AT&T Williams F1

A good day today. The car improved a lot during the course of the two practice sessions and we managed to do a tyre comparison once the track had dried in the afternoon, which gave us some useful data to go through tonight.

With the drivers’ briefing taking place at 5pm and then another engineering meeting immediately afterwards, I decided to eat at the track tonight. Even with my mad police motorbike escort across the Bosphorus, there’s no guarantee that you’re not going to get stuck in traffic and I didn’t want to find myself getting back to the hotel at 10pm and having to eat in a hurry.

So I ate a steak with the AT&T Williams marketing team (why do I always find myself eating with them?) and told them about my trip to the Lake District last week. I had a friend over from Japan and just before he flew back to Tokyo we decided to explore the north of England. We got in my car and headed up the M40 and then the M6, until we got to Kendal.

Wow – what a place! Throughout our couple of days up north, I found myself wishing that I’d taken my bike because the hills would have been brilliant for my fitness. On the other hand, I’d just been with my trainer Nick to the new Riverside fitness complex in Chiswick, London, where he’d really pushed me and I think my body enjoyed the rest.

Here’s hoping for another good day tomorrow.