiting for my first one to arrive.

In the pit lane. At Monza - the 'Temple of Speed'. At any moment, a mostly black 360 Challenge racer is due to set off the pit-lane siren and come trundling my way.

For a first Ferrari drive this is a high-pressure one; my name's stencilled on the car and I'm about to take it into a practice session at probably the greatest racing track on the planet. Nervous? What do you think?

Standing here in my helmet and overalls, the world seems remote. I hear 360s and F430s blasting past on Monza's long main straight at speeds beyond 160mph, but the radio earphones jammed into my head muffle the din.

People talk to me, but it's mainly with hand signals. I clutch my foam insert for the seat (necessary because I'm about 5ft, 9in, whereas my teammate Edd Straw tops out at about 6ft, 2in) and just wait.

My International C race licence meant I was the only bloke in the office qualified for this job. I've been at this level for a few years now, thanks to regular races in historic sports cars, in things like MGBs and TVR Granturas.

The most they push out is 170bhp and they run on ancient-spec tyres, which means bugger all grip even in the dry. The 360 Challenge racer, on the other hand, has about 400bhp, slick tyres, full telemetry and pits-to-car radio. The siren sounds and here comes Edd...

I'm at the Finali Mondiali, an annual end-of-season ritual that celebrates everything Italian and everything Ferrari. Michael Schumacher is retiring from F1, so all the Ferrari big guns and 45,000 Tifosi are out in force to see him off. But they won't find his replacement in the Ferrari Challenge Dealer Team GB 360.

I'm not as terrified as the eyes-on-stalks photos would have you believe, but there's still a lot of nervous energy flying around.

As the 360 prepares to stop in the pit box, some words from Rob Barff pop into my head. Rob, a pro racing driver who I 'd bumped into at Goodwood a couple of weeks before, said, "If Monza is the daddy, then Goodwood is his eight-year-old daughter."