The big question as we approach the German Grand Prix is this: can Ferrari win another one? Has Fernando Alonso finally got his hands on a winning car to go with his five-year contract?

Before the Spaniard won at Silverstone he had his well insured fingers on another Ferrari steering wheel – a much bigger and simpler one than that to which he is accustomed. Before going out to race he climbed aboard the car which took José Froilán González to victory at Silverstone in 1951 – the Scuderia’s first World Championship win.

The Ferrari 375, also used by Alberto Ascari, has a V12 engine, four-speed gearbox, drum brakes, narrow tyres and lots of power. And no seat belts. More significantly, the throttle pedal is in the middle, the brake on the right… Not something you’d wish to forget at the end of the Hangar Straight.

Another planet, then, for the double World Champion from Oviedo in the Asturias region of northern Spain. But the Asturians are made of stern stuff; they are fighters, having had to defend their mountainous homeland from a series of invaders. Alonso therefore relished the challenge of learning to double de-clutch Bernie Ecclestone’s priceless old racer.

“He had to learn to bump-start it first,” laughed Robert Dean, who cares for Ecclestone’s car collection. “As we pushed-started him on the grid he casually looked over his shoulder and said ‘tell me what to do’. We were shouting ‘clutch! drop the clutch!’ but he got away beautifully. He was great, he followed instructions to the letter, and I don’t think he missed a single gear during his laps. I was very impressed at how easily he got to know the 375, but I did warn him about the brakes and double de-clutching when changing down. I’m not sure he really used the brakes – except once when he was so busy waving to the crowd he ran a bit wide.”

Most modern-day Grand Prix drivers have little or no interest in the history of the sport, or the cars that went before them. But Alonso was keen to know about the Ferrari’s performance – and its limitations – before venturing on track 60 years after the 375 finally beat the all-conquering Alfa Romeos.

“When Felipe Massa drove it at Fiorano he didn’t seem interested in the history,” Dean told me, “whereas Luca Badoer loved it, wanted to do more and more laps. Today’s drivers can learn something from the history of the sport.”

Alonso, as you would expect, was ready for some fun. “Oh yes, he was all smiles, very friendly, not at all the rather glum chap you sometimes see on TV,” said Dean (above in the Brabham BT46B at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2001). “He was most interested in getting out there, driving it, and he certainly knows the history. It’s a bizarre thing, but I’ve now shown both Michael Schumacher and Alonso how to drive a Grand Prix Ferrari – and not many people can say that. They don’t know what magnetos are, of course, but when you say ignition they understand. I’m not sure Fernando had ever done much double de-clutching or bump-starting, not since he was a student anyway. But I gave him a 6000rpm rev limit which is nice and safe for that engine.”

So what did Signor Alonso think of this experience? “Afterwards, he said he couldn’t believe how powerful the car was, he was smiling like mad, telling Bernie how fantastic the car felt, assessing it like great drivers do,” said Robert. “Mr E loved it too, and said he was trying to persuade Vettel to drive what he calls a ‘proper car’.” Clearly it set Alonso up well for the Grand Prix in the afternoon.

Unfathomably BBC TV did not show any of Alonso’s laps in the Ferrari, but you can see the British Grand Prix winner at work in the 375 on YouTube. Fast-forward to 4mins and you’ll see him pressing on…

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Another week, and another ‘week in motor sport’! This time I sit down with editor Damien Smith – despite the fact that the magazine is on deadline – and chat about possible driver movements in the McLaren camp, the possibility of the BBC dropping Formula 1, the situation at Citroen in the WRC and Dario Franchitti’s run of form in the IndyCar Series.

We are creating an audio file at the moment so if you don’t want to watch it, just download that on Wednesday 22nd…

As always though – let us know what you think about all the news.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Civil unrest has led to the cancellation of the first Formula 1 Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain. The decision has been taken by the Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who has stated that his country must “focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting to a later date.” The race was due to take place on March 13. The F1 season will now begin in Australia on March 27.

Our correspondent Rob Widdows posted the blog below, before the cancellation of the Bahrain GP had been confirmed.

At the time of sending this dispatch there remains a great deal of uncertainty over the running of the first Grand Prix of the year in Bahrain on March 13.

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few weeks, you will know that unrest in Tunisia and in Egypt has gathered pace across the Arab world, including the Kingdom of Bahrain where there have been riots in the capital city of Manama.

A decision on whether or not to run the race must be made this week if those involved are to get themselves organised. But this is not a decision for Bernie Ecclestone, it is a decision that must be made by the Crown Prince of Bahrain himself, for it is he who will best understand the safety – or otherwise – of his kingdom. And it is he who has been the driving force behind bringing Formula 1 to the Gulf, not to mention the investment his country has made in the McLaren Group. This will not be an easy decision.

Grand Prix racing is not what is important here, nor is its future at stake. There are 19 other races on the 2011 calendar. Global politics, and the stability of Bahrain society, are what are important, not least because the little desert kingdom is absolutely in alliance with both Britain and the United States. The Grand Prix is but one small, and recent, example of Bahrain’s wide-ranging connections with the outside world.

The Sakhir circuit is some way from the centre of Manama, out in the desert on the way to the beach resort of Zallaq, making it more of a challenge to protect the great and good of F1 from potential kidnap or attack. All things considered, circumstances are not ideal for a major international sporting event.

But this is not only about politics – it is almost as much about money. Ecclestone is handsomely rewarded for taking his business to Bahrain, just as the kingdom is rewarded with global exposure and not a few incoming dollars. Unlike Abu Dhabi, whose wealth is virtually without limit, Bahrain does not have such deep resources under the desert sand. It is not a poor country, far from it, but it needs F1 like it needs the international banks, investment houses, oil companies and hotels that will be the foundation of its wealth in decades to come.

There will be teams who’ll be pleased to do one less race, relieved to gain further development time. But should the race be cancelled, the leading players will have to wait even longer to find out how far they have caught up with the Red Bulls. The money will be of secondary importance, this being a fraction of the whole compared to the disruption of schedules and the risk of taking such an extravagant circus into a city filled with disgruntled natives.

At this stage, one thing is sure. The Crown Prince will be working very hard indeed to bring his country under control in time for the safe arrival of a sport of which he is such a passionate enthusiast. He and his ruling family will be equally keen to show the rest of the world, in particular the UK and the USA, that their investments are safe, that Bahrain knows how to restore order to such a strategically important Gulf state. Of course we all want the race to go ahead, to see the cars come out to play after the winter, but for once F1 must play second fiddle to peace in a volatile world. And if there are two areas upon which Bernie Ecclestone has a firm grasp, they are surely money and politics.

