Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So, depending on who you believe, there was either not enough evidence to penalize Ferrari for team orders, or they did use team orders but the rule is ambiguous and others do it so you should not penalize Ferrari more. If there was not enough evidence how did the Stewards decide to fine them $100,000, and if they were wrong, why did Ferrari not get their money back? Same goes if everyone is doing it why uphold the fine? As Sir Frank Williams said, he supports team orders, maybe only in the second half of the Championship, some basis for that, but he asks as I do, how do you appease the die hard fans? This will be a test for diplomacy.

Nice comment during the Monza practice about how long the concrete banking has survived. Seeing as how the Romans invented concrete, and most of their structures from 2000 years ago are still standing, I cannot see why anyone is surprised.

Practice was pretty uneventful, except for poor Mark Webber, he seems to have bad Fridays, but good races. The most interesting moment for me was Hamilton's on-board going into the parabolica. The merest of lifts off the throttle and then straight back on it, incredible. How Massa missed that wall no one will know, especially Massa. Tomorrow's qualifying should be interesting, six cars potentially going for pole, do not count out Webber.

Peugeot quickest in practice for the first round of the Intercontinental Cup Le Mans Series race at Silverstone, no surprises there. Audi are going to have to hope Peugeot have not fixed the engine problem, but do not hold your breath.

Grand Am have their last race of the season at Miller this weekend, with Ganassi on pole, surprise, surprise.

Spent the day revisiting the site layout for Sol Real now we have land in escrow. Even though it is still the same size the orientation is now north-south, much better for the sun angle, and the views to the east are spectacular, so obviously with the afternoon sun we want most of the buildings facing east. There is a small section of flood plain too across the NE corner, so flipped the track vertically to make that the run off at the end of the straight. The net result is a anti-clockwise track instead of clockwise, and a few other bonuses to improve the overall site layout. All part of refining the design. Checked out the run off at key points too and all looks more than enough, which is just as well with the speeds we are seeing on the simulator. Haven't got the heart to tell the programmer I've changed the layout now he has it in the computer. Hope everyone remembers to turn left and not right now at the end of the straight!