They dish out the same number of points for every race on the calendar. But for the drivers some races are more important than others. A win at Monaco, Monza – or Silverstone: they’ll always mean more than a victory in Shanghai, Istanbul – or Valencia.

Sebastian Vettel dominated the European Grand Prix on the anodyne Spanish port circuit last weekend, and he had every right to take great satisfaction from the win. It was another consummate performance by this wonderfully gifted young man. But ask him in 10 years time to recall the days that stand out and I doubt this will be one of them. The same sort of unchallenged victory would mean something at Monaco. But here? It’s just another haul of 25 points.

The next GP will be different, and not just for Vettel. Sebastian has won at Silverstone before, of course. In 2009 he scored the third GP victory of his career at the old airfield track, becoming the youngest ever winner of a British Grand Prix. He knows how sweet it feels to win at a place with real history (despite being almost unrecognisable from how it used to be). Lewis Hamilton understands. So does Mark Webber. Jenson Button? Well, he’s desperate to join that elite club. The British GP is worth more than 25 points.

Jingoism on our part? I don’t think so. We like to think that Motor Sport has a broad outlook and doesn’t stoop to national bias. But at the same time we’re proud to be a British magazine and it’s only natural that our home GP should hold a special place in our psyche for us.

It’s that dear familiarity and shared experience of Silverstone, Brands Hatch and even Aintree (at least for the older contributors!) that inspired our A-Z of the British GP, the cover story of the August issue that is on sale now.

It was fun putting it together, and for those of you who never miss a British GP (and I know there are many), we hope the alphabetic guide will ring a few bells. Essentially, it’s a celebration of everything we love (and perhaps less than love…) about being a motor racing fan.

Perhaps you might have your own suggestions of British GP staples. To give you a taster, the entry we came up with for K is Keke’s lap. R is for Red Arrows. U is for Useless PA systems – and so on. Fancy getting into the spirit ahead of this year’s race? We look forward to reading your suggestions.

And for those of you who count another GP as ‘home’, we hope the A-Z will offer a few universal home truths about the experience of fans whatever part of the world you live in. We’d love to hear what you associate with your own GP, whether it be Interlagos, Monza, Melbourne, Montréal…

Elsewhere in the August issue, we continue the British GP theme by asking three past winners of the race – Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and John Watson – to give their verdicts on the F1 season so far, and what to expect at Silverstone and beyond. Three guesses whom they expect to win on July 10…

As usual, it’s not all modern F1 in Motor Sport. We head back 25 years to recall Henri Toivonen, rallying’s greatest cult hero. He and co-driver Sergio Cresto perished in a terrible accident in Corsica back in 1986 that not only robbed us of a gigantic talent, but also spelt the end of the wonderful – but deadly – Group B monsters. Anthony Peacock returns to Corsica to visit a corner of the beautiful island that will be forever Finnish.

As well as all that Eoin Young completes his story about his first season trekking round the European racing scene 50 years ago; Simon Taylor lunches with former BRM team manager Tim Parnell who gives his unique insight into the racing world of the 1950s through to the ’70s; and Mat Oxley hits the road on Norton’s retro café racer, our first motorcycle test of 2011.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

It’s a small world, this motor racing.

Walking through the A1GP paddock in Durban last weekend was like going back in time, being transported back to Grand Prix racing as it was in the 1970s and ’80s.

The drivers are young, yes, some of them familiar from other formulas, but the supporting cast is from another era. And nearly all of them from Britain, still the undisputed motor racing capital of the world. They call this the World Cup of Motor Sport, not to be confused with the FIFA World Cup which comes to South Africa in two years time. The casual observer, strolling through the streets of this city by the Indian Ocean, might be puzzled by hoardings promoting the excitement of two World Cups. One, an electronic scoreboard, is counting down the days until the footballers arrive in Durban to strut their stuff in a brand new stadium. The other proclaims that South Africa is taking on the world on the streets of the city this very weekend, and features a huge picture of Adrian Zaugg in his Team South Africa racing car. World Cup fever in the heat and dust of South Africa.

But back to the paddock where, it appears, the teams are crewed by Grand Prix has-beens, should-have-beens and wannabes. Well, that’s how Peter Bellringer of Team Great Britain describes it, he the former chief mechanic at BAR Honda and now in charge at Team Great Britain. And Gary Anderson agrees, adding that engineering an A1GP car is just another challenge, another racing car to be finely tuned. “It’s not F1, of course it isn’t,” he says, “but engineering counts for a lot in a one-make formula like this.” Then along comes Rory Byrne, here to assess the A1GP set-up on behalf of Ferrari, the Italians having done a deal to supply the engines for the 2009 series. Rory will have a hand in designing the new car, a project already underway under the wing of John Travis back home in Bognor Regis.

Talking of the south coast, here’s Mike Earle, bringing his vast experience as operations chief for Team India. Everywhere a familiar face, a slap on the back from a mechanic you haven’t seen since before the days of traction control and automatic gearboxes. Over there is Martin Dixon, chief mechanic for Team Canada, back from Indycar in America and once a mechanic for David Purley’s team. Up in the commentary box is John Watson, holding forth on the skills required for a street racer. And he should know. There’s Ann Bradshaw, stalwart press officer for Williams and latterly BMW-Sauber, bustling around getting things done for journalists. And so it goes on. Small world.

New faces there are, of course, and possibly the odd star of the future. Canadian teenager Robert Wickens may well be in this category. Just 18 years old, Wickens won the sprint race around the narrow streets of Durban and was running a strong second to Neel Jani in the big race on Sunday until he touched the wall. He was trying to outfox the experienced Swiss who leads the championship. New Zealander Jonny Reid looks good too in the car the Kiwis call the Black Beauty. Then there’s Filipe Albuquerque, a late nomination by Team Portugal, and said by many to be a star in the making. Among the more established racers, Brits Oliver Jarvis and Robbie Kerr are right on the pace, challenging the series leaders Jani and the Frenchman Loïc Duval who is using A1GP to boost his career. But more of this when we write at length about the Durban event in Motor Sport next month.

The series is better than you may think, more exciting than the critics have led us to believe. Grand Prix racing it is not, and was never meant to be, the cars are too slow and the driving skills required well below the pinnacle of the sport. But when the new Ferraris arrive on the scene, with their 4.3-litre V8 engines, greater skills will be called for. “At the moment,” says Earle, “the limits of the cars are well within the drivers’ capabilities, but the Ferrari package will be more of a pure racing car, a more sophisticated chassis, and then we’ll see who the top drivers really are.”

So, my first taste of A1GP, and it’s surprisingly refreshing, relaxed and – dare I say – fun. And that’s how it should be. Full report coming soon.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

I went to Littlehampton this week, a little town by the sea that has many good memories for me.

At the beginning of my journalistic career I spent three years as a reporter on the Littlehampton Gazette, now called the Arun Gazette, presumably in deference to the River Arun which flows through the town and out into the sea. Or it may be that Littlehampton is governed by Arun District Council whose ugly modern headquarters is in the town itself. It’s a funny place, run down like so many of our seaside towns, and yet it aspires to something more sophisticated. The Body Shop is here, its not-so-ugly headquarters employing a great many local people. Anita Roddick was a Littlehampton woman and borrowed the money to start her business from the man who ran Rowe’s garage on the edge of town. And there is a wacky new café down by the beach, lots of expensive new houses along the east bank of the river and then there’s Littlehampton Welding, a company with an international reputation for its ability to make and assemble huge steel structures. They are largely responsible, among many other projects, for the Gerry Judah-designed central displays at the nearby Goodwood Festival of Speed.

I went to Littlehampton to see Mike Earle, a man who’s forgotten more about motor racing than most of us have ever known. We’ve been friends since 1977, when Mike was running David Purley’s LEC Grand Prix team out of a shed by the railway line next to the Purley family’s refrigeration company just up the road in Bognor Regis. Before that, he looked after Derek Bell, and after that he took his Onyx Formula 3000 team into Grand Prix racing with backing from Moneytron. There’s not much he hasn’t done. These days Mike is closely involved with Zytek, his Arena International Motorsport team running a car at Le Mans each summer, and he’s been guiding the career of young Max Chilton in Formula Three.

This little enclave on the Sussex coast was once the hunting ground of no less than three motor racing heroes – David Purley, of course, Derek Bell and John Watson, both of whom lived in nearby Pagham. While Derek has moved to Florida and John has moved to Oxford, Mike has stayed in Littlehampton where he continues to run his immaculate racing team, the workshops and the trucks sparkling in the February sunshine.

I had a letter recently from a reader who wanted more stories about David Purley in the magazine. I will speak to the Editor. Meanwhile Mike Earle should be writing his autobiography. Maybe I’ll lend him my spare tape recorder.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine