Beaky Simms is a veteran Formula 1 mechanic who started his career in the 1960s and these days runs the Risi Ferrari ALMS team based in Houston. Simms is an old friend of Bernie Ecclestone and talks regularly with the F1 impresario. He told me last week that financial support for the US GP is beginning to take off.

“Bernie’s discovered how much money there is in Texas – in Houston and Dallas,” said Simms. “There are plenty of wealthy and successful Texans who are falling over themselves to do business with Mr Ecclestone, and the track is going to be a proper race track with fast corners and elevation changes. I think this race in Austin is going to be a big success.”

The Austin road circuit will be first track built in America specifically for F1. Hellmund says this fact is essential to the race’s long-term success, pointing out that the US GP enjoyed its longest period of stability and success when it was run from 1961-80 at Watkins Glen in upstate New York. None of the many street circuits that followed – Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas or Phoenix – lasted more than a handful of years and Long Beach was the only of these temporary venues that generated any enthusiasm or cachet.

Hellmund and McCombs will have to spend a lot of money and effort to have their track ready in time for 2012, but they may be onto something with a permanent F1-style track located in south-central Texas. Austin is close to San Antonio, about 200 miles south of Dallas and 150 miles west of Houston. The city is Texas’s state capital and is also a college town renowned for its arts and music scene, so it should prove to be a refreshing change from the likes of Vegas, Detroit and Phoenix.

The F1 team owners continue to talk about a second US GP, but they’re getting way ahead of themselves. They need to work with Ecclestone, Hellmund and McCombs to make sure Austin happens in the best possible way rather than dreaming about races in New York or San Francisco. The left-leaning politics and anti-car culture of this pair of great American cities ensure that motor racing will never occur anywhere near their environs.

The FIA and F1 team owners may not have paid attention, but NASCAR was utterly stymied in its recent attempts to build on oval track on Staten Island, adjacent to Manhattan. Also, the Philip Morris Corporation spent many millions of dollars 15 and 20 years ago trying to make a New York GP happen. And about a year ago New York mayor Michael Bloomberg (below on left) met with Ecclestone to talk Grand Prix racing in Manhattan. “We’d be delighted to host Formula 1,” Bloomberg said. “How much will you pay us?”

So it’s Austin, make or break. If the race in Austin doesn’t work out, America will almost certainly be lost to F1 forever. Both F1 and the United States need Austin to be successful.

Johnson has suffered a minor slump in recent months, failing to win a race for 10 weeks and falling to seventh in the points. But his two most recent victories – the 51st and 52nd of his career – have vaulted him back into second in the championship, 105 points behind leader Kevin Harvick. Johnson said that at this stage of the season he’s more interested in collecting points than winning races.

“A few weeks ago I was in a position where points were really important,” he explained. “You can’t take where you are for granted. Even though we’re now second in the points, three races ago we were seventh and 12th place wasn’t that far away. So a lot can still change and we need to be collecting points to make sure we’re in The Chase [for the Cup].

“I think it’s more important to win in The Chase than it is to win now. If I could pick when I would win my next race, I’d rather it be in The Chase. I think there’s a big message in that.

“For us, we’re still looking for a little more speed, so my goal now is to be smart, to try to keep finishing in the top five, learn about our cars and make sure we can be winning when The Chase comes around. If we have an opportunity to win a race we’ll certainly step up and try. But I think there’s more damage to be done if you’re driving over your means, so I’m looking for consistency.”

Johnson is NASCAR’s most complete driver today. He’s eminently quick, almost invariably a contender in the closing stages of most races, and is a cool, analytical player capable of working with crew chief Chad Knaus to get the best from his car. Before winning in New Hampshire Johnson said he would love to test or race an Indycar or a Formula 1 car.

“I really would enjoy it,” he said. “The way I grew up, Indycar racing was really the only outside exposure I had. I dreamt of racing in the Indy 500 and would go to the Long Beach Grand Prix and hope that I could be on that circuit racing at some point. So I’d love to try an Indycar or an F1 car. My path has taken me a different way and I think it would be very difficult to get an F1 test. But maybe by putting it out there it could happen.

“To experience driving an Indycar or F1 car on a road course would be really good for me. Running the Grand-Am car has helped me be a better road course driver, and it would be another step in an F1 or Indycar to see things at a faster speed in the braking zones and the capabilities of the car, how it turns in.”

There’s no doubt that Jimmie Johnson is the fastest, sharpest American driver in action today. If Bernie Ecclestone and FOTA’s team owners are serious about breaking back into the American market, they should be leaping off the marks to put together an F1 test for Johnson in a top car. When will it happen Bernie?

