This week I’m joined not only by Rob Widdows, but also Motor Sport’s editor Damien Smith. Not surprising really when there was such a dramatic Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500.

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Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

It has become a custom for me to offer some predictions for the season ahead. Actually, it has become a source of much amusement and derision among my colleagues, who are never shy of reminding me how unreliable my predictions are. I will, however, continue the custom for those of you who enjoy a bit of harmless amusement.

So, here’s what may happen as we move through a new season of motor racing in 2011. In no particular order:

1. Sébastien Ogier will be a lot closer to Sébastien Loeb and will challenge for the World Rally Championship title.
2. Valentino Rossi will win a race on a Ducati.
3. Audi will win Le Mans.
4. Red Bull will start the season winning Grands Prix.
5. Paul di Resta will impress in the Force India (if he actually gets to drive one of the cars Rob… Ed).
6. Dario Franchitti will win the Indycar championship.
7. Felipe Massa will be replaced at Ferrari during the year.
8. Rubens Barrichello will retire at the end of 2011.
9. Dean Stoneman will be on the podium in GP2.
10. Ferrari will threaten to leave Grand Prix racing if the rules for 2013 are not changed to accommodate a V6 turbo engine.

All nonsense? Yes, probably, but let’s be bold this year. You will have your own thoughts on the season ahead, or you may decide to keep them to yourselves, which is probably more sensible. But remember, I did predict that Vettel would win the Formula 1 title in 2010

While we’re listing things, here’s 10 events not to miss in 2011. Again, in no particular order:

1. The Monaco Grand Prix – F1 cars are as exciting as ever they were on this circuit. Pure drama, with or without overtaking.
2. Indycars on any of the ovals. Still a thrilling spectacle.
3. IRC Ypres Rally. An easy drive from the UK and a lovely town with the service area in the main square.
4. The Goodwood Revival. Simply the best.
5. MotoGP at Mugello. Take a walk around the circuit and be amazed.
6. BTCC at Brands Hatch. Audi joins the fray this year. Great circuit.
7. WRC Rally New Zealand. Breathtaking scenery.
8. Algarve Historic Festival. Sunshine, beaches and mouth-watering cars.
9. The Brazilian Grand Prix. Crackling atmosphere, always a good race.
10. Midget cars on any dirt oval. You can combine this with the Indy 500.

Go on, treat yourself. It will only be more expensive next year. Whatever you do, wherever you are, let’s look forward to another great season.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

It’s a fact that many of us left Bahrain in a downbeat frame of mind, for this 2010 Grand Prix season had been anticipated – for a variety of sound reasons – with a great deal of relish. Yet the opening race of the season had been one of the most boring in recent memory, like a re-run of qualifying in slow motion.

Many immediately suggested it had been a mistake to get rid of refuelling and demanded immediate changes, some of which had merit, some not. Bernie Ecclestone counselled against knee-jerk reactions, and anyone with half a brain agreed with him.

Race two, in Melbourne, was as diverting as Bahrain had been bland, and much of this – rightly – was put down to uncertain weather conditions, which have spawned exciting races since the beginning of time. It isn’t much of an intellectual stretch to understand that when you get a wet race track – even a damp one – you have less grip, and when you have less grip you get more driving errors and therefore changes in the order.

Not rocket science, is it? Which makes it the more unbelievable that, between them, the FIA and the Formula 1 teams – all of which have recently wakened up to the fact that racing fans like racing – cannot between them come up with a set of regulations to promote it. Last year, those teams which designed ‘trick’ double-diffusers into the concept of their cars deliberately ignored the aims of the FIA Overtaking Working Group – and the governing body then shamefully declared them permissible.

All concerned knew of the adverse effect this would have on the sport’s appeal, and all – for reasons of self-interest – chose to ignore it. A plague on their houses, as far as I’m concerned – but the FIA Court of Appeal stands especially culpable, for while it is in the DNA of F1 designers to look for loopholes in the rules, it is the interests of the sport which should always be paramount to the people who run it.

Patrick Head once pointed out that the Monaco Grand Prix would be highly diverting if all the cars ran with ‘Hockenheim wing settings’, and on another occasion even more radically suggested that wings be banned altogether – although that, he smilingly admitted, would never be accepted by the team owners given the amount of ‘sponsorship area’ on the car that would be lost.

