“The company is still entirely within my control and that is not going to change,” said Sir Frank Williams after announcing the sale of a shareholding in his Formula One team to Austrian investment specialist and occasional race driver Toto Wolff.

'Formula One is my life,' says Sir Frank Williams

Sir Frank and business partner Patrick Head are not known to have previously sold any shares in the company they founded in 1977, but he was quick to squash any suggestion that the new deal represented a management change – or an attempt to inject funds into the team.

Instead, he presented it as an opportunity for the duo to realise some of the value of the company they had built.

He said: “Nothing changes. I will continue with my role. I have a keen interest in the team’s sponsorships and I work on that with my people on the commercial side of the business. Patrick and I are here every day and we will continue to be so.

“I have no desire at this time in my life to want to stop work. The sale is entirely for private motives. Patrick and I have never taken a penny out of the business in four decades and it’s time I paid a few bills.”

He did, however, hint that he was thinking ahead to his eventual retirement: “I’m not getting any younger, I’m 67. I have no intention of losing control of this company or ceasing any of my Formula One activities, but I would prefer to be prepared for when Patrick and I are not here and not to leave it until the last minute.

Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head in 1978

“This situation means that the future of this company is assured for our partners and our workforce, who are all very loyal.”

Mr Wolff – real first name Christian, but known as Toto – is a 37-year-old businessman, financial manager and professional investor with a string of successful companies to his name.

He told Autosport that his investment was a strategic decision based on the shift in F1 away from manufacturers and towards independent teams.

“With recent pull-outs of manufacturers from F1 the value of privateer teams will increase. Overall, I expect the value of F1 to rise again. Therefore this is a commercial decision,” he said.

A motor sport enthusiast, he set up a driver management company with F1 champion Mika Häkkinen in 2002. He first raced in Austrian Formula Ford in 2002 and was runner-up in the Austrian Rally Championship four years later.

He also won the Dubai 24 Hours, is the current Nordschleife circuit record holder, and is involved in DTM as an investor in the Mercedes subsidiary HWA – as well as being engaged to Scottish competitior Susie Stoddard.

Sir Frank Williams with the FW-10s at the Osterreichring in 1985

Nevertheless, his involvement is expected to be purely commercial and not sporting: “No, that’s not foreseen,” said Sir Frank, adding: “If he has an interesting opinion, he will certainly be listened to, of course.”

He said: “Toto is a very shrewd business man. He has created and owned several businesses and sold them on for a profit. What is most impressive is how young he is. He is a very clever man. He will turn up for the occasional board meeting. He will come to as many as he wants, but he has no set plans.”

The exact shareholding sold to Mr Wolff has not been disclosed, but it is more than 10 per cent and less than 49. The balance of shares between the two original founders remains unchanged: “The shareholding between Patrick and I is in a certain ratio and the sale reflects that,” said Sir Frank.

“I can not stress enough that Toto is a minority shareholder and that the company is still entirely within my control and that is not going to change. Formula One is my life, I love what I do and I don’t want to change that so long as I am mentally and physically healthy to do so, but we all welcome the contribution of experience, success and vitality I am sure he will bring to Williams.”

Indy Lights hopeful Stefan Wilson has cashed in his prize for winning the Autosport BRDC Young Driver award – a Formula One test drive at Silverstone in Lewis Hamilton’s championship-winning McLaren.

Stefan Wilson

He managed 20 laps of the National circuit in the wet, setting faster times as he progressed despite ever-worsening conditions that left team engineers having to assess whether it had become unsafe to send the car out.

Race engineer Andy Latham said: “Stefan drove very sensibly. He got quicker and quicker in conditions that were getting worse and worse.

“In those sorts of conditions we’d seriously consider whether to send [out] our most experienced test drivers, so Stefan did a good job on a track that was right on the edge of acceptability.”

Wilson, the younger brother of ex-F1 and current IndyCar driver Justin, said: “I was a bit nervous beforehand because of the weather: the back straight of the National circuit is bumpier than the Grand Prix track, and all those bumps filled with water and became puddles, so the car was aquaplaning quite a bit along the back straight.

“Still, I was absolutely blown away by the day – it’s a huge thing to get the chance to drive a Formula One car, I was hugely impressed by the professionalism of the team and I felt I got more consistent with every run.

“There was more time to come from myself, and the car, but I didn’t want to take too many risks because I didn’t want to spoil the day.”

Writing on his website he added: “I hardly slept the night before. It was the date of my test, Friday 13th November. What a day to drive a Formula One car, eh?

“The McLaren team had 30 personnel attending the test, supported by four transporters. But it was only when I walked into the garage and saw the car there, with my name on the side, that it suddenly hit me: I was about to fulfil one of my lifelong ambitions.”

At almost 6ft 4in, Wilson shares with his brother a greater-than-average height that makes race cars difficult to squeeze into. He had already written on his site about the difficulties that went with his seat-fitting at the McLaren HQ at Woking.

Writing about the test itself, he said: “I climbed into the car, and it was a very snug fit. Every corner of my body was tight up against the car, my knees were touching the top of the tub, my elbows were rubbing the back of the cockpit, and my hands were brushing my knees as I turned the wheel. However, this wasn’t an armchair I was sitting in, so it didn’t need to be comfortable.

