Silverstone: Plus48

A day late, admitedly, but here none-the-less! Here is a quick round up of everything worthy of discussion following the British Grand Prix last weekend.

Fernando Alonso demonstrated true class at Silverstone winning convincingly from start to finish. His performance was very much in the style of Michael Schumacher‘s back in the late nineties and early zeros. A completely dominant race which did make the grand prix somewhat boring, but at least Alonso showed how much it meant to him by giving a rather large grin on the podium. Schumacher has always been remarked as being jubilent after winning, but I fear Alonso is starting to takeover this mantle, particularly with his perculiar celebration antics after he gets out of the car!

David Coulthard is now engaged to Karen Minier – congratulations to both. It has only been six months since DC split with long-term partner Simone Abdelnour, but David said he is very happy and in an interview with the Sunday Times, he said:

I’m living something now that I never believed would happen to me, and time will tell how long this journey lasts – it might be a few years, it might be a decade, it might be a lifetime. I don’t know.

What I do know is that I don’t want to let her down, and that was never a worry in the past.

Jacques Villeneuve has resigned from the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA). The GPDA met after the British Grand Prix to discuss – among other things, I’m sure – the Schumacher incident at Monaco. Michael being one of the Directors of the GPDA was asked to explain his actions, and after listening, the drivers agreed (or at least, the majority agreed) that Schumacher could remain in his position. Villeneuve decided that he could no longer be a part of the Association on principal saying:

There was something I didn’t agree with, and just out of principal I just couldn’t continue being part of the group that’s all.

The GPDA itself actually does a lot of good, and on the safety aspect of things for like testing and so on. David [Coulthard] does a great job [in the role of director] of that so I am not against the whole thing.

Everyone seems to be talking about McLaren protege Lewis Hamilton, who had another stunning weekend in GP2 (F1 feeder series and formerly F3000). The rumour mill is in full swing as to who will partner Fernando Alonso next year in the Woking-built car. Whilst Juan Pablo Montoya is an option, his career at McLaren has been less than startling with only a few wins to his name. Kimi Raikkonen hasn’t had that great number of wins either, but Kimi has always appeared to have the marginal edge over his Colombian team mate. Ron Dennis has been saying that there is a chance for Lewis to be promoted to Formula One next year, but of course the experienced team boss is keeping his lips firmly sealed. It is possible that Lewis be signed to another team for a year or two while he finds his feet before coming to the big team, but that puts Ron in a quandry for 2007 at minimum.

Personally, I don’t see the crying shame in re-signing JPM for one more year, allowing Lewis to gain some experience at another teams expense. But then, I’m sure Alonso isn’t cheap and maybe Ron is trying to save some pennies?