Party could be over before it even starts for Silverstone

Poor old Damon Hill stands a chance of being like the chap who puts on his best bib and tucker and turns up at the door clutching his warm bottle of Blue Nun only to find out that the party was last night. It has taken the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) the best part of a decade to get around to drawing up firm plans to redevelop Silverstone, mainly thanks to the pushing of Hill, its president.

But there are distinct signs that it could all be too little, too late. While the BRDC is planning to build a new pits complex and grandstand to help it to host a British Grand Prix for the next decade, Bernie Ecclestone is planning to take his Formula One circus even further from its heartland.

For the past ten years, there has been a global rush to build gigantic new circuits, usually underwritten by government money, in places like Bahrain, Malaysia and China. But now Formula One’s ringmaster has decided that vast, uninspiring circuits are yesterday’s fad. He wants street circuits: aside from Monaco, he has already got Singapore and Valencia this season, and the other day started stirring up the French by saying that F1 is abandoning the Magny-Cours circuit — which is in the middle of nowhere — and should have a street race in Paris instead. The local authorities in Versailles are discussing it.

The United States is a black hole now that Indianapolis has ditched Formula One but rumours persist that a street race in Las Vegas or on the West Coast is at the forefront of Ecclestone’s thinking because he knows the American public would love the spectacle. Add to that the lure of the dollar in nations aspiring to host a race — India, Abu Dhabi and South Korea are on the cards — and you wonder where all that will leave Silverstone. All dressed up but with nowhere to go, we suspect.

Going their separate ways at fork in the road

All is not fair in love and Formula One, for there are break-ups galore before the new season starts. Ron Dennis, McLaren’s chairman, has sadly split from Lisa, his wife of 22 years, and Mika Hakkinen, McLaren’s two-times world champion, has parted from Erja, his wife, who was for so long a familiar face in the pitlane.

But now we hear of more casualties: Jenson Button is no longer with the glamorous and very posh Florence Brudenell-Bruce, or Flee as her friends call her. She has apparently got ambitions in the acting game and clearly tired of life on the Formula One road.

Happily, no romantic problems for Button's best mate in Formula One, David Coulthard. Reports that his relation with Karen Minier, his delectable French fiancee, are in trouble are way wide of the mark and the couple were hand in hand in Melbourne yesterday in the build-up to the Australian Grand Prix. Coulthard even tells us that wedding bells may ring soon. We wish them both well.

Williams left numb by numbers game

- Martin Brundle, ITV’s brilliant pundit, has got his pass for the first grand prix after all. Brundle told readers of his newspaper column that he expected the FIA, the sport’s governing body, to strip him of his electronic pass to the paddock after he roundly criticised its treatment of McLaren in the Spygate affair. But while all may not be entirely forgotten, it is forgiven and Brundle will be at work as usual this weekend.

- Lewis Hamilton has no need to worry: Kimi Raikkonen is clearly not the man he was. This time last year, the world champion was entering a powerboat race dressed in a gorilla suit under the pseudonym of James Hunt. This year, he is just driving like a professional. No fun at all.

- No lack of romance over at Williams, it seems. Asked about celebrating 30 years in Formula One and the forthcoming 500th grand prix for the team, Sir Frank says: “It’s just numbers, isn’t it?” And Patrick Head, Sir Frank’s equally no-nonsense partner, adds: “All this stuff is a bit the product of our marketing and media department.” Aw, makes the heart melt.

- Heikki Kovalainen must like his new team-mate because it seems he wants to move in next door to Hamilton. Well, within cuckoo clock chiming distance, anyway. The Finn is moving to Switzerland next month to join the cabal of Formula One drivers out there. There must be days when Geneva looks like the Formula One paddock with Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, David Coulthard, Nick Heidfeld and Raikkonen, among others, having homes out there.