Through most of the racing season, from March to November, we have a race at least every two weeks. The exception to this is August, when we have an extra week between the Hungarian and European Grands Prix. This is a chance for us all to catch our breath and maybe even spend some time with our families.

Unlike many of my colleagues, I only attend a few race weekends each season and this year I was lucky enough to be asked to go to Montreal in early June to support some of our sponsors as they used the Canadian Grand Prix to communicate their involvement with the AT&T Williams team. The day before the first practice sessions, AT&T held an Innovation Day in central Montreal and, as I like nothing more than a captive audience, I was delighted to talk to the assembled group of AT&T customers about how AT&T are able to help the team in so many ways, from hosting our web-site to providing the infrastructure that allows us to send large data files around the world quickly, securely and reliably. We are this year taking a mobile point of presence on the AT&T cloud to each of the race tracks, and I find it so impressive that the hardware for this can be operating in the South of France one week, then sent across the Atlantic to work for a few days in Canada and then pop up back in France again, all within the space of a month. While I was in Montreal I was able to visit the Paddock Club – this is the exclusive area above the team garages where sponsors entertain their guests on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the Grand Prix weekend. The guests are very well looked after, in what is the premier corporate entertainment area at any sporting event in the World. The guests all get a chance to mingle and many relationships are forged in a relaxed, unhurried atmosphere. As a team AT&T Williams prides itself on making sure our guests have a great time, of course, and also that they gain unprecedented access to the behind-the-scenes work in the garage. We have a team of account executives who host the Paddock Club, take guests on garage tours and explain something about the complex sport that is Formula 1. They also arrange informal meetings between executives who may have the opportunity to do business while at the race and most of our sponsors find that the deals they close in the hospitality area more than fund their investment in the team!

Back in the UK, and AT&T were kind enough to deliver me another captive audience, this time in the RBS Williams F1 Conference Centre at our headquarters in Oxfordshire. You can hear what I said to this group by following the link to the recording – I had to be on best behaviour for that talk!

Shortly after this and I was off to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix and our home race. No lavish corporate hospitality this time, rather the more traditional joys of sitting on a grassy bank trying – without much success - to keep the rain out. One thing about a wet race, it is always exciting and this was no exception; when our engineers on the pit wall made the right call and put extreme wet tyres on our cars, both our drivers started to make rapid progress through the field, which banished all thoughts of discomfort and got us to our feet to cheer them on. Unfortunately, Nico had a minor accident, mainly because he was going so much faster than the car he was trying to overtake, and this prevented us from having a very strong result.

There have been several such races recently, where we have not managed to make the most of a promising position for one reason or another. People often ask me what keeps me motivated at such times. The answer is that I know we have many strengths as a team – we have an outstanding workforce and great development facilities. These are backed up by a network of partners who each bring their own expertise to the team and together we have everything necessary to compete at the sharp end of Formula 1. There are many changes to the regulations next year and this brings a great opportunity to change our relative position. All of the teams face a dilemma at this time of year when the rules are changing; we have finite development resources and we need to decide how much effort we put into developing this year’s car, and how much we invest in preparing for the next season. Our current position encourages us to focus on the future and we’re confident that we’re taking good decisions now that will pay dividends in 2009. But the rest of this season is not forgotten. Our next stop is Valencia, the first of two brand new city circuits on the calendar which is bound to produce an interesting result.