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.

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In August I was lucky enough to race a 2CV in the 24 Hour race at Snetterton. We made a small video of it and up until now we have been unable to post it as it was showing on MotorsTV. MotorsTV has now finished with it though so here it is!

We hope you enjoy it and sorry for the delay.

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The British Touring Cars will be at Silverstone this weekend from where they’ll head to Knockhill, Donington and finally Brands Hatch for the last round of the season.

Jason Plato and Matt Neal are separated by only 20 points at the top of the standings so expect some fireworks between the two over the three races. I sadly can’t make it this weekend, as I’m off to compete in the Citroen 2CV 24 Hour race at Snetterton. To say I am very over-excited is the understatement of the century.

I’ve never driven a 2CV, let alone raced one, so I’m looking forward to getting some practice laps in. Whatever happens though, I very much doubt I’ll be as much out of my comfort zone as Plato and Neal were when they tried wing walking for the first time ahead of this weekend’s racing.

The whole thing has been posted on YouTube and is extremely amusing, especially as the pair try harder and harder not to show that they’re bricking it. Something I may well be doing when racing at night for the first time…

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When it was announced, in September 2009, that Ferrari had decided to terminate Kimi Räikkönen’s contract a year ahead of time, and to put Fernando Alonso in with Felipe Massa, there was no surprise in Formula 1 circles. His first season with the team (2007, when he won the World Championship) apart, Räikkönen’s time with Ferrari had undeniably fallen short of expectations – more often than not, he was outpaced by Massa, a man on a smallish fraction of his retainer.

This has been a pricey season for Ferrari, which has not only had to pay off Kimi’s contract (while he contests the World Rally Championship for Citroën), but also to stump up for Fernando, who may be earning somewhat less than Kimi did (and certainly less than Mercedes is paying Michael Schumacher), but is still at the high end of the pay scale.

I’ll admit that when Alonso’s signing was confirmed I thought it good reason for other teams to quake a little. In the two years when Fernando won the World Championship, 2005 and ’06, Schumacher was still in his pomp, yet Alonso – with Renault – beat him. Put all that talent and commitment to work at Maranello, and how could anything much go wrong? When Fernando won the opening Grand Prix, in Bahrain, it seemed to suggest a stellar season for Ferrari.

As I write, immediately before Hockenheim, that remains the team’s only victory in 2010. All season long Red Bull has had unquestionably the quickest car, but it has been by no means the most reliable – and that, whatever else, has always been one of Ferrari’s strongest suits. When Sebastian Vettel’s car faltered in Bahrain, it was Alonso and Massa who took over.

Since then, though, it has been McLaren which has benefited most from Red Bull failings – and rightly so, because its car has been consistently developed, in the traditional McLaren manner, and if the MP4-25 is not the equal of the Red Bull (particularly in qualifying), in most of the races it hasn’t been far away. Thus, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button sit first and second in the point standings.

Ferrari, meantime, has had a pretty thin season, and although Alonso has predictably outpaced Massa, one may be sure that he never envisaged, at mid-season, being only fifth in the championship, 47 points adrift of Hamilton.

In part this is because Fernando has made mistakes, which is uncharacteristic of him. There have been tangles at the first corner, an unfathomably jumped start, a shunt at Monte Carlo, which obliged him to miss qualifying and therefore start from the back – after being quickest of all in the first two practice sessions…

Many of the mistakes, I would suggest, have occurred because for a long time Alonso has necessarily been driving right at the edge in a car not truly on the pace. After an encouraging start to the season, Ferrari failed to keep pace with the developments other teams were introducing, and only in the last three races have decent innovations come through – in Montréal Fernando was right there, and only a couple of backmarkers kept him from threatening Hamilton in the late laps. In Valencia he was on Lewis’s tail, in third place, when the controversial safety car incident removed him from the reckoning. At Silverstone a drive-through penalty – also controversial – put him out of the points.

In Italy there is much talk of a crisis at Ferrari, and even speculation – misplaced, one hopes – about the future of Stefano Domenicali. Yes, the team has been through a very bad patch, but Alonso continues to insist that he can still be World Champion this year. He loves the team, and they him, but the time has come for a series of good results, and everyone knows it. I’m betting that Fernando will come on very strong through the balance of this season…

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Just back from a few days in Wales. The trip was an eye-opener.

There were two main topics of conversation in the service areas, and around the bars, during the course of what is now known as Wales Rally GB. That’s the RAC Rally of Great Britain to you and me, except that the event is now staged entirely in Wales. Anyway.

Everybody wanted to talk about Honda’s withdrawal from Grand Prix racing and everybody was talking about the weather. These were not related but in their own ways were equally important.

Last Friday morning, very early last Friday morning (this is rallying, remember) we crawled out of our beds in the Marriott Hotel and stumbled to the door to grab our free copies of the Times newspaper. And there it was, right across the back page. Honda can no longer afford to stay in Formula One, the company is suffering from a slump in sales and so, sayonara Honda. Not a huge surprise, possibly, but a shock nonetheless when it came. Had the Japanese manufacturer just won the World Championship then no doubt it would be staying put.

