You can spot them up and down the pitlane wearing a world-weary expression, exchanging a handshake with team members and glancing occasionally at passing racing drivers as though sizing up the opposition. The pushy parent syndrome has become one of the most public ingredients in the sporting mix in recent years.

In Formula One, it is the doting dads who are the influences behind the exploits of their sons and, this season, the cast list seems longer than ever. The ever-present John Button will drive every lap in his mind with Jenson, the Honda driver, while Anthony Hamilton has become almost as well known as his son, Lewis. Duncan Coulthard is an occasional visitor, venturing out from the village of Twynholm in Scotland, where David, now at Red Bull Racing, was born. José Luís Alonso winced at every twist and turn of Fernando’s career at McLaren Mercedes last season, but will feel happier in the familiar surroundings of the Renault motorhome.

Those fathers had to make huge sacrifices to get their sons into Formula One: John serviced all of Jenson’s go-karts in his early career and even supplied karts and engines to Anthony Hamilton, who gave up his career at British Rail to take three jobs to keep his son on his path to the top.

But dynasties are emerging, the sons of racing fathers, many of whom have the money and the connections to speed up the tortuous process of breaking into the top rank of motor sport. Keke Rosberg, the 1982 world champion, manages the career of Nico and fast-tracked him to the Williams team. No surprise, really, as Rosberg Sr had been one of Sir Frank Williams’s champions and has the ear of Formula One’s most venerable team owner. Fortunately, there was no problem in picking Nico because, like his dad, he is proving to be blisteringly fast.

But Keke will not be around the motorhome much; he will spend this season as a television pundit commenting on the exploits of his boy, among others. Missing, too, from his son’s side will be Nelson Piquet, the three-times champion, who is proving to be the exception to the rule. Nelsinho Piquet makes his debut for Renault at the first race in Australia alongside Alonso, but Piquet Sr will not be there because he says he is too busy.

But the rest will be travelling to grands prix around the globe, at the most far-off and exotic locations, starting with the season-opener in Melbourne, where they will chew their fingernails and absorb every detail of every lap.

At least Alan Webber will not have to suffer jet lag. Mark’s dad has only to pop over to Melbourne from the family home in Queanbeyan, a small town a few miles from the Australian capital of Canberra, to see his son drive for Red Bull. Alan’s turn in the jumbo jet will come when the Formula One circus takes his son — and his rivals and their fathers — to Europe and beyond.

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