While watching the British Grand Prix this weekend you might have noticed one driver was missing and some new driver had come onto the scene. The driver was Bruno Senna of the HRT team, replaced for this race by Sakon Yamamoto. Now this is no criticism of Yamamoto who given the chance to drive was always going to take it but rather a criticism of HRT for such a move and to the authorities of F1 for allowing this kind of thing to happen. On this occasion it was nothing to do with talent, rather money and when a team allows a driver to virtually buy a seat for a weekend then it shouldn’t be anywhere near F1, especially a smaller team that should be encouraging talent development.

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And there we have it, a fine weekend of sport finished and just like the 1998 weekend I wrote about last night, this one was a classic as well. Sporting events coming from every angle throughout the day. I was up at 8 a.m. and only finished watching all the sport coming at me by dinner time. The cycling was epic and historic, the World Cup Final was tight and dramatic and the Formula One, while not a classic seen the World Championship remain wide open. It was a great weekend for Spain of course as they won the World Cup, but it was also a big weekend for Australia as Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix and Cadel Evans moved into the yellow jersey in Le Tour. I’ll remember this weekend for a long time.

It was the British Grand Prix today under a new look track but whatever they did to improve the course did not really make a classic race out of the weekend as the decisive moments came on the opening lap before the procession at the front began. Mark Webber got a flying start and got past his team-mate and quickly becoming bitter-rival, Sebastian Vettel into turn one with a move that forced Vettel wide causing the young German to puncture and in effect destroying his race. Hamilton got close to Webber but never close enough as the super fast Red Bull car rounded out its dominance of the weekend by winning the race. It was a huge win for Webber who has felt the entire team is up against him even going as far as to state sarcastically after the race that his win was, “not bad for a number two driver.”

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This article is a story … a long story. Over 4,300 words worth so you might want to print this one out and read it at your leisure. It’s the story of this very weekend in 1998, one which was very similar in many ways to the current one I find myself in.

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July is often a great month of sport, especially on those forth years that the World Cup falls. You have great football, cycling, Formula One, golf and tennis. There is often therefore a weekend or two full of sporting magic that you just can’t keep up with and while I sit here on a Saturday evening on the 10th July 2010 I am in the thick of one of those weekends. We had the Tour de France, the British Grand Prix qualifying and the World Cup 3rd/4th place game today and tomorrow we top that off with the Tour de France hitting the very high mountains, the British Grand Prix race and the World Cup final itself, all on one day. 11 July – one of those great days of sport. It takes me back to the very same weekend in 1998 when the exact same three events took place with the only difference being the Tour de France was actually in its opening weekend but given that it was taking place in Dublin and given that I was in attendance, it more than made up for the fact it is in the big mountains this year. So, climbing into the proverbial PrbSports delorian, firing up the flux capacitor and setting the date to 11 July 1998, let’s go back and look at how those three magical sports unfolded on that weekend.

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What fantastic news today that Silverstone has been signed up to host the British Grand Prix for the next 17-years. This finally puts to bed all the doubts about the future of the British Grand Prix once and for all, and while it was bad news for Donnington, it is great news for British motor racing in general. I said it many times that F1 needed to be in Britain and preferably Silverstone – the location of the first ever World Championship race back in 1950. There should be a set of races that represent the crown jewels of F1, races that no matter what the season calendar should have on it. Places like Monza, Monte Carlo, Spa and of course Silverstone.

So with Silverstone now secured for the long-term and Canada back on the 2010 calendar, I am already getting excited for the 2010 season and it isn’t even 2010 yet.

Today Bernie Eccel$tone announced that F1 would not being racing in Donnington next season because they had missed their deadline for something or other that is not important anymore. Fair enough really, but what isn’t fair is the potential threat by Eccelstone that F1 might not go to Britain at all and that it doesn’t necessarily deserve a race just because it is ‘Britain’.

Well that is where Bernie is wrong. F1 does need the British GP just like it needs Spa in Belgium, Monza in Italy and Monte Carlo in Monaco. These are the cornerstones of F1 racing, they are the crown jules in the sport and the races that should be protected regardless of cash flow. They are the races that F1 itself should be paying to host if a paying private host cannot be found.

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Individual races in Formula One are always interesting but the title battle is usually only of interest if more than one driver is competing for the crown. So far this season it has been looking like a Schumacher style year were one driver races off with all the wins, points and eventually, the title. This weekend looked like the perfect weekend for Button to take another huge step for the title, it was his home Grand Prix and his big chance to take the big win in front of all his fans. But it was the German Vettel that spoiled Button’s home coming party and maybe for the good of the title race that wasn’t a bad thing. Vettel is still well behind Button, actually he is still behind Barrichello but if anything the weekend has shown the 2009 version of Button to be human after all and maybe it’ll be a big turning point in the season. It sure would be nice.

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