Why? Because of the bulls. Not the Red Bulls but the bovine variety, which will be chasing people through the streets of Pamplona in the feast of adrenalin they call the ‘encierro’, or the running of the bulls. I mention this because last weekend, just down the road from Pamplona, a new motor racing circuit was launched, the first of its kind in northern Spain.

You are going to hear a lot more about the Circuito de Navarra. In years past racing fans in this part of the world were obliged to trek hundreds of kilometres to satisfy their passion for speed. Nearest to the people of the Navarra region was Jarama, an 800-kilometre round trip, while further away were Barcelona, Jerez and Monteblanco in southern Spain.

But now the enlightened regional government of Navarra has invested 43 million Euros in the construction of a truly spectacular new circuit, certified for Formula 1 and MotoGP testing by the FIA and FIM respectively. There is also a kart track and a ‘sliding & drifting’ track with its own sprinkler system. If Bernie Ecclestone is serious about sprinklers for dry Grands Prix, then Navarra is prepared.

The big deal here is the enthusiasm and energy of both local politicians and racing fans, with 25,000 of the latter turning up for the opening ceremonies last weekend. Yes, you read that right, that’s how many car and bike fans came along for the day and there wasn’t even a race; that’s how much these people appreciate having a place to go racing in their own part of the country.

My colleague Charles Bradley from Autosport and I joined these aficionados in a mammoth traffic jam, warmed by the Spanish sunshine, on one of the many motorways that lead to the circuit. The organisers were simply taken by surprise, not expecting such huge crowds just yet. But by the time the first race comes around they will have invented a more friendly traffic system. Yes, they will – down here problems are challenges.

Sitting on the motorway, surrounded by T-shirts and caps proclaiming the talents of Signors Alonso, Pedrosa and Lorenzo among others, I reflected on what all this means to a region that lies in the foothills of the Pyrenees, just a short hop from the French border. More visitors, more tourists, more spending and, yes, more taxes for the government to collect in return for its far-sighted investment. The BRDC would have loved some government support for the ‘Home of British Motor Racing’. Ah, happy days…

British fans may well be interested in a long weekend in this fascinating part of Spain. A short flight to Bilbao or a leisurely ferry to Santander takes you to within a couple of hours’ drive of Circuito de Navarra. Then, as well as a race, you may like to enjoy the pleasures of an area that lies alongside the route of the famous ancient pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. There are Roman towns, rolling hills, wooded valleys and, of course, being in Europe, excellent roads. And don’t forget that in midsummer there is the extraordinary running of the bulls. But you may prefer to take a rain check on that particular attraction…

Francois Dumontier is president of the Canadian GP, replacing long-time former promoter Normand Legault. Following Sunday’s resounding McLaren 1-2 sweep Dumontier said he could not have been more pleased with the perfect weather and huge crowds. He was delighted to see the revived race pull a larger percentage than ever of fans from around the world.

“This year we had more people coming from Europe and the States than in the past,” said Dumontier. “I would say 40 per cent of our crowd is coming from outside Quebec. It’s pretty amazing and I don’t really have an explanation for that. The Euro is struggling and the US dollar also, but the people are still coming. For the tourism business and our business community this is really good, because it’s new dollars coming into town.

“This is a result of a great package we provide in Montréal,” he added, “which is both the appeal of the track and attractiveness of the city. People enjoy staying in the city and dining in Montréal’s many great restaurants just as much as they love the setting and the race track on Ile Notre Dame.”

The track surface on the island remains abrasive and to get the best from their tyres the drivers had to work for their living last Sunday. But there were no problems with the track coming apart as there have been in the past. Dumontier was pleased the new paving worked.

“This is the same recipe that’s been used at Bahrain and Abu Dhabi,” he said. “They’ve also used it at the Nürburgring and we imported it here. We worked closely with our people here in Quebec and adapted the paving for our weather and climate requirements, and on Friday morning after the first session I went out on track just to make sure everything was holding up, and it was.”

I am one of many thousands who enjoyed the return of F1 to Montréal. It was a great pleasure to see the enthusiasm for the racing and it’s worth pointing out that the Canadian GP is now by far the largest road-racing event in North America, and is beginning to challenge the Daytona and Indianapolis 500s for the title of North America’s biggest motor race.

Of course, many people have high hopes for the revival of F1 in the US. Will it happen successfully in Austin, Texas? Austin promoter Tavo Helmund will be at Silverstone next month for the British GP where it’s said he will explain his plans to bring F1 back to America.

“We hope to create the same enthusiasm in Austin as we have here in Montréal,” said Bernie Ecclestone last weekend. That’s a tall order, but race fans across the US hope Helmund and Ecclestone will succeed in the Texas capital. If the Canadians can do it so well, why can’t America?

Anyway, I thought it might be useful, amusing, or vaguely interesting to look back on my predictions for the season to assess the accuracy, or otherwise, of how things might go this year. You may remember that I suggested 10 things which might happen during, or by the close of, the 2010 season. I will take them in their original order, as I laid out the magic cards on January 4.

1. Hamilton and Alonso will tangle with each other – well, not yet they haven’t. Alonso has been too busy making mistakes on his own.

2.  Rossi will win the MotoGP title – no, he won’t, not after his horrendous crash at Mugello last Saturday. Although badly injured, Valentino has – according to the reliable Rick Broadbent in The Times – “discovered a great rapport with morphine”. Blimey.

3. Schumacher will win a race – not yet he hasn’t, but he still can. If only Mercedes could recapture the magic of Brawn GP.

4. Audi will win Le Mans – this time next week we’ll know.

5. Bernie Ecclestone will prepare to retire – no comment.

6. The Renault F1 team will be a shadow of its former self – just plain wrong.

7. Räikkönen will come back to F1 – still think he might. However Red Bull, which had been linked to Kimi, has now signed Webber for another year alongside Vettel.

8. Vettel will move to Mercedes – I think he will eventually.

9. Lotus F1 will be best newcomer – correct so far.

10. Somebody will run out of fuel before the end of a race – well, not yet, but it’s been extremely close on occasion. Virgin should have paid attention here.

OK, not a great result at this juncture you will no doubt be thinking. And you’d be right. But now we’re off to Montréal where anything can happen, and often does. The walls are very close and the grid will be very tight. And then there’s Le Mans  – a close-run thing between Peugeot and Audi for sure.

So, while we’re all stunned by the Rossi accident at Mugello and are suddenly acutely aware – by his absence on Sunday – just what a huge amount of excitement he brings to MotoGP, we have lots of other racing to look forward to.

The biggest difference, it seems to me, is that the psychological challenge was greater in earlier years than it is now, when climbing into a racing car and going to the limit was extremely perilous. The kind of ‘mind management’ needed to overcome natural fears of death or injury mark out yesterday’s drivers as a breed apart.

I’m always staggered at the reaction to François Cevert’s death in 1973. The accident couldn’t have been more horrific, yet both drivers and team managers seemed able to put it behind them and get on with the job of racing. In Peter Revson’s biography, Peter Manso mentions Revson going to an exhibition of motor sport art which looked out on the spot where Cevert was killed that same day without batting an eyelid. Bernie Ecclestone has recalled mentioning the accident to Carlos Reutemann, and then the two of them moving on to discuss tyre choices for Sunday! Meanwhile Jody Scheckter, who did at least admit that what he saw changed his outlook on motor racing forever, was already in discussion with Ken Tyrrell with regards to joining the team in ’74. The only driver, it seems, who reacted ‘normally’ was James Hunt, who was described as looking pale and visibly shaken, yet remarkably he went on to finish second the next day!

Did it ever strike you that this sport is not only very exciting but also callous and indifferent to the lives of its main protagonists, and did you ever entertain doubts about whether it was all worth it?
Ryan

Dear Ryan,
No getting away from it, Grand Prix racing has changed out of recognition in the last 40 years, and no change has been more dramatic than that in safety. At Jacky Ickx recently said to me, “Nowadays you can do it, and you’re almost at risk zero – and that’s wonderful…”

It wasn’t like that in his era, though, and to some degree there was a sort of ‘Spitfire pilot’ attitude to the risks involved. During 1971, my first year of working as an F1 journalist, three Grand Prix drivers – Ignazio Giunti, Pedro Rodríguez, Jo Siffert – all lost their lives in racing accidents (although only Siffert was killed in an F1 race). That wasn’t untypical of the time. The year before, Piers Courage, Bruce McLaren and Jochen Rindt had all died. No surprise that Ickx – as you can read in the next issue of the magazine – is so grateful that he is still around.

I think you’re wrong, though, to suggest that the attitude within the sport to these tragedies was callous. Certainly, the death of a driver was more commonplace in those days, and therefore the sport’s participants were more accustomed to dealing with it, but that didn’t mean that the losses were not keenly felt. Of Jimmy Clark’s death, for example, Chris Amon said this: “We all felt we’d lost our leader. If it could happen to Jimmy, what chance did the rest of us have?”

