Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella will celebrate his 200th Grand Prix start in Monaco, becoming only the ninth driver in Formula One World Championship history to reach that milestone. By the end of this season he will have moved up to fifth overall in the rankings of all-time starts.

As is often the case, there are different interpretations of what counts as a start. His total does not include the 2005 US GP, when in common with the other Michelin runners he withdrew on the formation lap, and nor does it include France 2002, when he had a major crash in practice and did not take part in qualifying.

To mark the event, Giancarlo will start the Monaco race in a new set of Alpinestars overalls and a helmet commissioned from Arai bearing a '200' logo.

Giancarlo's first Formula One start came with Minardi in Australia back in March 1996. The start was, to a certain extent, unexpected: shortly before the race he was a test driver and the then 23-year-old had not expected to make the trip down under to Melbourne.

"It was interesting what happened," he recalls. "Ten days before the Australian GP I was test driver for Minardi, and was also driving in the international touring car championship and the DTM for Alfa Romeo. Gian Carlo Minardi called me and said 'Giancarlo get ready, you are coming to Australia. Bring your helmet and bring your overalls.' I said, 'Ah that's nice, I'm happy to come and see Australia and see the first race.' He replied, 'No no, it's not to see the first race, you're going to do it!' I couldn't believe it and asked if he was joking."

The Italian team owner was indeed not joking, as Giancarlo remembers him stating: "No, you're going to do it, you're going to be one of the 20 drivers on the grid on Sunday."

"I was really shocked,' Giancarlo admits, 'because 10 days before the race I really didn't expect to race in Australia, but the team had had a problem with a Japanese driver who didn't pay. It was bad for him, but I was really, really happy!"

Despite his limited testing programme, Giancarlo qualified in 16th and put in a very respectable debut performance, although he ultimately did not finish the race. "It was fantastic. The whole weekend was a bit of a shock for me, but one of the biggest things I remember was when I was at the drivers' briefing,' Giancarlo recalls. 'I was surrounded by Michael Schumacher, Gerhard Berger, and Jean Alesi, all my heroes... I was thinking I am one of them, I am here with them. It was really nice, a great period for me.

"I qualified 16th, which was good, and I was quicker than my team mate, Pedro Lamy. Before this race I had done just two tests in Fiorano, I had no experience at all. Then in the race I was in a good position, but I had a problem with the hydraulic pressure. I thought it was a good debut though, better than I expected considering my lack of preparation!"

Giancarlo ran only eight races that season before money pressures forced the team to take drivers who could bring significant amounts of funding.

"They were a few seconds slower than me, but everyone knew why I wasn't there any more. It was nice to be an F1 driver, but I was quite confident that I would be back in F1 in the future. In fact a few months later I signed a contract with Benetton, with Flavio Briatore. He told me that they liked me, but for next year they already had Berger and Alesi, so they didn't have space for me. He did however want to see me somewhere in F1 to get experience, so they found a compromise with Eddie Jordan. This is how I came to drive for Jordan in 1997."

Alongside fellow new boy Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo soon showed his pace, but a potential first podium was lost in Argentina: "I was second and Ralf was third, and in the hairpin he pushed me out, and lost the possibility to get on the podium. So it was very disappointing."

Third in Canada, the seventh race of the year, made up for it, but then Giancarlo lost the chance of a sensational maiden win in Hockenheim.