“My first lap was an adventure, as I used the paddle shift to go through the gears and experienced the immense power. It started to rain harder and at one point the car was more like a powerboat as it aquaplaned over the puddles down the straight. I finished the day by setting my best time on my last lap, when the wind and rain were at their worst.”

The 20-year-old won the Young Driver award in 2007 from a shortlist that also included Superleague and Indy Lights competitor Duncan Tappy and F3 drivers Henry Arundel and Nick Tandy.

He ran a partial schedule in last year’s Indy Lights championship in North America and is aggressively pursuing a full-season seat for next year in tests with Sam Schmidt Motorsports: “The next month is going to be really exciting, and I hope sometime soon we have something big to announce for next year,” he wrote on his website.

Remember last year, when the F1 world couldn’t get enough of the idea of young Scots DTM star Paul di Resta stepping up to the top-flight series?

The 23-year-old Mercedes driver, a cousin of IRL champion Dario Franchitti, was widely tipped for a Force India drive after the team adopted the company’s engines. He also did some testing for McLaren under rules that allowed for extra mileage with a rookie in the car.

At the time he was vocal in his desire to try his hand at F1, but nothing came of it, and things have since been a bit quiet. Well, in open-wheel terms – he was DTM series runner-up in 2008 and he came third in 2009.

Now Swiss-German publication Motorsport Aktuell is reporting that the youngster is about to get behind the wheel of a Force India car as part of the young drivers’ test taking part at Jerez in Spain for three days from December 1 – although his name does not yet appear on the official Formula One website’s list of participants.

However, he is reported to have been to the team’s Silverstone HQ for a seat fitting.

Neel Jani, the Swiss-Indian former A1GP champion, is also said to be on the team’s list as well as a possible appearance from Ocean Racing’s GP2 competitor Karun Chandhok.

If di Resta does make it, he’ll be joining a host of motorsport talent from around the world – but will be the only UK driver taking part that we know about so far.

Ferrari will follow its usual policy of testing the best of the Italian F3 crop, which this year includes Italians Daniel Zampieri and Marco Zioli and the Mexican Pablo Sanchez Lopez. Jules Bianchi, Formula 3 Euroseries title holder will also appear for the team.

Formula Renault 3.5 victor Bertrand Baguette is testing for Renault; while F2 champion Andy Soucek collects his prize of a test with Williams.

Mirko Bortolotti will be in the car for Toro Rosso while BMW Sauber tries out American Alexander Rossi and Mexican Esteban Gutierrez. British Formula Three champion Daniel Ricciardo will appear for Red Bull.

The new GP3 feeder series has launched its new car at the Paul Ricard circuit in France with none other than Red Bull F1 driver Mark Webber behind the wheel.

Webber is involved in the series as a team owner after joining forces with Red Bull boss Christian Horner. He also runs the existing GP2 competitor Arden, and is working with Webber to bring the MW Arden squad to the GP3 grid. Webber hopes it will boost opportunities for Australians in motorsport.

After 19 laps in the new car, he told reporters: “I have been pleasantly surprised. It’s my first experience driving the car and I can honestly say it is like driving a small F1 car.

“A lot of the aspects are what I am already used to, but obviously on a smaller, more junior scale. For example the car has a full paddle shift gearbox and clutch system.

“The biggest advantage for this championship has to be racing at the Formula One race weekends. This will give drivers great exposure, and for sure all of the team bosses will be watching during race weekends.

“Overall I think it is a great car I am very impressed by the whole package, and I am looking forward to the first race next season.”

Speaking about his decision to make a move into management, he said: “Christian Horner was interested in taking part in the series and approached me. I’m not at the beginning of the F1 career so it was a logical step for me.”

The ten teams entered for the 2010 season, which include the UK’s Carlin, Hitech and Manor Motorsport, were also present for their first opportunity to find out more about the cars they will be racing.

They also had the opportunity for detailed discussions with the series’ technical partners Dallara, Hewland and Pirelli, and for a closer look at the turbo engine developed by Renault F1 Team in Viry-Chatillon.

British race fans will have the chance to attend two race weekends on home soil with the 2010 Formula Two championship, including a season-opener at Silverstone.

The nine-meeting calendar also includes a provisional date in Morocco as well as visits to Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic.

This year’s inaugural season included two British dates, one at the Motorsport Vision-run Brands Hatch, the other at Donington Park. But Donington’s future is currently unclear with its promoters in administration.

Next year’s Brands date is pencilled in for the weekend of July 16-18, a week after F1’s British Grand Prix is supposed to be taking place.

In 2009 Andy Soucek became the first F2 champion for 25 years in a season that he dominated against varying strengths of opposition. His prize, along with the FIA super licence earned by the top three finishers, was the opportunity to test with Williams – this will be up for grabs again in 2010.

The season was a broad success – apart from a tragic accident at Brands Hatch in July which caused the death of Henry Surtees.

A safety investigation was initiated by series organiser Jonathan Palmer with input from car designers Williams F1. The results of that investigation have not yet been made public.

A car specification upgrade is in the works and for eight of the nine 2010 rounds F2 will accompany the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s European events. It will headline at the season-opener at Silverstone. Races are due to be televised live by Eurosport.

Entries are now open for the 25-car 2010 grid, with a season’s racing costing £275,000 plus VAT. For more details on entering, visit the series website. Winter testing is due to take place in Spain and Portugal during December.

Jonathan Palmer said of the new season: “When the FIA announced in September 2008 that MSV had won the tender to design and build a fleet of new Formula Two cars and operate the championship we knew we faced an enormous challenge to get 24 cars on the grid for the first race at Valencia.

“Williams F1 did an outstanding job designing our new JPH1 F2 car under the direction of Patrick Head. Our MSV F2 team headed by Giles Butterfield has worked phenomenally hard this year to both build the cars and run them so professionally in F2’s first year.

“There is no question F2 has been a great success already. We have had a full grid from the start to the end of the season. The unprecedented affordability of F2 has meant we have had drivers from 15 different nationalities competing.”

He said the series had been fiercely competitive, with eight different drivers winning races, and Andy Soucek getting a good opportunity to demonstrate his talent.

“However 2009 has just provided us with a solid base from which to aggressively enhance F2. Key areas that will be addressed for 2010 include a target of achieving 100 per cent car reliability, greater car performance and team operational efficiency.

“Early indications are that the 2010 grid will fill quickly with a high quality field of drivers and that our champion next year will be another talent destined for F1.”

Patrick Head, Director of Engineering at Williams F1, added: “I am pleased to see that the F2 championship in 2009 has been successful and has been won by the driver who not only had the best speed over the season, but who also was tactically ahead of his competition.

“Jonathan Palmer is never one to stand still, and amongst many other improvements wishes to raise the performance of the car by working on all the major performance controlling parameters; weight, power, tyre grip, downforce and drag.

“2009 champion Andy Soucek will be driving for a full day of our permitted three days testing allowance for young drivers in December, and I am sure he will perform well.

“Formula Two has made a mark in 2009 as a competitive championship, professionally run with equal cars, but everything can be improved and we intend that this shall be the case for F2 in 2010.”

The F2 calendar for 2010

• Silverstone, UK: April 16-18
• Marrakech, Morocco: April 30-May 2 *
• Monza, Italy: May 21-23
• Zolder, Belgium: June 18-20
• Algarve, Portugal: July 2-4
• Brands Hatch, UK: July 16-18
• Brno, Czech Republic: July 30-August 1
• Oschersleben, Germany: September 3-5
• Valencia, Spain: September 17-19

* Subject to the approval of the national sporting association

It’s our habit to review the first episode of Top Gear in a new season to see how well the formula is still working – and this time around we’ve come to rather a startling conclusion.

Increasingly, it’s all about James May.

Why on earth would we think this? Surely the peculiar geeky bloke can’t really be the centre of attention in the face of so much loud and testosterone-fuelled competition.

Well, for a start, watch the first episode of season 14. Who gets the most screen time? Eh? He even does the track test, which is not something you see every week, and subverts it very nicely while he’s at it.

And, for another thing, think about it all in a slightly broader context. The three presenters each have their well-established personalities that have developed over time.

Clarkson is the constantly-undercut gobshite who dominated at the beginning then plateaued – and now has restricted potential for character development, since he’s also thoroughly exploited the trick of being unexpectedly polite.

Hammond with his short bloke syndrome was (with unfortunate literality) catapulted into the public consciousness when he had his accident. The resulting wave of concern and hope for his sound recovery made him the star for the next few seasons.

But it’s May, the latest developer of all, that’s now coming into his own. It’s the ultimate tale of the patient geek come good – and we love him for it.

Here’s an idea about why. May is easily the most three-dimensional of the Top Gear presenters. It seems like he’s hardly off our screens at the moment, what with all those series about wine, space and toys.

Meanwhile Clarkson is contractually tied to only present Top Gear and Hammond has tended to get his most prominent exposure outside the programme’s studio by promoting a certain well-known supermarket brand.

May has also got a surprisingly passionate female following. While this is presumably also demonstrable for both Clarkson and Hammond, their appeal might be somewhat easier to understand.

But read the comments May routinely gets on his Telegraph column and you’ll soon learn he has an indefinable something all of his own and that there are plenty of takers for it.

Which seems like the perfect time to give a polite cough and move on to the actual episode

Another California, another trip to central Europe

What is it right now about driving supercars around Eastern Europe that seems to be fascinating motoring journalists? We imagine the answer to be a very successful promotional drive by Ferrari to promote its new GT model.

In the hands of the Top Gear producers, however, this proposition has become a completely, magnificently surreal road movie that takes up half the episode and proves that the programme certainly can still deliver 14 seasons in.

Notable is the confidence with which all this starts. There are few introductions, little more than a couple of sentences of banter (with Hammond threatening to hold his breath until he turns blue if he doesn’t get his own way) and then we’re off.

The gang has got its hands on two other supercars in addition to the California, which Hammond will be piloting. Clarkson is waxing lyrical about his lovely Aston Martin DBS Volante, definitely the car we would choose from the selection on offer. May, in an unlikely move, will be behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder.

Their mission is to take them to Romania in search of the world’s best road. We don’t have too many details about this at the moment, but the joys of discovery are to come.

First, the gang must take its collection of supercars across a country that has made a rapid journey from Iron Curtain dictatorship to paid-up member of the European Union in the course of just two decades – and they find a few of their assumptions about Borat-style Warsaw Pact countries and donkey carts busted on the way.

However it is, as we are reminded quite early on, the home of the oft-referred-to Dacia Sandero – and here is one, driving innocuously down a road. Also we have plenty of opportunities to laugh at presenters being baffled by the in-car gadgets, a silly nod to the idea that there’s a practical car review going on.