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I’ve been thinking. Yeah, I know, but bear with me. As the days get shorter, we approach the penultimate race of this extraordinary season of Grand Prix racing. The year 2010 will surely be recorded as one of the great seasons, and certainly it has been the most exciting since this century began.

We can’t wind the clocks back – actually, we’ve just done that in the UK as we move into our ‘winter’ time zone. But, if you skate back over the season so far, even a cursory glance at the races brings to mind one of the most oft-used words in the lexicon of motor racing. If. A short word, but one with so many ramifications.

If Massa had not been forced to allow Alonso to overtake at Hockenheim. If Alonso had not hit the barrier in Monte Carlo. If Button had not left the pits with his radiators blanked. If Hamilton had not crashed at Monza and in Singapore. If Vettel and Webber had not collided in Turkey. If Webber had not thrown it away in Valencia and in Korea. If…

It is a season almost defined by what ifs, and perhaps more so than for many a year. This may be explained by the constant pressure, the constant excitement, or the batch of top drivers in top cars we have right now. Whatever, not once since March has it been clear who would take the 2010 title. Not to me, anyway.

And, even more remarkably, it is barely any clearer as we approach the Brazilian Grand Prix. There isn’t a sport on earth that would not be revelling in such a cliffhanger. And you can bet your salary that Bernie Ecclestone, not to mention the television companies, are doing just that.

OK, it does look a tall order for Button and Hamilton. And to a lesser extent for Vettel, lesser because he has the best Formula 1 car we’ve seen this season. So, it’s down to the wire between Alonso and Webber, right? Wrong. Because we are going to São Paulo, where the weather is fickle and where there is almost invariably some kind of drama.

The great Grand Prix circuits, of which Interlagos is indubitably one, have the elements of drama, tragedy and comedy ingrained into the very asphalt itself. There is the grid, painted onto a steep gradient, and then there is the first corner. There are those long, long corners with their tricky cambers and terrible drainage. There is the crowd, a seething, passionate mass of people who just love this sport to bits. The rickety grandstand opposite the pits trembles with anticipation on the warm-up lap. I am not joking. The drummers and the dancers, draped in national flags, are there at dawn. It is Grand Prix racing at its gladiatorial best.

Yeah, but Alonso will do it for Ferrari, Massa will help him, and Webber will have some kind of stupid failure. Wrong. Anything can happen, as we wait for the lights next Sunday afternoon. What happens at Interlagos, I do believe, will decide the season. A week later, in Abu Dhabi, things will simply be quietly confirmed.

On paper, it has to be Webber. He has the best car and is the man in the lead. On paper, it has to be Alonso. He is the best driver. On paper, it has to be Vettel. He is the man in form, arguably the bravest.

Every Grand Prix at Interlagos is a wonderful event, a thrilling experience, and this year – one way or the other – will be one of the best of them all. If…

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As I write, there is some uncertainty that the Korean Grand Prix – a race no one within the sport, save Bernie Ecclestone, seems to want – will actually take place. Deadlines for track inspections and signings-off have been missed (and not by just a few weeks, either), and for reasons not immediately clear the Korean organisers appear to be cut far more slack than is normal for Formula 1’s powers-that-be.

Given that there has always been minimal enthusiasm for this race in the paddock, many will be only too glad not to have to schlep to the Far East for the third time in a month. But the five World Championship contenders – or some of them, anyway – necessarily feel differently, for if Korea evaporates, only three Grands Prix will remain on the 2010 schedule.

If you’re Mark Webber, that won’t cause you too much concern, for you lead the World Championship by 11 points, and one fewer race means one fewer opportunity for the rest to catch you; if, on the other hand, you are Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel or Jenson Button, you want as many chances as possible to do just that.

Be it three races or four, we are now into the red meat of the World Championship, and usually by this point in the season we are down to two, rarely three, protagonists. The fact that five drivers still have a shot is testimony to the extraordinary year F1 has had: three teams have produced cars good enough to win several Grands Prix: Red Bull has six, McLaren five, Ferrari four.

Whereas both Red Bull and both McLaren drivers have won races, however, only Alonso has won for Ferrari – yes, I know you can argue reasonably enough that Felipe Massa would have won in Germany, were it not for the ‘team orders’ imposed that day. But the fact is that, although Massa drove a fine race, only circumstances at the start – poleman Vettel delaying both himself and Alonso – put him in a position to win. Hockenheim apart, Felipe has not looked like a potential winner this year.

That being so, Ferrari some time ago opted to concentrate – in terms of the World Championship – on Alonso, and rival teams have criticised it for so doing. Never at Ferrari – even in the autocratic days of Michael Schumacher – is there an official number one driver, but usually someone, simply by being clearly quicker, becomes the de facto team leader, and the situation with Alonso and Massa reminds me rather of that in the mid-70s with Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni.

Going into these crucial end-of-season races, therefore, Alonso has one clear advantage over his rivals for the championship, in that he does not have to fight his own team-mate. His team’s decision is already taken, whereas Red Bull and McLaren still have both drivers in contention, and the time awaits when they have to put their emphasis on one, and require the other to play a supporting role. Red Bull has suggested that that time has not yet come, and McLaren has been even more bullish, suggesting that it would never favour one of its drivers over the other (even though this has not always been the case in the past).

Of course it may not come to that: while unlikely, it is not impossible that Webber and Vettel, Hamilton and Button will go off to Abu Dhabi still with at least a mathematical chance of lifting the 2010 World Championship.

In Singapore Massa, thanks to a gearbox problem in qualifying, started stone last, and therefore was never in a position to be of assistance to Alonso. As we know, Fernando’s superb drive brought him 25 points, but had Felipe started from a normal grid position he might well have been able to steal points from some of his team-mate’s rivals – if not Vettel, then certainly the hobbled Webber, who finished third.

Alonso has no real need to worry about Massa’s points tally, for Felipe is too far behind to become a factor in the title race, but of course he would appreciate it deeply if Felipe could keep a rival out of third or fourth place or whatever. Webber, on the other hand, has to worry about Vettel, and Hamilton has to worry about Button.

In 1973 Lotus won the constructors’ championship with seven victories in the 15 races, four to Ronnie Peterson, three to Emerson Fittipaldi. Tyrrell was runner-up with five wins – but all of them went to Jackie Stewart, who won the World Championship.

In 1986 Williams easily won the constructors’ championship with nine victories in the 16 Grands Prix, six to Nigel Mansell, three to Nelson Piquet. McLaren was runner-up with four wins – but all of them (together with a great many second places) went to Alain Prost, who won the World Championship.

Only three years ago McLaren drivers Hamilton and Alonso finished the season with 109 points apiece – but finished second and third in the World Championship behind Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen, who had 110.