It’s a fact that I have on occasion encountered callousness in motor racing – less than an hour after Gilles Villeneuve’s accident in 1982, another driver asked me, “Who d’you think will get the Ferrari drive?” – but it’s been very much the exception to the rule. The fact is, times were different, death was more prevalent by far – and the belief, I think, was that it had always been part of the sport. Very regrettable, but occasionally inevitable. And bear in mind, too, that this was all long before ‘public grieving’ became so fashionable. Motor racing people may have borne their grievances discreetly, but certainly they felt them.

My friend Robert Dean is an engineer, a mechanic, a racer of vintage cars and generally one of the good eggs of our universe. By our universe, I mean that which is inhabited by those of us who are just crazy about racing cars. Or just crazy. Robert’s role in life, apart from a being a doting father, is to look after a collection of racing cars owned by one Bernard Ecclestone.

I mention this because last year in the desert of Bahrain I did two things I never imagined I would. I slid down into the cockpit of a Ferrari 312 and I perched on the seat of a BRM V16 Mk ll.

For me, these were Big Moments – not only a pleasure, but also a privilege. As a child, I watched Ken Wharton and Ron Flock hart racing this BRM at Goodwood and, while the memory is hazy, I remember the noise and I know it must have left a big impression on me. I know this because I later joined the BRM Supporters Club, proudly wearing the enamel badge at every possible opportunity. There was something about a BRM, so very British in that dark racing green, and so often the underdog until Graham Hill came along and won the World Championship in 1962. By that time you couldn’t keep me away from the racetrack.

Then there was the Ferrari, this the very car raced in 1966 by Lorenzo Banding and John Surtees. You probably remember the cockpit of the 312, that wonderful black leather cladding, and that snaking nest of white exhaust pipes on the glorious V12 engine. Take a look at pictures of Banding in this car, or Ludovico Scarfiotti (who won at Monza in ’66) and if they don’t stir your blood then you won’t get what I’m going on about. The car is so comfortable, the cockpit hugging your sides. Close your eyes and you could be coming down to the Parabolica – if you were brave enough. No belts, remember, and fuel tanks all around you. Eventually I stepped out, but I didn’t want to.

So, thanks to Mr Dean, I have taken a seat in the theatre of dreams. The point, however, of these ramblings is that it is days such as these that remind us why we fell in love with Grand Prix racing.

In recent years I have sometimes struggled to maintain my enthusiasm. They all look the same, they all sound the same. They can’t overtake each other unless there’s a thunderstorm and Lewis Hamilton has a red mist inside that yellow helmet. Wandering among the cars collected by Bernie reminded me that simplicity is good – big fat tyres, tons of power, not very much grip and lots of nice engineering that you and I can understand.

No, I am not bogged down in the past. And yes, I will be watching the Chinese Grand Prix. I’m not giving up on this thing after six decades but I do believe that something radical needs to be done to improve the sheer spectacle, the drama of motor racing at its highest level.

BRM is long gone, but there will be Ferraris on the grid in China. All is not lost.

1950s
At the start of the World Championship the Italians ruled, but then came the rise of the Brits

1960s
A decade of technical innovation, with rear-engined cars coming to the fore, led by Lotus and Jim Clark

1970s
The ’60s had been a deadly era, but this was no better, until Jackie Stewart started his campaign for safety

1980s
The struggle for power between the teams and FOCA reaches a head, and is repeated by Senna and Prost

1990s
A black weekend for F1 with the death of Senna, followed by the rise of Schumacher (and Max and Bernie)

2000s
Schuey continues his red rule, before a new generation bring the excitement back to Formula 1 racing

Bahrain celebration
Nearly every living World Champion was at the first race of the season to mark 60 years of F1

Other features

Lunch with… Riccardo Patrese
His mother wanted him to study, not go racing. Luckily for us he defied her…

Road test: Rolls-Royce Ghost
More affordable Rolls impresses

Classic Racing Cars
’80s tin-tip legend and a must-have for wideboys – the Ford Sierra Cosworth

It’s interesting that, when forecasting the likely World Champion, most seem to be choosing between Schumacher, Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel – to be focusing, in other words, on one driver in each of the four top teams.

There’s no denying that, in the normal course of events, within a team one driver tends to assert his superiority over the group, to become the de facto number one, even if this is not officially acknowledged. And it’s a fact, too, that Michael, Lewis, Fernando and Sebastian have all shown themselves to be very keen on this thing of having the team revolve primarily around them. But I wonder if it’s going to be as clear-cut as some imagine.

Consider the ‘other’ driver in each team: Rosberg (Mercedes), Button (McLaren), Massa (Ferrari) and Webber (Red Bull). Of these only Nico has yet to win a Grand Prix, but then he has never – until now – had the car to enable him to do so. Shout me down if you will, but I have a suspicion that he will show a great deal better against Schuey than most appear to believe. Although Ross Brawn presided over a Ferrari team that for years clearly favoured Michael, he has publicly said that such will not be the situation at Mercedes.

Over at McLaren, Martin Whitmarsh has said the same about Hamilton and Button – and, again, I expect the performance gap between them to be far less than some suggest.

On to Ferrari. While I believe Alonso to be the best driver in the world, don’t forget that Massa – fully recovered – largely dominated Kimi Räikkönen, and came within a Toyota dry tyre of winning the 2008 World Championship. Felipe is cowed by no one these days, and quite right, too.

Finally, there is Red Bull: Bernie Ecclestone has predicted that Vettel will win the championship this year, and that’s not the silliest thing he has ever said, for Sebastian is prodigiously talented, with ambition to match.

I do, however, think it would be a great mistake to underestimate Webber. Because he’s in his thirties, and has been around a while, Mark is sometimes overlooked, but remember that last year he won twice – and that included a sound defeat of Vettel in Germany. Webber is Trulli-quick over one lap, and in a race no one fights harder. Twelve months ago he began the season with virtually no testing behind him, legacy of the badly broken leg sustained the previous autumn, but he never moaned about the discomfort, put up with his team-mate’s occasional tantrums, and simply put his head down and got on with it. I’m sure he will do the same in 2010.

Four top teams, then – but there are more than four drivers in the mix, and that’s what makes the forthcoming season so mouth-watering. And I’d add a final thought: if Renault comes up with competitive package, expect Robert Kubica – as talented as there is – to be in the thick of it.

If pushed, my money would be on Alonso for the title – but I’m not sure I’d bet very much…

For those of you who either missed the interview, or failed to take up the invitation, allow me to clarify the definition of this word. A conspiracy is ‘a secret plan to carry out an illegal or harmful act, especially with political motivation’.

You will have guessed that the word, recently much-used by the media, came up in the context of what has become known, by the media at least, as ‘Crashgate’. You will decide for yourselves whether or not the unusual strategy employed by the Renault team at Singapore in 2008 was, in fact, a conspiracy. Certainly it was a secret, it might well have been harmful, and the motivation could be seen as political in the broadest sense of the word. But whether or not it was illegal is open to debate. The FIA, and the World Motor Sport Council, would undoubtedly see it that way. A civil court of law would probably have difficulty in establishing that an illegal act had been committed.

I mention this for two reasons. Mr Ecclestone, as is his prerogative as the public face of sport’s commercial rights holder, stoutly and oh-so-cleverly defended the FIA’s decision not to ban Renault from taking any further part in Grand Prix racing while at the same time suggesting that Mr Briatore’s lifetime ban was perhaps, and upon reflection, a little harsh. “You don’t get that for murder,” said Bernie. Well no, you don’t. And nobody died. But what is slightly worrying is that neither Mr Ecclestone, nor Mr Mosley, appeared to accept that the sport had suffered any serious damage as a result of the controversy

Some might beg to differ. Among those, presumably, are the senior executives of ING, the Dutch financial conglomerate.

While on the subject of conspiracy, it was surely a mighty relief to many, if not to Romain Grosjean, when the number eight Renault was safely parked in its garage after just three laps. The brake problems encountered in qualifying had not been solved. The prospect of Alonso’s team-mate visiting the wall during the course of the race was surely too awful to contemplate. A relief all round then.

The Singapore Grand Prix may not have been the most exciting motor race you’ve ever seen, but it was without a major controversial incident. Furthermore, it was a spectacular occasion and the grandstands were full. Not only that, but we saw Lewis Hamilton at his majestic best, the renaissance of McLaren gathering speed, and the silver MP24 looking superb under three million watts of street lights. Not to mention Toyota in the top three, just a week before Suzuka, and Jenson Button taking one more small step towards becoming the 2009 World Champion. And, last but not least, the BMW team admitting to a mistake with the ballast weights and taking a penalty on the chin.

All we need now is for Mr Button to triumph in Japan and return home with the biggest prize of them all. Just as, all those years ago, we crawled out of bed at dawn and sat nervously in front of our televisions to see James Hunt come through the mist and rain to win his world title. I do not wish to be overly patriotic, but this would surely be the right result for a team and driver that have achieved extraordinary things this past season.

We have had more than enough conspiracy, however it may be defined. Albert Einstein is credited with saying that the only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. I think we’d all agree that more than enough has been said, and the dents will only be beaten out with time. For now, we should sit back and enjoy what looks like being a very intriguing and exciting end to the season.