But easily the highlight of the first part of this film is the sheer joy with which the presenters drive their supercars around a network of tunnels underneath the national parliament, formerly the residence of Nicolae Ceausescu. “This is our best game yet,” yells Hammond, before putting down his foot and roaring off.

The bit in the middle

That’s it for the first part of the film and now we are into the programme regulars – the news segment, the track test and the star in the reasonably-priced car, all of which old favourites have made it into season 14. The first couple of items are a long way off being news and give the distinct impression of being chosen more for their humorous potential than their currency – the new McLaren supercar (cue jokes about dangerous prams) and Bathurst booze ban.

But then it veers off into complete surreality again with Porsche fan May rolling out what is said to be his only phrase of fluent German in the middle of an item poking fun at the new Boxster Spyder: “Aber ja, natürlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.” (”Naturally Hans is wet, he’s standing under a waterfall.”) For some reason, this is laugh-out-loud funny, though it is hard to explain why.

Then, in a moment of comedy gold, Clarkson is made to build a cardboard portable loo designed for roadside use with audience participation – which he then sits on and falls through. “Do you know what? Honestly? I think I would rather crap myself.” Hammond: “I think I just did.”

The track test is a comparison of discreet wallets on wheels, presented as a spoof consumer item for newly-rich bankers. It starts with the BMW 760LI (or “the BMW Move Over, Poor Person”) which gives us a rare glimpse of May out on the circuit: “It’s like swimming over a waterfall of double cream.” By the end of the film he’s sitting in the back demanding “dignified driving” from his hired chauffeur, on the basis that if he can afford the car then he can afford to have it driven for him. The Stig is not happy.

Next up is the Mercedes S63 AMG – May and Stig profess themselves unable to choose between the two and have to resort to a game of Top Trumps. Until Stig throws a tantrum and overturns the table. All they can do is race them – the Merc wins out on the track but, in May’s judgement, the Beemer would prevail overall if both cars weren’t completely pointless.

The star in a reasonably-priced car is generally one of our least-favourite bits – but tonight’s candidate is considerably more interesting than many. Aussie actor and racer Eric Bana (a Ford bloke, not a Holden bloke), a veteran of films such as Chopper, Black Hawk Down, Troy, Star Trek and The Time Traveller’s Wife, says the Bathurst beer ban is “a serious restriction – practically teetotal.” He gives Clarkson well and truly as good as he gets on the old England-Aussie rivalry. He’s a bit silent on the subject of the Ashes, however.

But he’s definitely one of the better reasonably-priced guests (and, let’s be frank, sometime you’d get them on for a fee of 50 pence) due to having a bit of a clue how to put the car around the track. The documentary he is here to promote, about racing his classic Ford that he’s had since his teens, also looks good.

“Nice, throaty little warble – a happy little car”

Then it’s back to Romania in search of the world’s best road. After covering all 143 alleged miles of Romanian motorways, and waxing lyrical about the pleasures of driving supercars (nice to know you don’t get blasé after 13 series and one episode) they present May with the keys to his very own Dacia Sandero, which he abandons his Lambo to go and drive.

“Nice, throaty little warble – a happy little car, the Dacia Sandero.”

But not for long. After what looks like a period of pure, unadulterated enjoyment during which he states his manifesto for uncluttered, gadget-free, basic motoring, he stops to rejoin the others in a car park – and an articulated lorry backs over it, destroying it as thoroughly as one of Clarkson’s Austins.

And you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be with May on this one.

Then it’s time to take a few supercars off-road (if you buy the myth that there’s not a comfy SUV full of handlers just behind the film crew). And to drive hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of automotive luxury over a couple of planks across a stream. And May gets his unspoken, subtle revenge by driving the Lambo into a local taxi. Top Gear – taking you where other motoring programs won’t venture.

At this point, locating the best road in the world looks set to be a McGuffin and the trio ends up parked on a dirt track, supposedly unable to find the hotel, low on fuel and drinking a paint-stripping liqueur that Clarkson found at a petrol station.

And when it comes to sleeping in the backs of cars, the 5ft 7in Hammond has a considerable advantage over the 6ft 6in Clarkson, as you might imagine. In fact, he gets wedged with his folded-forward driver’s seat jammed on the horn, which does not make him particularly popular with his colleagues.

And, wouldn’t you know it, come break of day they turn out to be parked at the bottom of a towering, disused, Communist-era dam. With just four and a half minutes of the programme left, they set out once more in search of the road they came all the way to Romania in three arse-tinglingly expensive supercars to find.

To be fair, when they do arrive at the Transfagarasan Highway, which we learn took 6,000 tons of dynamite to build and killed 40 people in the process, it is pretty special: “From above it looks like every great corner from every great racetrack in the world has been knitted together in one unbroken ribbon of automotive perfection.”

The programme winds up with the perfect feel-good ending with the three whizzing along in their cars, each opining that it is definitely the best one to have brought along.

You go all that way, take all that trouble… and then find yourself in convoy behind Captain Slow. Bloody typical. But even he’s inspired to put his foot down a bit on this occasion.

