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Expressing sentiments calculated to delight Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 commercial rights holder, not to mention just about every television company on the planet, Lewis Hamilton has predicted that the world championship contest will go all the way down to the wire and not be resolved until the Brazilian GP at Interlagos on November 2.

The British star was talking this week at Hockenheim where he had been continuing his Silverstone-winning form by setting the pace during testing in preparation for the forthcoming German GP.

"The last race. I can only guess, but I am sure it will be a lot like last year,"said Lewis in response to questioning on the subject. "Last year it was just as close between the top three drivers and there was one point separating us at the end. So I can only assume it will be at the last race again. I hope it's not, but..."

The promoters of the proposed British grand prix at Donington Park may have pledged to invest £100m to bring the Derbyshire circuit up-to-date, but those who recall the facilities available when the 1993 European Grand Prix was staged there in bitterly cold conditions will appreciate just how much work needs to be done.

Ayrton Senna memorably won that race in champion style, but the paddock facilities looked like something out of a Club meeting at Snetterton, with gravel strewn in all directions.

David Coulthard had lunch at McLaren last Wednesday. No, we don't have an exclusive that he is signing up as Lewis Hamilton's test driver, but he'd bid for a prize at a recent charity auction - and he’d won a trip, with lunch, around his previous employer's huge technology centre at Woking.

Two days later DC announced that he will be calling it a day and retiring at the end of the year, one more of F1’s good guys calling time on a long and distinguished career.

The thing I like about Damon Hill is that he manages to call a spade a spade without ever over-exaggerating for dramatic effect.

So when, as President of the British Racing Drivers Club, he admits that it is far from certain that the club will be able to conclude a deal with Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 commercial rights holder, to secure an extension of the British Grand Prix beyond 2009 then you are bound to listen. And listen hard. 

"I would say 50/50 was probably about right," Hill said last week, "I am not going to assume anything when it comes to Formula One. My experience is you should never make some presumptions, so it would be prudent to consider it a 50/50 figure. But, I am 100 per cent confident that we have got what it will take and we can deliver what F1 will be proud of, and the UK will be proud of."

Lewis Hamilton must learn to handle his racing misfortune without worrying what is written about him in the press - and he needs to clear his mind in the run-up to what promises to be a psychologically crucial British grand prix at Silverstone, the next round of the Formula One championship on July 6.

Not my words – this warning to the 23-year old McLaren-Mercedes driver came from former triple world champion Niki Lauda

Went to Le Mans for the eighth time in 28 years - and had the best time at La Sarthe I can ever remember. The thing you find yourself liking instantly about this place is that it is run on entirely different lines from the park-in-straight-lines-because-Bernie's-watching ethos of F1, a nice change.