In every case two ‘number one’ drivers won a lot of races – while another driver, in a slower car, nicked the title. If Christian Horner and Martin Whitmarsh stick to the bitter end with their policy of allowing their drivers to race each other, I will admire them for it. But then I’m not a sponsor…

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When Fernando Alonso said “the championship is still the aim” a few weeks ago there were plenty of people who thought that he was just being a little over-optimistic. He was sitting over 50 points behind Webber and Hamilton and, at the time, the Ferrari didn’t seem as quick as the Red Bulls.

When Alonso completed his lights to flag victory in Singapore, however, he moved to within 11 points of Webber and into second place in the standings. The Spaniard drove an absolutely perfect race, holding off a late charge from Vettel who was fast enough to trail him for the entire race, but crucially not fast enough to overtake.

It wasn’t such a successful weekend for Hamilton as the McLaren driver put a move on Webber after losing third to him in the stops. The pair came together, doing enough harm to the McLaren to put it out on the spot while Webber, amazingly, was able to continue and made it onto the podium.

Although Button finished fourth he has now dropped to fifth in the standings, 25 points behind championship leader Webber. With the new points system this may only be ‘one win’. However, the McLarens are clearly not as fast as the Red Bulls and Ferraris on higher downforce tracks, like the four remaining this season, so it is starting to look like a very hard task to make that gap up.

Has the championship become a two-horse race now? Will Hamilton be able to drag results out of an inferior car? And will Alonso’s experience help him make up the ground on Webber? Whatever happens, the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship looks like it’s going to be another cracker. How does Bernie keep coming up with these scripts?

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As one who has loved both Formula 1 and the USA all his waking life, I’m delighted to see the two reunited in 2012. And the more I learn about the forthcoming US Grand Prix in Austin, the more enthusiastic I become. For one thing, Tavo Hellmund, the man behind the project, goes way back with Bernie Ecclestone. And that, as we know, can count for a lot.

Since first going to the US GP in 1971, I have seen virtually every F1 race run that side of the water, and while some of the tracks used – Las Vegas, Detroit, Phoenix – were duds, others – notably Watkins Glen and Long Beach – became classic Grand Prix venues. I’ll accept that the F1 circuit at Indianapolis was not the greatest test of man and machine, but still it was always a pleasure to go there, because Indy is Indy, the atmosphere is overwhelming, and the thing was always so well organised.

And then there was Dallas. We only went there once, in 1984, and the race was unsatisfactory in a number of ways. For one thing, the track surface broke up appallingly in the blazing heat; for another, there was a certain shortfall in the monies which should have reached Bernie, and thence – in part – the teams…

Thus the Dallas Grand Prix was never held again, and I was one of many who regretted that, for although the surface resembled a dirt track by the end of the race, the street circuit itself was not bad at all, and the atmosphere was friendly and welcoming. More to the point, F1 rang a bell with Texans to a far greater degree than in most other parts of the US it has visited. Remembering deathless venues, with tiny crowds, like Vegas and Phoenix, it’s easy to forget that on race day in Dallas the place was packed.

Austin, too, is in Texas – in fact, it is the state capitol. I haven’t yet been there, but American friends tell me that, although not far from such as Dallas and Houston, it’s a very different sort of place. “English people would probably call it ‘a university town’,” one said recently. “It’s very big on music and the arts – a civilised sort of place…”

Then there’s the forthcoming track. Hellmund says he is well aware of the need to build a ‘proper circuit’, rather than some of the cookie-cutter tracks lately arrived on the World Championship schedule. Although Hermann Tilke – inevitably – is to design it, an attempt is being made to duplicate certain great corners from other circuits, and the track is expected to be quick. Also up and down, which is another plus.

There seems little doubt that the project has keen support, at both local and state level, and that the necessary finance is in place – as also is a firm contract with FOM (Ecclestone).

Ever since the days of Long Beach in the spring and the Glen in the fall, F1 has sought a permanent home in the USA. I must say I thought that had been accomplished at Indianapolis, where the crowds may have been small compared with that at the 500, but still dwarfed those at any other Grand Prix. In the end, having spent a fortune on modifying the place to satisfy F1 demands, Tony George, then the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ultimately found himself unable to contemplate Ecclestone’s ever greater fiscal requirements, and that – after eight years – was the end of that. I would still like to see Indy return to the World Championship one day – to my mind, there should be at least two Grands Prix in the USA.

For now, though, it seems clear that the Austin project is bona fide, that F1 will return to America the year after next, and the assumption is that the US Grand Prix will be twinned with Montréal (as Detroit and Indy used to be), enabling the races to share the enormous costs of transportation across the Atlantic. The teams and sponsors are – not surprisingly – delighted, and so, I think, should be all F1 fans. It’s good to be reminded that there are areas of the world other than the Far East…

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On Tuesday, Austin Grand Prix promoter Tavo Hellmund held a press conference with his primary financial backer Red McCombs, former owner of the Minnesota Vikings National Football League team and San Antonio Spurs National Basketball Association team. Hellmund and McCombs insist the track will be ready in time to revive the United States Grand Prix in 2012. The three-mile track, designed by Herman Tilke, will be built on a 900-acre tract of land 10 miles south east of Austin’s airport.

Beaky Simms is a veteran Formula 1 mechanic who started his career in the 1960s and these days runs the Risi Ferrari ALMS team based in Houston. Simms is an old friend of Bernie Ecclestone and talks regularly with the F1 impresario. He told me last week that financial support for the US GP is beginning to take off.

“Bernie’s discovered how much money there is in Texas – in Houston and Dallas,” said Simms. “There are plenty of wealthy and successful Texans who are falling over themselves to do business with Mr Ecclestone, and the track is going to be a proper race track with fast corners and elevation changes. I think this race in Austin is going to be a big success.”

The Austin road circuit will be first track built in America specifically for F1. Hellmund says this fact is essential to the race’s long-term success, pointing out that the US GP enjoyed its longest period of stability and success when it was run from 1961-80 at Watkins Glen in upstate New York. None of the many street circuits that followed – Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas or Phoenix – lasted more than a handful of years and Long Beach was the only of these temporary venues that generated any enthusiasm or cachet.

Hellmund and McCombs will have to spend a lot of money and effort to have their track ready in time for 2012, but they may be onto something with a permanent F1-style track located in south-central Texas. Austin is close to San Antonio, about 200 miles south of Dallas and 150 miles west of Houston. The city is Texas’s state capital and is also a college town renowned for its arts and music scene, so it should prove to be a refreshing change from the likes of Vegas, Detroit and Phoenix.

The F1 team owners continue to talk about a second US GP, but they’re getting way ahead of themselves. They need to work with Ecclestone, Hellmund and McCombs to make sure Austin happens in the best possible way rather than dreaming about races in New York or San Francisco. The left-leaning politics and anti-car culture of this pair of great American cities ensure that motor racing will never occur anywhere near their environs.

The FIA and F1 team owners may not have paid attention, but NASCAR was utterly stymied in its recent attempts to build on oval track on Staten Island, adjacent to Manhattan. Also, the Philip Morris Corporation spent many millions of dollars 15 and 20 years ago trying to make a New York GP happen. And about a year ago New York mayor Michael Bloomberg (below on left) met with Ecclestone to talk Grand Prix racing in Manhattan. “We’d be delighted to host Formula 1,” Bloomberg said. “How much will you pay us?”

So it’s Austin, make or break. If the race in Austin doesn’t work out, America will almost certainly be lost to F1 forever. Both F1 and the United States need Austin to be successful.

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Jimmie Johnson is chasing an unprecedented fifth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup title this year. The 34-year-old Californian is steadily emerging as one of the greatest talents in the sport’s history, and he’s emphasized the point over the past two weekends by winning back-to-back races at the Infineon Raceway road course in California and the one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval.

Johnson has suffered a minor slump in recent months, failing to win a race for 10 weeks and falling to seventh in the points. But his two most recent victories – the 51st and 52nd of his career – have vaulted him back into second in the championship, 105 points behind leader Kevin Harvick. Johnson said that at this stage of the season he’s more interested in collecting points than winning races.

“A few weeks ago I was in a position where points were really important,” he explained. “You can’t take where you are for granted. Even though we’re now second in the points, three races ago we were seventh and 12th place wasn’t that far away. So a lot can still change and we need to be collecting points to make sure we’re in The Chase [for the Cup].

“I think it’s more important to win in The Chase than it is to win now. If I could pick when I would win my next race, I’d rather it be in The Chase. I think there’s a big message in that.

“For us, we’re still looking for a little more speed, so my goal now is to be smart, to try to keep finishing in the top five, learn about our cars and make sure we can be winning when The Chase comes around. If we have an opportunity to win a race we’ll certainly step up and try. But I think there’s more damage to be done if you’re driving over your means, so I’m looking for consistency.”

Johnson is NASCAR’s most complete driver today. He’s eminently quick, almost invariably a contender in the closing stages of most races, and is a cool, analytical player capable of working with crew chief Chad Knaus to get the best from his car. Before winning in New Hampshire Johnson said he would love to test or race an Indycar or a Formula 1 car.

“I really would enjoy it,” he said. “The way I grew up, Indycar racing was really the only outside exposure I had. I dreamt of racing in the Indy 500 and would go to the Long Beach Grand Prix and hope that I could be on that circuit racing at some point. So I’d love to try an Indycar or an F1 car. My path has taken me a different way and I think it would be very difficult to get an F1 test. But maybe by putting it out there it could happen.

“To experience driving an Indycar or F1 car on a road course would be really good for me. Running the Grand-Am car has helped me be a better road course driver, and it would be another step in an F1 or Indycar to see things at a faster speed in the braking zones and the capabilities of the car, how it turns in.”

There’s no doubt that Jimmie Johnson is the fastest, sharpest American driver in action today. If Bernie Ecclestone and FOTA’s team owners are serious about breaking back into the American market, they should be leaping off the marks to put together an F1 test for Johnson in a top car. When will it happen Bernie?

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During the second week of July we will be looking forward to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Rally Bulgaria and the Le Mans Classic in France. It’s a busy week for motor sport in Europe and a busy one too for citizens of the Spanish city of Pamplona.

Why? Because of the bulls. Not the Red Bulls but the bovine variety, which will be chasing people through the streets of Pamplona in the feast of adrenalin they call the ‘encierro’, or the running of the bulls. I mention this because last weekend, just down the road from Pamplona, a new motor racing circuit was launched, the first of its kind in northern Spain.

You are going to hear a lot more about the Circuito de Navarra. In years past racing fans in this part of the world were obliged to trek hundreds of kilometres to satisfy their passion for speed. Nearest to the people of the Navarra region was Jarama, an 800-kilometre round trip, while further away were Barcelona, Jerez and Monteblanco in southern Spain.

But now the enlightened regional government of Navarra has invested 43 million Euros in the construction of a truly spectacular new circuit, certified for Formula 1 and MotoGP testing by the FIA and FIM respectively. There is also a kart track and a ‘sliding & drifting’ track with its own sprinkler system. If Bernie Ecclestone is serious about sprinklers for dry Grands Prix, then Navarra is prepared.

The big deal here is the enthusiasm and energy of both local politicians and racing fans, with 25,000 of the latter turning up for the opening ceremonies last weekend. Yes, you read that right, that’s how many car and bike fans came along for the day and there wasn’t even a race; that’s how much these people appreciate having a place to go racing in their own part of the country.

My colleague Charles Bradley from Autosport and I joined these aficionados in a mammoth traffic jam, warmed by the Spanish sunshine, on one of the many motorways that lead to the circuit. The organisers were simply taken by surprise, not expecting such huge crowds just yet. But by the time the first race comes around they will have invented a more friendly traffic system. Yes, they will – down here problems are challenges.

Sitting on the motorway, surrounded by T-shirts and caps proclaiming the talents of Signors Alonso, Pedrosa and Lorenzo among others, I reflected on what all this means to a region that lies in the foothills of the Pyrenees, just a short hop from the French border. More visitors, more tourists, more spending and, yes, more taxes for the government to collect in return for its far-sighted investment. The BRDC would have loved some government support for the ‘Home of British Motor Racing’. Ah, happy days…

British fans may well be interested in a long weekend in this fascinating part of Spain. A short flight to Bilbao or a leisurely ferry to Santander takes you to within a couple of hours’ drive of Circuito de Navarra. Then, as well as a race, you may like to enjoy the pleasures of an area that lies alongside the route of the famous ancient pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. There are Roman towns, rolling hills, wooded valleys and, of course, being in Europe, excellent roads. And don’t forget that in midsummer there is the extraordinary running of the bulls. But you may prefer to take a rain check on that particular attraction…

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The Canadian Grand Prix at le Circuit Gilles Villeneuve adjacent to downtown Montréal is a favourite for many people. We were all disgusted and distraught when the race was axed for 2009 and were equally delighted to see it return to the Formula 1 calendar this year. And it’s a pleasure to report that the race has rebounded in fine fashion, healthier than ever with a massive crowd all weekend. In fact, the place was sold out by the middle of last week with 300,000 paying spectators streaming through the gates and jamming the grandstands over three days.