• Top Gear – Season 14, episode 1. Available on iPlayer until 9:59pm, Sunday January 10 2010
• Read our S13 preview here

Transfagarasan Highway: learn more

• View it on Google Maps
• Read about it on Wikipedia
• Get travel information from InYourPocket.com
• Read a blog post from a biker
• View photos on Flickr
• Read a Guardian article on Ceausescu’s Folly
• Check out videos on YouTube

It’s barely been two weeks since the F1 season drew to a close with a mostly unexciting race in the opulence of Abu Dhabi that gave little indication of the thrilling eight months that preceded it.

Last weekend we fans suffered our first real withdrawal symptoms as we coped with our second of nineteen race-less Sundays. We were, however, able to speculate on Jenson Button’s future with many people seeing his visit last Friday to McLaren as a stunt by his manager to try to coax more money out of Brawn.

This week, however, both Button and Brawn have hardly been out of the headlines.

First up on Monday was the announcement on Monday that a majority share in the Brawn team was being bought by Mercedes and Abu Dhabi investment company Aabar Investments. This was hardly a surprise as it’s been rumoured since the summer. More of a shock was the BBC’s report that Jenson was going to go to McLaren and that the new Mercedes team would have an all-German line-up, most likely of Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld.

Sleek and silver concept car

The sale to Mercedes is welcome in that it provides as much financial security as a team can hope for in the current economic climate. Aabar measures its profits in billions and Mercedes has had a solid presence in Formula One through their partnership with McLaren for nigh on 15 years. Ross Brawn can go back to being team principal and doing what he’s best at – managing the production of championship-winning cars. He didn’t seek out the role of team owner and I suspect he’ll be glad to relinquish that responsibility.

As a Brawn fan, though, I’m sad about the Brawn name disappearing. To get a measure of how important he has been in the team’s recent history, let’s just imagine that Michael Schumacher didn’t retire in 2006:

The incomparable combination of Schumi and Ross Brawn continued at Ferrari, with the German winning his eighth world title in 2007 after a remarkable season-long battle with rookie Lewis Hamilton. He announced that the 2008 season would be his last but drove brilliantly as he strove to retain his title, only to have it wrested from him by Hamilton at the last corner of the last race. Ross Brawn spent the 2009 season on sabbatical, fishing his way around the globe.

When Honda announced its pull-out from F1 in December 2008 amid global economic meltdown, nobody wanted to buy the team. Its lamentably poor car had performed dismally and nobody had seen the potential for a new-style diffuser that the 2009 regulations offered. The team management therefore didn’t have the promise of a car that would outclass the rest of the field for at least the first part of the season. Nor could they offer a team principal who had been the driving force behind seven world championships. To cut a long story short, a buyer could not be found, Honda were not interested in continuing investment and the factory closed in March 2009, making all its employees redundant.

Back in the real world, even with Ross Brawn aboard, the team came within two tenths of oblivion. I think it was the potential for a car designed with Brawn’s talent for extracting the maximum possible advantage from the regulations that proved crucial. For that reason alone, I would have liked to see his name preserved in the team.

My other concern is the idea of fronting an all-German driver line up. I have no objection at all to Nico Rosberg nor indeed Nick Heidfeld, but I have a huge problem with the idea of selecting people purely on the basis of nationality alone. Happily, Norbert Haug was quick to reassure on this point, saying:

“We want to have the best ones and we definitely do not want to have the pure German team – it’s an international Silver Arrows team and we want to have the best drivers in the car.”

To all intents and purposes, though, the heart of the Brawn team beats inside the cool silver exterior of Mercedes GP. Ross Brawn and the rest of the senior managers will stay in place and it would be a very silly Norbert Haug who tries to argue with him on anything technical. It remains to be seen, though, whether long-serving and experienced engineers like Andrew Shovlin, Jock Clear and Peter Bonington will remain with the team or whether they will follow their drivers to pastures new.

How well the new team does in 2010 depends partly on how it adjusts to a completely new pair of drivers. Rubens Barrichello’s departure for Williams to make way for Nico Rosberg had been the subject of rumour since the summer. I remain extremely unimpressed with this. I think that Jenson owes some of his pole positions and victories to Rubens’ help in setting up the car. Had Rubens stayed, I’m sure he would have passed on his valuable experience to Nico. Letting Rubens go may turn out to be a bit of a rare howler by Brawn.

I certainly was taken by surprise by the more recent speculation and subsequent announcement today about Jenson going to McLaren. I had not been taken with the manner in which he had conducted his contract negotiations. I doubt I was alone in thinking that he’d moan on for a bit and eventually sign again with Brawn.

I find his decision to go to McLaren inexplicable. He said today that he’d always been a fan of the Woking outfit. I guess he’d have to be, taking a salary rumoured to be not much more than half that given to Lewis Hamilton. If part of the motivation for his move is an almighty huff that Ross Brawn didn’t throw the weight of the team behind him to win the championship and knock Rubens’ chances on the head sooner, then it seems weird to go to a team where he’ll be expected to join the orbit around Hamilton. Both Brits on Pole’s LJH and Andrew Benson at the BBC have pointed out that Hamilton and Button need completely opposite things from a car. It’s clear to me that Jenson’s style is better suited to a Brawn-designed car. Jackie Stewart also thinks he’s made a huge mistake. Ross Brawn, prior to the announcement, said it would be a mistake, but you could argue that he would say that, wouldn’t he?

I hope I’m wrong – he might thrive at McLaren, but his decision has the air of giving up his birthright for a mess of potage about it. He’s not always made the cleverest career decisions, if you think about it, and it’s a rare reality that lives up to the dream that inspired it.

I rather think that the McLaren team is enjoying the chance to stick two fingers up at Brawn/Mercedes. Why else would it have made the announcement at the very moment Jenson was visiting the Brawn factory to meet the staff and sign autographs for them? I know that if I want people to be polite, I should watch cricket or bowls or something, but I think it was unnecessarily rude.

At least I can be assured that my team has a reasonably secure future so, in that respect, it’s a good deal struck by Nick Fry and Ross Brawn. It’s not as though they’ve let just anyone buy the team – the new owners have a credible history in the sport and the jobs of 450 people are secure.

Over at Mercedes’ former team, though, the dynamic between Lewis and Jenson will be watched with interest. I confidently expect that the season opener in Bahrain won’t be the first – or last – time we’ll hear reports of rows between them. Whether these reports are accurate, only time will tell.

Wanted: people of vision to keep the dream of Formula One at Donington Park alive and bring a race to the ailing circuit in 2011.

That’s the appeal made today by Nigel Price, one of the partners at corporate recovery specialists Begbies Traynor which has been appointed to handle the affairs of Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd after it went into administration.

He said: “This need not be the end of Formula One racing at Donington. We are certainly hopeful that a 2011 Grand Prix could take place at the site.

“We are looking for a purchaser for the business and the potential opportunity to bring Formula One to this part of the Midlands by funding the work that needs to be carried out to the circuit.

“It still remains a fantastic location – next to an airport and main motorway connections. It needs people of vision to get the dream to the starting grid and we would be very interested in talking to interested parties.”

On the face of it, it’s difficult to take Price’s statement terribly seriously. It’s his job to get the best possible value from the company’s assets, in order to get some sort of return for its creditors.

Talking them up to their maximum is clearly part of that task and, for any administrator, the best option is to sell a business as a going concern rather than to break it up.

The idea that Formula One could come to call in 2011 seems vastly over-optimistic – just as the accompanying statement that “work has already begun to develop the circuit to Formula One Grand Prix standard” rather ignores the fiasco that Simon Gillett’s scheme had become by the end.

But it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that it could happen.

Cannily, Price does not specifically say he’s chasing the 2011 British Grand Prix – he leaves the door open for the circuit to hold a second UK race if the new McLaren pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button can deliver a third consecutive drivers’ title to this country.

Both Spain and Germany hosted a European Grand Prix on the back of producing a world champion and, although Bernie Ecclestone is busy moving races out of Europe and into the world’s emerging economies, the logic for doing the same in Britain is sound.

Furthermore, there is still no sign of an agreement between Ecclestone and Silverstone to hold the British Grand Prix, either next year or in any subsequent year. If the two parties fail to strike a deal, 2010 is off – and so are all bets for 2011.

At Brits on Pole, we have long counselled keeping a close eye on what role is played by Jayne McGivern, the expert in large-scale sports developments brought in by Gillett to help his plans.

Another of her specialities is stepping in to rescue failing projects. Admittedly her prior experience in this related to housing and holiday schemes, but what better opportunity than Donington for her to dip into her contact book and start making phone calls.

Nigel Price says Donington needs people of vision – but its problem is that, up until now, the circuit’s management has been long on vision and short on solid achievement.

Let us hope that whoever answers the call has a solid grounding in making difficult projects work and in raising real, as opposed to phantom, funding.

What motivates a football club to diversify into backing a race team?

Superleague Formula put this question to Ian Ayre, the commercial director of Liverpool FC, in the wake of its affiliated team winning the 2009 championship with driver Adrian Valles.

Adrian Valles and the Liverpool crew celebrate their title

And his answers could point to a shift in the thinking in the management of British sports clubs, as they seek ways to raise awareness, reach new markets and bring in new supporters for their core activities.

In Europe it’s a common phenomenon to see clubs compete across a wide range of disciplines.

The Sporting Club of Portugal (which you might know as Sporting Lisbon) competes in football’s Champions League but also promotes archery, athletics, billiards, boxing, chess, full-contact karate, gymnastics, handball, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo and weightlifting in addition to racing in Superleague Formula.

Similarly, Turkey’s Galatasaray, another Champions League football team associated with a Superleague car, fields teams in athletics, basketball, bridge, equestrianism, judo, rowing, sailing, swimming, volleyball, water polo and wheelchair basketball.

Another famous example is Barcelona, although this team has no presence in motorsport. In Britain it’s a lot less common to see sports clubs operate like this – although attempts were made in Newcastle in the 1990s when Sir John Hall, inspired by Barcelona, attempted to set up an umbrella club combining football, rugby, ice hockey and basketball.

So, adding an extra activity seems a very natural extension of their existing activities to many continental clubs, while to us in the UK it still seems quite unusual. Could the diversification of British football clubs point to new life for this trend in the UK?

The likelihood is that we have some way to go before we see clubs taking this direction. The key difference at the moment is that Superleague is a licensing arrangement rather than a core activity of the club in question.

Adrian Valles is in his second year driving for Liverpool

The Liverpool FC car is run by British F3 and GP3 competitor Hitech Racing while the second-placed Tottenham Hotspur car is run by A1GP and British F3 outfit Alan Docking Racing and Delta Motorsport.

But with Premiership football teams increasingly run as businesses, it’s easy to imagine enthusiasm for the adoption of practices to build a club’s reach and brand if they can be proved to have worked elsewhere.