For the fans, the people to whom manufacturers and sponsors are trying to sell things – and therefore, in the end, the people who pay for this sport – what constitutes the ideal racing car? No one ever defined that better than Tony Brooks, the great Vanwall and Ferrari driver of half a century ago: “A Grand Prix car,” he said, “should always have slightly more power than the chassis can comfortably handle…”

Simple, isn’t it? And the abiding problem of contemporary F1 is that the ratio between power and grip is out of kilter. The ban on traction control was a good move, but still the fact remains that F1 cars race today with 300 horsepower fewer than we have seen in the past – and don’t tell me that the grip levels in the 1980s (during the turbo era) were anything like those of today.

Some years ago Max Mosley decided that horsepower was getting out of control, and declared that the 3-litre V10 engine should be replaced by a 2.4-litre V8. He then imposed the ‘frozen engine spec’ rule, and that was probably essential, given the amounts of money being spent on the endless quest for another 10bhp.

Unfortunately, attempts to change the aerodynamic rules – so as to cut back on grip – have proved far less effective, and thus we have a situation where a dry day means a procession, where only adverse weather conditions can guarantee a memorable afternoon. Can’t be right.

After Bahrain, there was hand-wringing by some of the team principals, who had apparently become suddenly aware that a Grand Prix can be boring, and were demanding all manner of instant changes to spice up ‘The Show’. One instant change might be to be receptive in future to technical changes proposed by the Overtaking Working Group, rather than ignore them for the sake of self-interest.

And to think there was a time when we used to joke about spinklers…

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Max Mosley recently made a speech to the International Advanced Mobility Forum (IAMF) at the Geneva Motor Show about Formula 1’s move towards an “energy efficient future”.

Whether this makes you mildly excited or sends you clean to sleep, it is certainly the right direction to go in. The sport’s carbon footprint makes driving a Range Rover look PC and the more that can be done to reduce this, the better.

Honda has been leading the race to become the ‘greenest team on the grid’ and certainly pays attention to detail – at the Monaco Grand Prix last year the team unveiled their low-emission scooters for pottering around the pits.

“The whole team is committed to reducing its impact on the environment,” said Button. “Using ultra-low emission scooters is just one way that we are doing this. On a personal level, I spend a lot of time in Monaco so it has been interesting to hear about the specific environmental issues affecting the region and what steps are being taken to protect it.”

How right he is but surely releasing a low-emissions scooter will make as much difference as a party cracker in a nuclear war. That’s probably why none of us really heard about it. Still, it’s all good PR and, as Tesco so rightly says, “every little helps”.

It’s only when you compare Formula 1’s efforts with those of NASCAR that you start to realize how advanced the sport really is. Just using the teams’ pit lane vehicles as an example, Honda has low-emission scooters; the NASCAR drivers have small golf karts. This may seem quite conservative for an obviously ‘un-green’ series, but then you learn that many of them have fitted Nitrous Oxide systems for that little extra boost on the way to their motor homes.

When Pete Spence, the technical director of Toyota Racing Development, was asked what measures NASCAR has taken to lower emissions he replied, “at the beginning of 2007 we converted leaded gasoline to unleaded gasoline. We are, however, still using what I would call a racing gasoline. I think it’s inevitable that in every walk of life, as we learn more about global warming that there will be pressures to become more green. The really interesting question is who defines what green is?”

Stark contrast to Mosley who, when asked a similar question declared, “in 2009 Formula 1 is going hybrid as the first stage of a programme to divert the vast research effort at the pinnacle of motor sport towards energy efficiency.”

The main benefit of going green is that it keeps the sport’s future safe. It is only a matter of time before certain individuals catch on to the fact that motor sport can be viewed as an un-eco friendly, politically incorrect sport.

If Formula 1 can be seen to be making an effort to change this and benefit the car industry in the process then Mr and Mrs Green may well just concentrate on other ‘more important matters’ like a 2002 headline suggested… “After 28 Hours, Greenpeace Protest against Floating Dustbin Ends.”

Don’t get me wrong, one day planet earth will come to a grinding halt, pack it’s bags and show us the middle finger – the more we can do to combat the problem now, the better. Whether that means riding an electric scooter or changing the face of Formula 1, it actually makes no difference. It’s the fact that they are trying to make a difference means that we’ll be able to enjoy spectacles, like that in Melbourne, for many years to come.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine