Formula One Features — September 2008

If there had been an Italian among the three FIA stewards who so perversely ruled against Lewis Hamilton at Spa earlier this week, their decision would have been a little more understandable. After all, in recent years Monza hasn't been pulling in the fans like it used to do, and the old place needs a bit of a boost in order to stem the tide of red ink.

If Bernie ever achieves his ambition of selling all the FIA's world championship Grands Prix to publicity-seeking Asian despots and oil-rich sheikhs in the desert, the European circuit which I will miss the most is Spa-Francorchamps. I readily confess that there are personal factors involved here. It was from Spa in 1970 that my first (not very good) F1 race report was published, and Jim Clark, my second favourite driver after Fangio, won here four times.