In that respect, Liverpool’s 2009 Superleague championship could be the key that unlocks an interest in diversification among other clubs.

Liverpool’s Ayres told his SLF interviewer: “It’s always important to have different commercial strands in a football club. We have grown our family of sponsors and we’ve improved our retail business – we now have four stores on Merseyside. Our online business is also growing, so in all those areas we’re doing well.

“Superleague is an example of how we’re doing with regards licensing, which is another area where Liverpool Football Club has value. People see that value and can create products of their own, and this has a financial reward for us. The combination of all these things is what will continue to increase our revenue and our position.”

Even though the focus at the moment is on licensing, it’s still very interesting to see sports management thinking outside the box when it comes to ways of extending their reach. How long before one of the major British teams decides there’s value in injecting the comparatively modest funding necessary to perk up its local ice hockey, basketball or speedway team?

Here’s the Q&A issued by Superleague in full:

SF: Another season and another title for Liverpool FC. What does it mean to have become Superleague Formula champions?

Ian Ayre: It’s important for this club to win things. Anything that represents us successfully as a football club is important. We’ve got a great team and a great driver and for the last two seasons we’ve been very successful in Superleague Formula. The pinnacle of that was winning the championship and winning it well. We had our Madrid supporters’ club there and for all these fans it was a great day. I was there alongside other members of our team and it’s great to see how the interest is building. About 30,000 people turned up, so it’s clearly growing as a sport and an event. We’re contracted to stay involved for several more years and it looks like an exciting proposition. They’re expanding where they race and are talking about places in the Middle East and Asia. These are areas where we’re very big as a football club so it’s a great synergy and a great fit.

SF: Tottenham were your closest rivals for much of the season. It must be satisfying to have beaten a fellow Premiership club?

IA: Their driver, Craig Dolby, was the only one who could have beaten us. He needed to win the second race last weekend and he was actually leading, but Adrian was able to get sufficiently up the rankings to win overall. It was a little bit like the Formula One championship in that Jenson Button didn’t win the race but clinched the series. The celebrations were unbelievable. It looked like Adrian had his entire village from Spain up on the podium with him. There was lots of champagne being sprayed about.

SF: Adrian visited Melwood and Anfield in the week leading up to Jarama. No problem with the language barrier?

IA: We’re all aware of the clear Spanish connection Liverpool Football Club has and having Adrian is great. He had a great day at Anfield the week before. The players keep in touch with him. I know Pepe Reina is a bit of a petrol head and has been in regular contact. Rafa also sent a great message of congratulations to him on the day. He’s fitted in really well and is clearly a rising star of motor racing.

SF: Why did the Superleague Formula concept appeal to Liverpool?

IA: There’s two things, for me. The first is us licensing our club logos and brand to Superleague. They have a similar arrangement with a lot of other teams. This is a financial opportunity for the club. The second thing, which is perhaps more important, is that it spreads the awareness of our football club. Superleague races in markets that perhaps we don’t go to very often as a football club. It attracts a different type of audience and means motor racing fans who perhaps aren’t big football supporters become attracted to Liverpool. By the same token, established Liverpool fans can see a bit of motor racing and have a good day out. It’s a family event with great access. They have a pit walk and you can walk along the grid as they are preparing for the race.

SF: Is this an example of the way the club is moving forward off the pitch?

IA: Commercially we are making great progress. It’s great to see things like this improving our financial position commercially. It’s always important to have different commercial strands in a football club. We have grown our family of sponsors and we’ve improved our retail business – we now have four stores on Merseyside. Our online business is also growing, so in all those areas we’re doing well. Superleague is an example of how we’re doing with regards licensing, which is another area where Liverpool Football Club has value. People see that value and can create products of their own, and this has a financial reward for us. The combination of all these things is what will continue to increase our revenue and our position.

It’s official at last – McLaren has confirmed that Jenson Button will be leaving the team with which he won the 2010 drivers championship to drive alongside fellow Brit Lewis Hamilton next year.

And the Woking outfit describes its new driver line-up, which now consists of the two most recent world champions, as “sensational” – the very thing with which to tackle Fernando Alonso at Ferrari.

It should also be a dream team for British fans – but everything depends on how well Button will adapt to the psychological demands of being the new boy in a very firmly established set-up.

And there are also questions about the direction of development of the MP4-25, which Hamilton has stated that he wishes to be heavily involved in after the previous model was found to be so badly lacking at the start of the 2009 season.

Hamilton’s adventurous driving style, which thrives on understeer and an unruly car, is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Button’s smooth, orderly approach to the racetrack. The latter’s anguish when faced with a setup that didn’t suit him was audible on the Brawn GP team radio on several occasions this season.

Before his arrival at Honda and subsequently Brawn GP, Button’s career was blighted by contract problems and unwise decisions about which team to drive for. With his success at Brawn, it appeared that he had finally he had finally found a winning formula.

The decision to move to McLaren is therefore a surprising one, and perhaps rings alarm bells for his long-time fans. But, there again, his career was written off by some following the exit of Honda. And look how accurate that prediction was.

Of course, Button will have the upper hand in one crucial respect. As drivers’ champion, he gets to have the number 1 on his car. Hamilton, as his team-mate, gets 2. And the Silver Arrows drivers will have to start at 3.

However these concerns are presently down the road. For the moment, everyone is celebrating.

Button: challenging himself

Button said in the team’s press release: “It’s always a difficult decision to leave a team when you’ve been there for so long. But life is all about challenges – and, most important of all, it’s about challenging yourself.

“So, although I won the World Championship with Brawn GP last year, and I’ll never forget that, I was always adamant that I wanted to continue to set myself fresh challenges. That’s why I’ve decided to join Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

“You can’t help but be affected by this team’s phenomenal history. McLaren is one of the greats of world sport, and its achievements and list of past champions read like a Who’s Who of Formula 1… I’ve followed the McLaren team ever since I was a small boy, and it feels unbelievable to finally be a part of it.”

He said that his visit to the McLaren Technology Centre had helped him make the decision after being struck by the strength of the team’s ambition and motivation.

“And then there’s the team’s epic history: put it this way, the trophy cabinets seem to stretch for miles. From a personal point of view, it’s also a great pleasure to be joining a fellow British World Champion.

“Lewis has achieved an incredible level of success in a very short period of time, and he’s a wonderfully gifted driver who has earned the respect of every Formula 1 driver. I’m sure there’s plenty that we can learn from each other, and I’m really looking forward to using our combined knowledge to push the team forward.

“Also, I think it’s fantastic that we’ll be forming an all-British line-up. I know that we both fly the flag with pride, and I sincerely hope we can make the whole of the United Kingdom, as well as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes fans across the world, proud. Nothing means more to me than to be able to represent my country, and I’m looking forward to both of us painting Formula 1’s circuits red, white and blue for many years to come.”

Good stuff, Jense. Let’s just hope Silverstone is on the list.

“While I’m fully aware that there’s a tremendous amount of hard work ahead, I’m absolutely certain that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will be able to deliver where it matters: on track.

“I’m already looking forward to starting work with the engineers at the McLaren Technology Centre as we begin our preparations for the 2010 season – and the defence of my world championship. “This is a team that always goes racing to win, and I’m looking forward to being part of that.”

He ended his statement with thanks to everyone at Brawn GP and Mercedes High-Performance engines for working so hard to achieve the double world championship win, saying the 2009 season would always have a special place in his heart.

“So I wish all my old Brawn GP mates well in their new Mercedes Grand Prix adventure, just as I hope they’ll wish me well in my new Vodafone McLaren Mercedes adventure.”

Hamilton: Bring it on

Lewis Hamilton has welcomed his new team-mate by greeting his signing as “fantastic news” and saying he was looking forward to racing him in a car that is competitive enough to win the championship.

But he also paid fulsome tribute to the departing Heikki Kovalainen: “I want to send my best wishes for the future to my 2008-09 team-mate and now good friend, who is one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met.”

He continued: “I already know Jenson, and we get on very well together. We both really want our team to succeed. Although we’ll be pushing each other hard, I’m sure we’ll very quickly establish a great working relationship.

“He’s an exceptional driver: very controlled and very smooth, and he has a real depth of knowledge and experience. I think we’ll complement each other very well, and our collaboration will make the team stronger as a result.

“Also, I’m delighted to be racing alongside a fellow British World Champion, and I believe we can pull together to make Vodafone McLaren Mercedes the best team on the grid.”

He characterised McLaren as like one big happy family and said that Button could look forward to a warm welcome from day one.

“Obviously, as a British driver, I’m also thrilled that we’ll be flying the flag for the United Kingdom, and I think today’s announcement is fantastic news for all British sports fans. I hope they’ll be giving us their full support when the season kicks off next March. I’m already looking forward to Silverstone – it’ll be massive!”

Hang on. Does he know something that the rest of us don’t? Or is he just a natural optimist?

“Looking ahead, I think the results from the second half of 2009 speak for themselves, and I’m convinced we can carry that momentum through the winter and into the new season.

“I’ve been closely following the development of our 2010 challenger, the MP4-25, and I think it’s going to be a state-of-the-art car that will enable both of us to consistently fight for victories.”

Whitmarsh: Simply the best

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal, said that signing Button was simply the continuation of McLaren’s policy of recruiting the best drivers available.

“In Jenson and Lewis, we feel we not only have the fastest pairing on the 2010 grid, but also the two most complete, professional and dedicated drivers in Formula 1.

“Moreover, I’m confident that we’ll be able to successfully balance and harness Jenson’s and Lewis’s complementary skill-sets. Our engineers are already looking forward to working with Jenson, and I’m convinced that such a strong and dynamic driver line-up will make us an even more complete and competitive operation. Now we have to provide Jenson and Lewis with race-winning machinery.”

He dismissed the notion that Button had signed up on the promise of a big salary: “I want to make clear that Jenson’s decision to join us was in no way motivated by money. We’ll be paying him no more than he could be getting elsewhere, and that fact is a reflection of not only Jenson’s belief in Vodafone McLaren Mercedes but also his desire and ambition to build on the phenomenal results he achieved during the 2009 season.

“I also want to thank Heikki for his selfless contribution over the past two years. As well as being very quick, Heikki was and remains a great character whom we’ll all miss considerably. It goes without saying that we wish him all the best for next season, and would be very pleased if he were to secure a good drive for 2010.

“We’re ambitious, we’re motivated and we’re hungrier than ever. We make no secret of our ambition for next year: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes wants to win both World Championships – and, with Jenson and Lewis, we believe we’re better equipped than any other team in the pitlane to do exactly that.”