But, clearly, the Grand Prix team has been going nowhere, and this despite the recruitment of Ross Brawn, oodles of cash and state-of-the-art technical facilities which are the envy of many a smaller team. It was inevitable, considering the slowdown in car sales worldwide, that something had to give, and it gave. Poor old Jenson Button, I thought, as I headed out to the service park in Swansea, he really hasn’t been in the right place at the right time, for a long time. But then, if he’d stayed at Williams, or at Renault, he probably wouldn’t have fared much better. Jenson’s a damn good racing driver and he deserves better. But, in Formula One timing is everything, just as in the real world.

David Richards, Team Principal at the Subaru World Rally Team and formerly the same at BAR Honda, expressed his disappointment and his sympathy for the staff facing an uncertain future. “I gather the team has been given three months to find a buyer,” said DR, wrapped up against the Welsh winter, “and they will probably find one, be on the grid next year. I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of Honda but it might not be the only team to pull out as a result of the global slowdown.” Would he be interested in dipping into his pockets one more time? “I won’t be rushing into anything,” he said, “ their overheads are huge, there are certain problems, and I will be watching to see what happens over the next few days and weeks.” Right then and there, the blue Subarus of Solberg and Atkinson were his primary concern – that and flying Japanese executives to the rally stages in his helicopter.

Then there was the weather. Why would that be a problem for rally drivers, you might ask? Surely they dance on ice, plough through snow and thrash through fog? Not now they don’t. New regulations drawn up by the FIA mean that gravel note crews are banned and only one type of tyre may be used throughout the rally. This in turn means that the stages have not been noted immediately before the start and that –if there is ice – the Pirelli Scorpion gravel tyre will not be as effective as it otherwise might be.

There was ice and the tyre wasn’t happy. Nor was multiple world champion Sebastien Loeb, first man out on the initial stages in the early morning frost. “There is no recce from the gravel crew any more,” he said, “and you just don’t know where the ice is, where the mud is, or what is round the next corner. I’d rather go home.” He didn’t go home of course – he won the rally with a sensational drive on the final two stages. It was frosty, it was sunny, the sky was blue and the Brecon Beacons looked more beautiful than ever. I hope those sheep know how lucky they are.

You can read lots more about the extraordinary Monsieur Loeb in the next edition of the magazine. Five times WRC champion, mighty quick in a Red Bull Grand Prix car, right on the pace in the Peugeot 908 HDi – this is a truly gifted racing driver.

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Winter is here. It is cold in England, minus four this morning, and that’s in a valley just 20 miles from the sea. Well, of course winter has arrived – it is the week of Wales Rally GB, still known to many of us as the RAC Rally.

Mikko Hirvonen, on his way to victory in last month’s Rally Japan, remarked that the weather on the final stages was a taste of things to come at the final round in Wales. As Leg 3 began there was ice on the opening stages, followed by torrential rain. On the opening day Special Stage 3 at Isepo was cancelled due to snow. Sapporo, at the southern end of Hokkaido Island, has huge amounts of snow in winter, the white stuff now – sadly – a rare hazard in the modern World Rally Championship.

“That rain was proper RAC-spec weather,” said the Finn, a man not much phased by bad weather. We know what he means and we can expect more of the same as we head for Wales later this week. I am packing a woolly hat, gloves and boots. Watching men like Loeb, Solberg and Hirvonen thrash through the valleys warms your heart, but not your feet.

Neither Sébastien Loeb nor Citroën have ever won this rally. The climate is more suited, as we have said, to the Scandinavians who have dominated the leaderboard in recent times. Spectacular Petter Solberg won it four years in a row, but only after Englishman Richard Burns upset the form book with a hat-trick of victories in the final years of the last millennium. If it is very wet this year we might expect the Fords of Hirvonen and Latvala to be at the front. In Japan Loeb took his fifth world title and he will be keen to finally get his name on the trophy that has so far eluded him. It should be noted, however, that in 2005 Loeb slowed deliberately to avoid winning the rally, and with it the title, following Michael Park’s fatal accident on the event.

There will be much attention focused on Wales Rally GB this winter. Valentino Rossi will be out in a Ford and team manager Malcolm Wilson reckons that the Italian has the speed, on asphalt anyway, to finish in the top 10. Then there’s Welsh teenager Tom Cave, tackling his first ever WRC event having passed his driving test only last month… yup, they get younger and younger. It’s always exciting to see a new talent, in any sport.

Look at what Vettel and Hamilton have done for Grand Prix racing, and you can only wonder where Arsene Wenger finds the likes of Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott. Blimey, his captain Cesc Fabregas is only 21, having gone to Highbury as a teenager. Exceptionally talented youngsters refresh and invigorate sport in a way that rule changes and other artifices never can.

While we’re on the subject of the weather, and yes we Brits talk of little else, how about running all Grands Prix in the rain? For a rally driver, it’s par for the course, but a little RAC-spec rain seems to bring an inordinate rush of excitement to a Grand Prix.

And finally, can you believe this? Earlier this season Monsieur Loeb was asked to cut his hair and shave his face. It was alleged that Morrie Chandler, who looks after rallies for the FIA, suggested that the World Champion’s long hair and stubble brought disrepute to the sport. I’m sorry? Can this be true? No wonder there are no beards in the FIA’s Formula 1, bar Nick Heidfeld’s of course!

I shall try and verify this with Loeb during my audience with the man in Swansea later this week. I haven’t told the nice people from Citroën, but I am driving down to Wales in my Renault. Vive La France et Vive Le Sport.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine