Formula One Features

In these straightened times a Pound will not buy very much. In the pub it's a third of a pint of beer or two bags of crisps, which is not much of a night out by any stretch of the imagination.

How much of a boost does a driver get from his home crowd when he's racing at his home circuit? Nigel Mansell used to insist it was worth a second a lap to be performing in front of the Silverstone fans, and although I am sure his engineers had sufficient data to pooh-pooh such an extravagant claim, there is undoubtedly a useful psychological advantage to have ten or twenty thousand people urging you on.

As the F1 circus sets up its show this weekend at the foot of an extinct volcano in Japan's wettest prefecture, you might be tempted to imagine that Britain's own rain-master, the web-toed Lewis Hamilton, has a fine chance of repeating last year's five-star performance in torrential conditions and wading home to an easy win for McLaren-Mercedes.

The Singapore Grand Prix was a disaster for Ferrari because despite being fast, the red cars could not overtake anyone. Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo blamed Formula 1 for holding races "on tracks where staging a circus or something else would be better" and said that the only spectacle "is supplied by the Safety Car".

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.

Are you enjoying the Olympics? If you happen to be British, I certainly hope so, because in four years' time it will be your tax money paying for all those athletes to descend on London and practise their peculiar trades in our fair country.

A peculiar thing about the Hungarian GP and its reputation for processional racing is that it has also thrown up an occasional thriller. Choose your favourite. Most recently it was the wrangle in the rain, with Jenson Button coming through after a superb Prost-style finger-tip performance.

July and it may as well be October. It is raining so hard here in the Cotswolds that it looks like it™s actually raining upwards and even the cows ambling down the road outside The Amberley Inn, looking for shelter, look totally fed up.

It's back to Hockenheim this weekend, after a two year gap now that the German GP is being alternated with the N¼rburgring. I'm not so sure that this arrangement will be sustainable for much longer, given that Bernie's fees go up every year and the size of the crowd doesn't. That, my friends, is a recipe for disaster, one that the local municipality will not be willing to underwrite for ever.

Lewis Hamilton wrestled his car to pole position at the 2007 British Grand Prix, and could seemingly do no wrong. Immediately afterwards, as dad Anthony headed down the paddock to congratulate his son, Hamilton senior was swamped by media wanting the inside track on the team's feelings.

When you consider how popular motor racing was to become in post-war Britain, it is surprising to reflect that in its 59 runnings as part of the FIA championship, our premier event, the British Grand Prix, has been held at only three venues. Since then, the only other circuits to have promoted the BGP have been Aintree and Brands Hatch.

If you had believed what the organisers of the French GP were saying this time 12 months ago, there wouldn't be a race to be writing about this year. Far be it from me to suggest that you should never believe a word a Frenchman says, but I am happy to report that no sooner had we all written the obituary of Magny-Cours and its race than a bout of arm-twisting by local dignitaries unlocked some secret funds, and we're all going back yet again to enjoy the farmyard smells of La France Profonde.

Before starting my usual nostalgic meanderings around Montreal and its Grand Prix, perhaps I might be permitted to reflect on last week's race at Monaco. Far be it from me to attribute great visionary powers to the magnificent electronic organ to which you have just directed your browser, but having warned you all about the rapaciousness of the Principality's hospitality industry it is a matter of record that the number of fans who went there two weeks ago to urge our own young Mr Hamilton to success was well down on the usual attendance.

So it's Monaco this weekend, and good luck to everyone who's going there. Unless you're one of the fans who come in by train on Sunday and grab the free but rather precarious positions on the cliff face overlooking the exit from the Rascasse, you can be sure that you'll have had your pockets emptied by the rapacious hotel and restaurant owners, most of whom - like all the genuine Mon©gasque residents - are descended from a long line of Italian pirates.

This weekend's Turkish GP will be the country's fourth, which seems surprising when you recall what happened after the race two years ago.

The Spanish Grand Prix was a bitter-sweet race for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. On the one hand Lewis Hamilton returned to form, finishing third and adding to his score in the Formula 1 Drivers' World Championship, but on the other hand, Heikki Kovalainen crashed heavily.

What with Robert Mugabe defying the wishes of the Zimbabwean people and clutching fast to his country's discredited presidency, not to mention Vladimir Putin's dubious plan to stay in charge of Russia, dictators are much in the news right now. A curse on them all.

Sunday™s during the winter are, it has to be said, generally rather pleasant affairs. They are the high point of the week and during the dark months they usually follow the same pattern.

Vijay Mallya says that his mother told him that the first word he ever uttered was not "Mama" or "Papa" like the rest of us. Apparently the bouncing young baby Vijay came up with the word "car". Since his days in nappies, Mallya has been passionate about cars.

These are exciting times in Dubai. The entire emirate seems to be under construction. Buildings rise from the ground with alarming speed. The more one looks, the more amazing it all seems.

So, it's a late start to the season for this column, the first edition of which was written in plenty of time before the Australian GP but somehow failed to get itself published.

Bernard Rey is the chairman of Renault F1, keeping an eye on the team's progress from his position in the top management of Renault in Paris. Flavio Briatore and the Renault F1 engineers answer to him. So he is a man worth talking to.

Recent news that has attracted a lot of attention in the motor racing world is that Formula 1™s governing body, the FIA, has declared its intention to introduce dramatic measures to reduce costs within the sport.