Francois Dumontier is president of the Canadian GP, replacing long-time former promoter Normand Legault. Following Sunday’s resounding McLaren 1-2 sweep Dumontier said he could not have been more pleased with the perfect weather and huge crowds. He was delighted to see the revived race pull a larger percentage than ever of fans from around the world.

“This year we had more people coming from Europe and the States than in the past,” said Dumontier. “I would say 40 per cent of our crowd is coming from outside Quebec. It’s pretty amazing and I don’t really have an explanation for that. The Euro is struggling and the US dollar also, but the people are still coming. For the tourism business and our business community this is really good, because it’s new dollars coming into town.

“This is a result of a great package we provide in Montréal,” he added, “which is both the appeal of the track and attractiveness of the city. People enjoy staying in the city and dining in Montréal’s many great restaurants just as much as they love the setting and the race track on Ile Notre Dame.”

The track surface on the island remains abrasive and to get the best from their tyres the drivers had to work for their living last Sunday. But there were no problems with the track coming apart as there have been in the past. Dumontier was pleased the new paving worked.

“This is the same recipe that’s been used at Bahrain and Abu Dhabi,” he said. “They’ve also used it at the Nürburgring and we imported it here. We worked closely with our people here in Quebec and adapted the paving for our weather and climate requirements, and on Friday morning after the first session I went out on track just to make sure everything was holding up, and it was.”

I am one of many thousands who enjoyed the return of F1 to Montréal. It was a great pleasure to see the enthusiasm for the racing and it’s worth pointing out that the Canadian GP is now by far the largest road-racing event in North America, and is beginning to challenge the Daytona and Indianapolis 500s for the title of North America’s biggest motor race.

Of course, many people have high hopes for the revival of F1 in the US. Will it happen successfully in Austin, Texas? Austin promoter Tavo Helmund will be at Silverstone next month for the British GP where it’s said he will explain his plans to bring F1 back to America.

“We hope to create the same enthusiasm in Austin as we have here in Montréal,” said Bernie Ecclestone last weekend. That’s a tall order, but race fans across the US hope Helmund and Ecclestone will succeed in the Texas capital. If the Canadians can do it so well, why can’t America?

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

We are fast approaching mid-season. Yes, I know, time flies. And the older you get the faster it flies. As a lad, my elders would tell me that the days and weeks rush by when you get beyond a certain age. They were right. I simply mention this for the benefit of our more youthful contributors.

Anyway, I thought it might be useful, amusing, or vaguely interesting to look back on my predictions for the season to assess the accuracy, or otherwise, of how things might go this year. You may remember that I suggested 10 things which might happen during, or by the close of, the 2010 season. I will take them in their original order, as I laid out the magic cards on January 4.

1. Hamilton and Alonso will tangle with each other – well, not yet they haven’t. Alonso has been too busy making mistakes on his own.

2.  Rossi will win the MotoGP title – no, he won’t, not after his horrendous crash at Mugello last Saturday. Although badly injured, Valentino has – according to the reliable Rick Broadbent in The Times – “discovered a great rapport with morphine”. Blimey.

3. Schumacher will win a race – not yet he hasn’t, but he still can. If only Mercedes could recapture the magic of Brawn GP.

4. Audi will win Le Mans – this time next week we’ll know.

5. Bernie Ecclestone will prepare to retire – no comment.

6. The Renault F1 team will be a shadow of its former self – just plain wrong.

7. Räikkönen will come back to F1 – still think he might. However Red Bull, which had been linked to Kimi, has now signed Webber for another year alongside Vettel.

8. Vettel will move to Mercedes – I think he will eventually.

9. Lotus F1 will be best newcomer – correct so far.

10. Somebody will run out of fuel before the end of a race – well, not yet, but it’s been extremely close on occasion. Virgin should have paid attention here.

OK, not a great result at this juncture you will no doubt be thinking. And you’d be right. But now we’re off to Montréal where anything can happen, and often does. The walls are very close and the grid will be very tight. And then there’s Le Mans  – a close-run thing between Peugeot and Audi for sure.

So, while we’re all stunned by the Rossi accident at Mugello and are suddenly acutely aware – by his absence on Sunday – just what a huge amount of excitement he brings to MotoGP, we have lots of other racing to look forward to.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The highlight of my year thus far was lunch in a supermarket café. Not the gastronomy, though I did capitulate at the offer of an absurdly rich pudding, but the company I was keeping.

My friend Robert Dean is an engineer, a mechanic, a racer of vintage cars and generally one of the good eggs of our universe. By our universe, I mean that which is inhabited by those of us who are just crazy about racing cars. Or just crazy. Robert’s role in life, apart from a being a doting father, is to look after a collection of racing cars owned by one Bernard Ecclestone.

I mention this because last year in the desert of Bahrain I did two things I never imagined I would. I slid down into the cockpit of a Ferrari 312 and I perched on the seat of a BRM V16 Mk ll.

For me, these were Big Moments – not only a pleasure, but also a privilege. As a child, I watched Ken Wharton and Ron Flock hart racing this BRM at Goodwood and, while the memory is hazy, I remember the noise and I know it must have left a big impression on me. I know this because I later joined the BRM Supporters Club, proudly wearing the enamel badge at every possible opportunity. There was something about a BRM, so very British in that dark racing green, and so often the underdog until Graham Hill came along and won the World Championship in 1962. By that time you couldn’t keep me away from the racetrack.

Then there was the Ferrari, this the very car raced in 1966 by Lorenzo Banding and John Surtees. You probably remember the cockpit of the 312, that wonderful black leather cladding, and that snaking nest of white exhaust pipes on the glorious V12 engine. Take a look at pictures of Banding in this car, or Ludovico Scarfiotti (who won at Monza in ’66) and if they don’t stir your blood then you won’t get what I’m going on about. The car is so comfortable, the cockpit hugging your sides. Close your eyes and you could be coming down to the Parabolica – if you were brave enough. No belts, remember, and fuel tanks all around you. Eventually I stepped out, but I didn’t want to.

So, thanks to Mr Dean, I have taken a seat in the theatre of dreams. The point, however, of these ramblings is that it is days such as these that remind us why we fell in love with Grand Prix racing.

In recent years I have sometimes struggled to maintain my enthusiasm. They all look the same, they all sound the same. They can’t overtake each other unless there’s a thunderstorm and Lewis Hamilton has a red mist inside that yellow helmet. Wandering among the cars collected by Bernie reminded me that simplicity is good – big fat tyres, tons of power, not very much grip and lots of nice engineering that you and I can understand.

No, I am not bogged down in the past. And yes, I will be watching the Chinese Grand Prix. I’m not giving up on this thing after six decades but I do believe that something radical needs to be done to improve the sheer spectacle, the drama of motor racing at its highest level.

BRM is long gone, but there will be Ferraris on the grid in China. All is not lost.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

As the 2010 Grand Prix season beckons, most of my acquaintance are agreed that it’s been a very long time since we anticipated a year with such relish. Schumacher back… Alonso at Ferrari… Button with Hamilton at McLaren… four World Champions in the pack… the prospect of four highly competitive teams… All right, we have lost BMW and Toyota (after Honda), and one or two of the new teams look more than a little flaky, but overall the prospects are indeed enticing.

It’s interesting that, when forecasting the likely World Champion, most seem to be choosing between Schumacher, Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel – to be focusing, in other words, on one driver in each of the four top teams.

There’s no denying that, in the normal course of events, within a team one driver tends to assert his superiority over the group, to become the de facto number one, even if this is not officially acknowledged. And it’s a fact, too, that Michael, Lewis, Fernando and Sebastian have all shown themselves to be very keen on this thing of having the team revolve primarily around them. But I wonder if it’s going to be as clear-cut as some imagine.

Consider the ‘other’ driver in each team: Rosberg (Mercedes), Button (McLaren), Massa (Ferrari) and Webber (Red Bull). Of these only Nico has yet to win a Grand Prix, but then he has never – until now – had the car to enable him to do so. Shout me down if you will, but I have a suspicion that he will show a great deal better against Schuey than most appear to believe. Although Ross Brawn presided over a Ferrari team that for years clearly favoured Michael, he has publicly said that such will not be the situation at Mercedes.

Over at McLaren, Martin Whitmarsh has said the same about Hamilton and Button – and, again, I expect the performance gap between them to be far less than some suggest.

On to Ferrari. While I believe Alonso to be the best driver in the world, don’t forget that Massa – fully recovered – largely dominated Kimi Räikkönen, and came within a Toyota dry tyre of winning the 2008 World Championship. Felipe is cowed by no one these days, and quite right, too.

Finally, there is Red Bull: Bernie Ecclestone has predicted that Vettel will win the championship this year, and that’s not the silliest thing he has ever said, for Sebastian is prodigiously talented, with ambition to match.

I do, however, think it would be a great mistake to underestimate Webber. Because he’s in his thirties, and has been around a while, Mark is sometimes overlooked, but remember that last year he won twice – and that included a sound defeat of Vettel in Germany. Webber is Trulli-quick over one lap, and in a race no one fights harder. Twelve months ago he began the season with virtually no testing behind him, legacy of the badly broken leg sustained the previous autumn, but he never moaned about the discomfort, put up with his team-mate’s occasional tantrums, and simply put his head down and got on with it. I’m sure he will do the same in 2010.

Four top teams, then – but there are more than four drivers in the mix, and that’s what makes the forthcoming season so mouth-watering. And I’d add a final thought: if Renault comes up with competitive package, expect Robert Kubica – as talented as there is – to be in the thick of it.

If pushed, my money would be on Alonso for the title – but I’m not sure I’d bet very much…

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

During the course of an interview with the BBC last Saturday, Mr Ecclestone invited us to consult a dictionary to check the meaning of the word ‘conspiracy’.

For those of you who either missed the interview, or failed to take up the invitation, allow me to clarify the definition of this word. A conspiracy is ‘a secret plan to carry out an illegal or harmful act, especially with political motivation’.

You will have guessed that the word, recently much-used by the media, came up in the context of what has become known, by the media at least, as ‘Crashgate’. You will decide for yourselves whether or not the unusual strategy employed by the Renault team at Singapore in 2008 was, in fact, a conspiracy. Certainly it was a secret, it might well have been harmful, and the motivation could be seen as political in the broadest sense of the word. But whether or not it was illegal is open to debate. The FIA, and the World Motor Sport Council, would undoubtedly see it that way. A civil court of law would probably have difficulty in establishing that an illegal act had been committed.

I mention this for two reasons. Mr Ecclestone, as is his prerogative as the public face of sport’s commercial rights holder, stoutly and oh-so-cleverly defended the FIA’s decision not to ban Renault from taking any further part in Grand Prix racing while at the same time suggesting that Mr Briatore’s lifetime ban was perhaps, and upon reflection, a little harsh. “You don’t get that for murder,” said Bernie. Well no, you don’t. And nobody died. But what is slightly worrying is that neither Mr Ecclestone, nor Mr Mosley, appeared to accept that the sport had suffered any serious damage as a result of the controversy

Some might beg to differ. Among those, presumably, are the senior executives of ING, the Dutch financial conglomerate.

While on the subject of conspiracy, it was surely a mighty relief to many, if not to Romain Grosjean, when the number eight Renault was safely parked in its garage after just three laps. The brake problems encountered in qualifying had not been solved. The prospect of Alonso’s team-mate visiting the wall during the course of the race was surely too awful to contemplate. A relief all round then.

The Singapore Grand Prix may not have been the most exciting motor race you’ve ever seen, but it was without a major controversial incident. Furthermore, it was a spectacular occasion and the grandstands were full. Not only that, but we saw Lewis Hamilton at his majestic best, the renaissance of McLaren gathering speed, and the silver MP24 looking superb under three million watts of street lights. Not to mention Toyota in the top three, just a week before Suzuka, and Jenson Button taking one more small step towards becoming the 2009 World Champion. And, last but not least, the BMW team admitting to a mistake with the ballast weights and taking a penalty on the chin.

All we need now is for Mr Button to triumph in Japan and return home with the biggest prize of them all. Just as, all those years ago, we crawled out of bed at dawn and sat nervously in front of our televisions to see James Hunt come through the mist and rain to win his world title. I do not wish to be overly patriotic, but this would surely be the right result for a team and driver that have achieved extraordinary things this past season.

We have had more than enough conspiracy, however it may be defined. Albert Einstein is credited with saying that the only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. I think we’d all agree that more than enough has been said, and the dents will only be beaten out with time. For now, we should sit back and enjoy what looks like being a very intriguing and exciting end to the season.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

On March 5, in Geneva, FOTA – Formula One Teams Association – had its inaugural press conference, and my immediate impression was to feel a touch underwhelmed. Luca di Montezemolo, the association’s president, was at his most patrician as he addressed the audience, but if we had been expecting a bombshell announcement of any kind, it never came.

There was plenty of emphasis on the teams’ new-found togetherness, of the need to work with the FIA and with Bernie Ecclestone on the future of the sport, and so on, and a great deal of time was given over to the need for cost-cutting. By 2010, Montezemolo said, the cost of Formula 1 – in terms of a team’s expenditure – would be 50 per cent of what it was in 2008, a remarkable achievement in itself.

There was also pleasing evidence that at long last F1 has examined what Flavio Briatore calls ‘the product’, and concluded it needs to become more ‘fan friendly’, both on the track and off it. There is, for example, a proposal that pit-to-car radio transmissions be made available to broadcasters – quite something for a society normally given to Masonic secrecy.

There were plenty of suggestions and ideas, and it was all very politically correct, but when you looked a little more deeply into what had been said – and, more to the point, what had not been said – a more significant picture began to emerge. Yes, Montezemolo had said that all parties were likely to sign a new Concorde Agreement in the near future, which concerns the ‘commercial arrangements’ – 50 per cent of the monies from race organisers, TV companies, and so on, going to the teams, and 50 per cent to Formula One Management (Ecclestone) – but this will take us only up to 2012. And if you listened closely to Luca, you concluded that thereafter the teams will require a significantly larger slice of the financial cake.

Whether some or all of FOTA’s proposals will be adopted by the FIA remains to be seen, but clearly the teams – unified as they have never been before – will have a stronger voice in future. Mindful of what happened to CART, they do not want to run the sport themselves – but nor do they wish any longer to be pushed around.

As one team principal said afterwards, “We don’t want to make the rules, but we do want to have some say in them. And, given that we’re all together now, we do have the facility to vote with our feet…”

Go on, I said. “Well, for example, take refuelling. Most of us never wanted it in the first place, because it’s expensive to lug all that stuff across the world, it’s an unnecessary danger, and it adds nothing to the show. Yes, it’s going to be banned in 2010 anyway, but if that weren’t the case, we could simply not take the refuelling equipment with us, couldn’t we? I’m sure they would still want us to race…”

On the surface, then, a commitment to work with the FIA and FOM, and I’m sure that’s what all in FOTA would prefer. Under the surface, though, is a message, polite in expression, but resolute in tone: the days of ‘divide and rule’, as perfected by Mosley and Ecclestone down the years, are over. Interesting times, one feels, lie ahead.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

While in Monaco, for the Motor Sport Business Forum, I heard the address given by Simon Gillett on the plans to hold the British Grand Prix at Donington Park, and came away more impressed than expected, I must say.

It will be remembered that the FIA, with gratuitous cruelty, chose the Friday of the 2008 Silverstone race weekend to make the announcement that the ’09 British Grand Prix would be the last to be run there, that henceforth the race would be held at Donington.

Bernie Ecclestone, the FIA statement insisted, had done everything possible to reach a new accommodation with Silverstone, but this had proved impossible. Bernie’s proposition made no financial sense to a circuit lacking in government support, and so the 60-year link with the British Grand Prix was finally being broken. The move to Donington had Ecclestone’s backing, and a 10-year deal had been signed.

To say that most in the paddock received the news with a blend of cynicism and disbelief would be an understatement. “Bernie’s got to lose some European races, because they don’t make enough money for CVC,” one team principal suggested, “and Silverstone’s a prime candidate – he’s always hated the BRDC, apart from anything else. But if Silverstone can’t make financial sense out of running the race, how the hell can Donington do it? This is just Bernie’s way of losing the British Grand Prix – when Donington can’t raise the money, he can say he tried but…”

There are some wicked cynics in F1, and none more so than in the press room, where the response was very similar. Gillett was present at Silverstone that weekend, and, when asked how he proposed to raise the estimated £100 million it would cost to bring the circuit up to F1-spec, and to satisfy BCE’s financial requirements to put on a race, said it would be achieved through a debenture scheme. That sounded more than a little optimistic, and one would have thought the chances of the plan’s succeeding have hardly been increased by the current financial meltdown.

However, Gillett refuses to contemplate failure – indeed, he says that all the doubters serve only to increase his determination to fulfil the ambition to bring the race to Donington.

Anyone who attended the one-off European Grand Prix at the circuit in 1993 will need no reminding of Donington’s perennial traffic problems. The race, run on Easter Sunday and in foul weather, attracted only a small crowd, yet it took for ever to get in and out of the place. MotoGP fans will tell you the same story to this day, even though so many are on bikes rather than in cars.

How, then, to cope with a crowd venturing to the only Formula 1 race to be held in this country? ‘Park and ride’, that’s how. Cars, Gillett said, are not going to be welcomed to the track, and the plan is to have three large sites, well away from Donington, in which spectators will park, then travel on to the track by mass transit means. By this means, of course, traditional car parking areas at the circuit can be freed up for other purposes, such as larger-than-usual camping sites.

A real coup, it seemed to me, is the closure – for the duration of the race weekend – of East Midlands Airport, which is located right by the circuit. This will not only leave at the airport free for ‘race only’ flights, but also make available a lot of space for people to ‘park and ride’. Given that the race will almost certainly be run in July, and that this airport traditionally operates a lot of ‘bucket and spade’ holiday flights, it’s remarkable that Gillett has managed to negotiate such a deal.

Accessibility by train is also high on the agenda. A new station, East Midlands Parkway, is to be built on the main London-Nottingham line, and dedicated ‘British Grand Prix’ trains will arrive there from St Pancras (a two-hour journey), after which travellers will be bussed into the circuit.

A good deal of sound thinking seems to have gone into the sheer logistics of accommodating a Grand Prix crowd at Donington, and Gillett was nothing if not plausible in his presentation.

There remains a strong ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ current running through F1 when it comes to the 2010 British Grand Prix at Donington Park, not least because people – even before the economic meltdown – simply couldn’t see how Gillett and his team were going to raise the necessary cash. Some believe that Donington will be cut some financial slack by Ecclestone, others that Bernie may himself be among the investors.

When, recently, plans for a Grand Prix at Disneyland Paris or whatever it’s called were cancelled, Ecclestone said it was vitally important that somehow the French Grand Prix should survive. We must hope he entertains similar feelings about the land of his birth.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

All of a sudden the World Championship calendar is starting to look more than a little unbalanced – and, some would say, unstable. As of now, the 2009 schedule contains 17 races (two fewer than originally envisaged), and for the first time a majority of them will be run outside Formula 1’s cultural home, which, no matter what some might claim, has always been Europe.

We know why this has happened, of course. For a very long time Bernie Ecclestone was the ‘commercial rights holder’ in F1, and years ago bought them from the FIA for no fewer than 100 years for what most observers regarded as a derisorily small sum. No one needs to be reminded that Bernie likes to make a buck, but at least, while he owned the rights, he had the facility once in a while to do a deal with a race organiser that didn’t necessarily stack up financially, but was in the good interests of the sport and its competitors.

Since he sold the commercial rights to CVC Capital Partners, however, that situation has changed. To finance the deal, CVC had to borrow heavily – from the Royal Bank of Scotland, among others – and those loans are expensive to service. CVC did not get involved for reasons of altruism, and fundamentally couldn’t care less where the Grands Prix are run: all that matters is the bottom line, and inevitably that means more and more ultra-lucrative venues, where government backing is guaranteed. Bad news, of course, for Europe, which has the fans, the history and the heritage, but not the financial clout to compete.

As European races begin to disappear from the schedule, there is of course a risk that ultimately the fans will become disenchanted. Why did we have a ‘night race’ in Singapore? Because starting it at 8pm enabled it to be televised live at 1pm in Europe, a time convenient to TV viewers here. There will always be hardcore fans prepared to watch a race in the middle of the night, but not enough of them to please the TV companies, whose financial contribution to F1 is enormous.

The trend, therefore, is increasingly towards the East, Middle and Far. Already we have Bahrain, Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, and on the near horizon are Grands Prix in Abu Dhabi, India and South Korea.

Magny-Cours, France 1995. Damon Hill (Williams FW17 Renault) followed by Michael Schumacher (Benetton B195 Renault)

Given that Ecclestone has said that his intention is to stick with a maximum of 20 Grands Prix in a season, the influx of new countries necessarily means that some traditional ones will have to be shown the door. France has recently cancelled its 2009 race, citing the current economic situation as the reason, but next year’s would anyway have been the last Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. Another French venue may appear in time, but we shouldn’t hold our breath, and as far as the British Grand Prix is concerned, the ’09 race will be the last at Silverstone – the circuit which hosted the very first World Championship Grand Prix back in 1950. Will the race at Donington come to be reality? The F1 community has its doubts, let’s say.

1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. King George VI meets the drivers, including a young Stirling Moss in the foreground

Over time both Ecclestone and FIA president Max Mosley have endlessly stressed that something calling itself a World Championship should be just that – this was the reason given for expanding into Asia. But, that being so, is it not almost beyond belief that the 2009 calendar entirely bypasses a little continent called North America? This year we lost the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, because Tony George was not prepared to keep pace with the new tariff of F1, as set by ‘government-funded’ events. That made the manufacturers – Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Toyota etc – extremely angry, for they quite like selling cars in the US.

1966 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, New York. Jim Clark leads the field away

Now the Canadian Grand Prix, too, is gone, after more than 40 years on the schedule. Apparently the bill for the ’08 race has not – yet, anyway – been paid in full, and therefore the ’09 date has been lost. Once again the manufacturers are angry (to say nothing of the F1-mad Canadian fans), and it seems to me that it’s about time they did something with their anger, and put pressure on the powers-that-be. It is not only to the commercial rights holders that markets are important, after all.

As for the fans, well, as ever they get what they’re given, take it or leave it. And if increasing numbers, feeling ever more excluded, leave it, presumably the power brokers will consider that a price worth paying.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Years ago I concluded an interview with Bernie Ecclestone with a question about his relationship with Max Mosley. We all sit there in the press room, I said, and endlessly ask, ‘Well, are they joined at the hip, or what? Are they really at loggerheads about this or that? Or is it all a game?’

Bernie grinned. “I think we’d better leave it like that. It’s a good place to finish, isn’t it?”

Over the weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix, paddock chat suggested that, while their fundamental friendship remained, the two men had fallen out professionally, and in a big way. True or not? I asked Ecclestone about the current state of affairs.

“It’s very simple,” he said. “There was no problem until this whole business with Max was reported, but now all the chief executives of the big companies involved in F1 are saying that… perhaps he shouldn’t be the president of the FIA. And the teams are saying that, too. I’m in the middle, really. I have no problem with Max personally. He was a mate of mine before this all this came up, and he’s a mate of mine still.”

Ecclestone was in New York on June 3, the day of the FIA General Assembly vote (to decide whether or not Mosley should remain in office), and in Montréal, five days later, I was told by an FIA man that so livid was Mosley with Ecclestone that there had been no contact between them since – indeed, he said, Max had declined to take Bernie’s calls. Was that true? “Yes,” said Ecclestone. “Absolutely true. I’ve had no discussions with him since the vote.”

I confess that, since the start of this whole affair, I believed Ecclestone’s role in deciding Mosley’s future was pivotal, in the sense that I thought Max would only go when Bernie told him the game was up. Very late in the day – some would say too late – he finally gave an interview, in which he implored him to resign before the vote.

1977 French Grand Prix, Dijon-Prenois, France. Then owner of Brabham, Ecclestone, has a chat with the March Engineering team manager, Mosley.

So have the two men really fallen out this time, or is it merely what they wish us to believe because they’re working to an agenda, and it suits their purpose? There’s no doubt that fundamental differences exist in their ideas about the content of the next Concorde Agreement, but – maybe I’m wrong – still it’s mighty difficult for me to believe that their legendary ‘double act’ has been seriously compromised.

We live in interesting times, as Mosley is fond of saying. And potentially very damaging times for Formula 1. Watch this space, as they say.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The British Racing Drivers’ Club has finally produced some computer-generated images for the new pit complex at Silverstone. The BRDC knows as well as anyone that Bernie Ecclestone will have no qualms about axing the British Grand Prix when their contract runs out at the end of 2009 if some drastic, and expensive, measures aren’t taken.

The plan is to spend £30 million on the revamp, which will include new pits (moved from the current position between Woodcote and Copse to the straight between Club and Abbey), a media centre, VIP area and grandstands.

The image has been designed by the Wembley Stadium architects, HOK, and if I may be so bold as to say, is not really a shining beacon of beauty. The fact that the roofline looks like something you might see on a computer screen in a hospital measuring someone’s heartbeat is, well… off-putting. There’s something in the unruly nature of the line that resembles the rollercoaster of doubt that the circuit has been living on for the past few years and I can’t decide whether this is amusing or just plain taking the piss.

Don’t get me wrong – I am delighted that some plans have been drawn up. The future of the British Grand Prix has never been on such rocky ground so it is reassuring to see some steps being taken. I just feel that with £30 million to spend we could build something a little more inspiring. If the past is anything to go by, we’ll be stuck with this one for a while.

I am of course, not an expert on architectural design – if these plans secure the future of the British Grand prix and Silverstone circuit then let the building commence.

It could always be worse – the brains behind the Scottish parliament building could be designing the pit complex. Having starting off with a projected cost of £50 million, the ‘beacon of design’ crept up to a whopping £414 million. A sum that would most certainly send the Northamptonshire circuit into oblivion.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine