Amid a particularly intriguing pre-season Tony Dodgins heard Williams technical director Sam Michael's thoughts on the 2011 rules innovations and F1's current pecking order

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but they're wrong. Last week there were supposed to be two – one at Williams on Thursday and another at McLaren on Friday.

But, at 36 hours' notice, McLaren's, which was to have been a sit-down with technical director Paddy Lowe, was cancelled. The last time something was called off that late it signalled Honda's Formula 1 withdrawal!

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