Warning! Very long entry alert!

This is the first of a four-part series about the support races for the British Grand Prix. I thought that those people who are going to watch it from the circuit itself might be interested in some further detail about what, other than the F1, is happening.

The main support event for F1 in Silverstone is GP2. It's in its fifth season of competition and is the successor to Formula 2 (as distinct from Formula Two). Everyone uses a Dallara chassis with a Renault engine and Bridgestone tyres.

Of the 11 drivers who left GP2 during 2008, a diverse number of destination series can be seen:

- 3 went to F2
- 1 went to F1
- 1 went to Le Mans
- 1 went to DTM
- 1 went to Indycars
- 1 went to World Series by Renault
- 1 went to Superleague Formula
- 1 went to A1GP
- 1 went to the Renault Megané Supercup

Note that Giorgio Pantano left to do both the Renault Megané Supercup and Superleague. Marko Asmer's destination after leaving GP2 last year is unknown.

The reigning champion, Giorgio Pantano, will not be present. The highest-finishing 2008 driver to be racing at Silverstone will be Lucas di Grassi, who finished third last year. However, we will get to see Makes' Champion Campos Racing compete, albeit under the name of Barwa Addax and minus its founder Adrian Campos (who is F1-bound).

There are a maximum of 20 points on offer per weekend.

Pole for the feature race is worth 2 points.

The results for the feature race yield the same points pattern as F1, with a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system.

The sprint race has a 6-5-4-3-2-1 system.

Both races give out 1 point for fastest lap, but it is necessary to finish in the top 10 and start from the grid slot earned in qualifying to be eligible.

Barwa Addax Team (neé Campos Racing)
Current 2009 position: 1st
Team colours: Predominantly white, with red writing on the rear wing

They are the runaway leaders of the GP2 championship, despite losing their leader Adrian Campos to a F1 project at the end of last year. It's won four times in six races, making it almost as dominant in GP2 as Brawn are in F1.

1 Vitaly Petrov (Russia)
Current 2009 position: 1st
Helmet colours: White base with red top and go-faster stripes

Vitaly has won the Turkey feature race. However, the most striking thing about his performance has been his three lesser-positioned podiums - second in the other two feature races and third in the Turkey sprint race. Expect him to feature prominently at Silverstone.

2 Romain Grosjean (France)
2008: (GP2; ART Grand Prix)
Current 2009 position: 2nd
Helmet colours: Red and blue with a flourescent yellow arrow on the side - think a brighter version of Montoya's helmet

Initially very strong, winning the first two feature races. However, Romain has been less consistent than his team-mate, which is why he's not leading the championship. May not get to complete season anyway because he is first in line to replace Nelson Piquet Jr. if he gets sacked.

iSport International
Current 2009 position: 10th
Team colours: Red and black

iSport was considering F1 earlier in the season, which may have taken its eye off the GP2 ball. It's not entirely clear how, other than a mass clear-out, it will solve the difficulties it is currently in.

3 Giedo van der Garde (Netherlands)
2008: World Series by Renault
Current 2009 position: 13th
Helmet colours: White base with red and blue triangles on the side

Giedo has been hovering around this level of racing for a long time, probably because he's found his level. He didn't compete in the Monaco feature race, which may have broken his stride - he scored in both Spanish races but not thereafter.

4 Diego Nunes (Brazil)
2008: (GP2, DPR)
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)
Helmet pattern: Yellow base, with red go-faster stripes on the sides (a bit like Tiago Monteiro's helmet)

A surprising underperformance. Mostly Diego has been found in 11th place, only breaking this pattern to have one DNF, an 8th (in the Spain sprint) and a 14th.

Piquet GP
Current 2009 position: 9th

The team that launched Nelson Piquet Jr.'s career is currently a fairly anonymous outfit. Fortunately it has Valerio on board to propel it into points-paying position, so this season may get going for Piquet GP yet.

5 Roldán Rodríguez (Spain)
2008: (GP2; FMS)
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)

More was expected from Roldán. Granted, his two previous years in GP2 hadn't been stellar, but he had usually brought the car home. Besides, he'd come third in the Asia series for Piquet Sports. How he's ended up with four DNFs and a best finish of 11th is one of the biggest mysteries of the series.

6 Alberto Valerio (Brazil)
2008: (GP2; Durango)
Current 2009 position: 12th

Got 4th and 6th in Turkey, came in low positions in Spain, didn't finish either Monaco race. The thing most striking about Alberto's performance is that both races in a given weekend tend to be of similar quality. Could therefore be a serious threat if Silverstone is a good weekend for him.

Fat Burner Racing Engineering (neé Racing Engineering)[5]
Current 2009 position: 5th
Team colours: Dark blue with red nosecone section

Last year's driver's champion drove for this team, but with its lead driver struggling to get into his stride, the most tongue-twistingly-named squad in the GP2 paddock has not done as well as it might have expected.

7 Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil)
2008: 3rd (GP2, Campos Racing)
Current 2009 position: 6th
Helmet colours: White base with black cog-like shape on top and black vertical stripes

Considering di Grassi helped develop the car currently raced in GP2, it is surprising he has struggled so much in the past two seasons. Nonetheless, he has won a race (the Turkey sprint), so it would be foolish to discount him.

8 Dani Clos (Spain)
2008: F3 Euroseries
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)

This newcomer to GP2 has done two tests with Williams. Three DNFs contrast with seventh place in the Turkey sprint - which yielded no points as it would have done had it been a feature race. The signs are that Dani is finding his feet.

ART Grand Prix
Current 2009 position: 2nd
Team colours: Mostly white, with a black rear wing and red flashes

The team that carried Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton to GP2 championship glory is having a tougher time of late. Even so, it has won a race.

9 Pastor Maldonado (Venuzuela)
2008: (GP2; Piquet Sports)
Current 2009 position: 4th

Winner of the Monaco sprint race. Otherwise generally seen in the lower points-paying positions.

10 Nicolas "Nico" Hülkenberg (Germany)
2008: F3 Euroseries
Current 2009 position: 5th
Helmet colours: White base with black top and red sides

This may well be the first time Williams tester "Nico" Hulkenburg has met his match. He finished behind Pastor in all of the first four races (though this included a podium in the Monaco sprint). In Turkey, he finished a position ahead of Pastor, so perhaps he can turn it around. There could be a Williams F1 drive waiting in 2010 if he does, especially since he is currently the best-performing newcomer to GP2...

Telmex Arden International[10]
Current 2009 position: 6th
Team colours: More than a little reminiscent of Red Bull's

Arden used to be a powerhouse of F3000. Now it is well in the midfield, though it is steadily improving its performances. Even if it is something of a one-car team this year.

11 Sergio Pérez (Mexico)
2008: British F3
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)
Helmet colours: White base with red top and flashes

The 2007 winner of the National Class of British F3 has had a difficult promotion to GP2 this year. His best result was 9th in the Monaco sprint, but he does have the merit of usually bringing the car home.

12 Edoardo Mortara (Italy)
2008: F3 Euroseries
Current 2009 position: 8th
Helmet colours: Mostly red

Won the Spanish sprint race, but his other finishes are 6th, 9th and 13th. Still, he's the second-highest-performing newcomer after Hulkenburg, which should do his reputation some good.

Super Nova Racing
Current 2009 position: 4th
Team colours: Black with yellow flashes

Last year, there were some doubts about the team's funding. However, it has recovered well and is now well in the mix for "best of the rest".

14 Luca Filippi (Italy)
2008: (GP2; Arden)
Current 2009 position: 7th
Helmet colours: White base with angular blue horizontal stripes on top and red back

Luca's performance this year has been peak-and-valley, ranging from second in the Turkey feature race to two DNFs. He didn't compete in the Monaco sprint either.

15 Javier Villa (Spain)
2008: (GP2; Racing Engineering)
Current 2009 position: 10th
Helmet colours: White with blue top and sides and red trim

Javier didn't really get into his stride until Turkey, when he got 7th and 2nd. Otherwise tends to hover just outside the points.

DAMS
Current 2009 position: 3rd
Team colours: Black with red flashes

The team that nearly entered F1 in 1996 is currently a GP2 stalwart - and arguably the surprise of the season. Currently third in the championship.

16 Jérôme d'Ambrosio (Belgium)
Current 2009 position: 3rd
Helmet colours: White with red flashes

Impressively, Jérome managed to be third in both of the Spanish races. He went even better in the Monaco sprint to come second. However, a DNF and a 15th in Turkey means that his position in the championship is perhaps lower than his general performance this year suggests.

17 Kamui Kobayashi (Japan)
Current 2009 position: 14th
Helmet colours: Mostly red with black diagonal stripes on the sides

To be fair, Kamui's speed is better than his current position suggests. He's scored points in both Spanish races, but is this low in the standings because he missed the Turkey sprint and only has one other finish. Still, Jérôme's performance has probably stemmed his continued rise through the Toyota driver development scheme.

Trident Racing
Current 2009 position: 12th

Trident is having a difficult time of it, not helped by a questionable choice of drivers. Such is the peril of GP2 - sometimes a big budget gets a place before a big talent out of sheer team necessity.

18 Ricardo Teixeira (Portugal)
2008: British F3
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)

File under "oh dear". His best performance was 14th in the Turkey feature and he's the only driver to not qualify for a race due to lapping more than 107% off the pole time. In Ricardo's case, it was both of the Monaco races. The dubious honour was last held by Christian Bakkerud in 2007.

19 Davide Rigon (Italy)
2008: Superleague Formula
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)

Davide has beaten his team-mate and not made a complete fool of himself. It is difficult to say whether the lack of points is more due to him or his team.

Fisichella Motor Sport
Current 2009 position: 7th
Team colours: Black and silver

FMS appears to be headed for another turbulent year where it somehow finds itself in the midfield despite that turbulence. This year, Zuber has looked reasonable though inconsistent, but Razia looks in line for the annual mid-season clearout.

20 Andreas Zuber (UAE)
2008: (GP2; Piquet Sports)
Current 2009 position: 9th

After not finishing either Spanish race, Andreas thrived at Monaco, securing a 3rd and a 5th. However, a 9th and 19th in Turkey suggests that he is not an especially consistent performer.

21 Luiz Razia (Brazil)
2008: Euroseries 3000
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)

Luiz has tended to hover near the back this year, having struggled with the transition from Euroseries 3000.

Durango
Current 2009 position: 8th
Team colours: Black and white

Tends to quietly keep to itself near the back of the midfield.

22 Davide Valsecchi (Italy)
Current 2009 position: 11th
Helmet colours: Dark red with black detail

Owes his position in the championship to getting third in the Turkey sprint. He's only finished three of the six races though, so expect some flying carbon fibre from him at some point during the weekend.


23 Nelson Panciatici (France)
2008: Spanish F3
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)

Nelson has had problems finishing races (with three DNFs), but his good days haven't been quite as good as for his team-mate Valsecchi.

Ocean Racing Technology
Current 2009 position: 11th
Team colours: Turquoise and black

The most striking thing about this team this year has been its livery. It was going to have Yelmeer Burman as a driver until the last minute. The instability this implies is probably the reason for its struggle.

24 Karun Chandhok (India)
2008: (GP2; iSport)
Current championship position: 15th
Helmet colours: Orange, yellow and black

Three DNFs, one 7th. Karun can be an exciting performer, but not necessarily the most consistent one.

25 Álvaro Parente (Portugal)
2008: (GP2; Super Nova)
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)


Won the World Series by Renault in 2007, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't by getting the string of DNFs he's produced so far this year. To be honest, his Spanish GT championship campaign is currently going better.

DPR
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)

DPR has had a rough winter, leading to it being bought out by Michael Herck's father on the eve of the season opener. It is perhaps unsurprising that it hasn't got back onto its feet yet following such turmoil.

26 Michael Herck (Romania)
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)
Helmet design: White with dark blue top and streaks

DPR has been a difficult team to drive for in 2009. Michael's dad owns the team two months ago. To his credit, Michael has performed marginally better than his team-mate, but it's difficult to assess the quality of either under the current circumstances.

27 Giacomo Ricci (Italy)
Current 2009 position: =16th (no points)

Four retirements and two finishes near the back, but what can be expected in a team that's had bigger things to worry about this year?

Warning! Long entry alert!

Saturday morning dawned cool and cloudy, with a hint of rain in the air. In fact, it had rained for ten minutes at 5am. I went to the shower block for the second time in the weekend (having had a shower on Thursday evening), but decided against it when the queue appeared to be 40 minutes long. I suppose when a campsite has eight shower cubicles to go between 350 or so pitches (and an estimated 700-800 people), this was bound to happen.

Dad decided that his fisherman's stool was unbearable to sit on, so he took a camping chair with him to the track. After all, there would be much more sitting down on Saturday than Friday. I was still OK with my seating arrangements, so my circuit bag was the same as the previous day.

Today, we were allowed to use the Copse gate. On the way, we saw compressed-air-powered klaxons on sale for £5. While some people had brought one from home, I did notice a fair few additional honks cutting through the cheers and applause after seeing the klaxon-seller.

In view of this, large black bucket of earplugs behind Copse's ticket inspection area was a particularly welcome sight. You had to be on the look out for it, but Dad and I got four earplugs (to add to the six we got when reporting my purse to the circuit police the previous day - the main entrance nearby also had an earplug bucket).

While I didn't use the earplugs until yesterday* because of the ear defender/earphone combination, Dad was pleased to have his earplug supply augmented by the bright green bits of foam. Unfortunately there were holes in the earplugs because they'd been designed to have a cable connecting them, so they could have been more effective. Still, it was better than nothing - and it was surprising how many spectators thought "nothing" was a good idea in the terrace.

I reckon about 20% of the terrace had ear defenders (including everyone with a klaxon - how else could they bear being near those things?). Perhaps another 35% had ear plugs, and it's possible that some of the 20% with just earphones had some sort of noise-cancelling technology in them. That still left 25% of the terrace with naked eardrums exposed to the racket generated by 20 F1 cars, 26 GP2 cars, 30 FBMW cars and who knows how many Porsches and historic cars?

However, this is jumping ahead of the story a little. Before Dad and I reached the terrace, we saw what appeared to be an informal marshal's meeting at the café by the paddock bridge. Dad got a coffee in the F1 Village and I had a hot chocolate. The coffee was £1.60 and quite good, apparently. My drink was £2 and was pretty average (blame the University of Sheffield's Interval bar for giving me high standards...)

By 8:15am, we were in the terrace. Little happened until we saw what appeared to be a lost bus. Stagecoach appeared to have the on-track transportation contract, as demonstrated when it later took the marshalls round on a tour, dropping them off at their posts en route. What didn't make sense was why it went round empty at 8:50am.

Watching the marshals was interesting. There were six of them at the position by my terrace, plus a doctor who seemed to spend most of the time bouncing around the place. He may well have had more energy than some of the marshals!

I had the chance to talk to some of my fellow spectators. Apart from people sympathising with me for the Force India intra-team collision yesterday (Sutil's 3rd was quickly forgotten), the main topics of conversation were the FIA statement of the previous night (the comments can be summarised by the words "silly Max") and betting. Apparently Jenson Button had odds of 5/6 on, hence why some people were betting on Vettel and Hamilton on "either-way" bets instead.

Webber's fuel pump problem, which stopped him in second practise, wasn't really discussed. Presumably people take Webber being unlucky as much for granted as Button winning or Piquet Jr. spinning.

The wind was gusting along the straight towards Becketts as Timo Glock opened practise proceedings. As this was the final session before qualifying, a very serious tone fell upon the session. Apart from Glock and Hamilton doing some minor exploration of run-off, nobody strayed from the track. Williams looked very strong, but Trulli, Vettel and Massa were never far away, so they could hardly be dismissed. This was even more true given Williams' record of doing worse in qualifying and the race than in practise.

The Force Indias were 15th and 16th, with Sutil the right side of the qualifying cut-off. It was looking good for one FIF1 to make it into Q2, but during practise, an interesting revelation was made. The reason for the massive gap between Adrian and Giancarlo in second Friday practise was because Adrian had received some upgrades halfway through Friday morning. Giancarlo only got the upgrades on Saturday morning. Perhaps this was just as well given that the upgrades included new front wings and both drivers lost their front wings at the end of Friday...

As the V8s faded, the TV announced that Bernie was trying to get a deal between Donington and Silverstone that guaranteed the latter would have the race if the former was unable to fulfil its obligations. I took it with a pinch of salt, which made the ensuing "Aren't we great? Bernie wants us back" talk a bit frustrating. I took the opportunity to look around me at the banners. There were lots of Brawn ones, along with one for Robert Kubica, a huge one for Ferrari... ...and one for Nottingham Forest. No, they haven't decided to put a team in Superleague Formula; someone simply decided that the recently-relegated football team needed a presence at Silverstone. Dad noticed at the end of the weekend that the banner was simply left where it had been hung, so I guess whoever had it was an embarrassed Nottingham FC fan.

The Porsche race ended such talk, at least temporarily. The fastest driver seemed to be a Dutch man with a helmet vaguely resembling Rubens Barrichello's usual helmet with a name I couldn't spell (I ended up noting him down as B'garter, but he's really called Jeroen Bleekemolen). He was leading for most of the race, but then Rast overtook him two laps from the end. A couple of cars went off the road, but it wasn't the thrills-and-spills series I'd remembered from my last visit to Silverstone in 2002.

I'd just finished munching on sandwiches and a yoghurt when the five-minute call came for qualifying. Q1 was a session of emotions going all over the place.

The delight at seeing Fisi come out of the pits first. It shouldn't have meant anything what point he came out of the pits, but feeling the positive energy of a crowd greet the first car out of the pits made me feel really happy

The worry at seeing Fisi finish his first run in 19th, deep into the drop-out zone.

The pleasure of seeing his team-mate, Sutil, in 10th (note I support Force India first and foremost, it just happens I support Fisichella independently of that team support as well).

Feeling my eyes raise when Hamilton wobbled half-way into the session. He didn't come off the track, but it felt like a near thing.

The little grin I afforded myself when the Force Indias began their final run in the top 15.

The rising intensity of the crowd as Q1 inched towards the climax point where the counter hit zero and the red lights came on, stopping all new attempts to escape the dreaded drop-out zone. Cheers increased in volume, klaxons honked at more frequent intervals and I whispered under my breath:

"Forza Fisico, Forza Force India, Come on Jenson and Lewis, Forza Fisico, Forza Force India... ...and it'll need it if Adrian keeps hitting traffic... ...Come on Jenson and... ...No, Lewis, you can do better than that... ...Forza Fisico, Forza Force India... ...yellow thing, get out of Fisi's way..., Come on Jenson and Lewis, Forza OOF!"

The "OOF" reverberated around the terrace, the grandstands and the whole circuit as Adrian's car, minus the rear wing and seemingly half the back end, appeared on the giant TV screens. Adrian was clearly struggling to catch his breath - it had been a big impact. Yellow flags soon turned to red.

After about 20 seconds that felt like that many minutes, Adrian got out of the car and went back to the pits via the medical centre. A replay was not reassuring - apparent total brake failure preceded a half-spin in the gravel and a side/rear impact so bad that the rear wing deposited itself into the prohibited zone separating track from spectator. Yes, we all went to Silverstone to get close to the action, but that was perhaps a little closer than anyone intended...

It was at this point that I looked to the left of the screen. The news was bad. Adrian obviously couldn't do any more qualifying anyway, but he was only 18th. Worse still, Giancarlo, who'd been on a better lap prior to the red flag, was stuck in 16th. The 24 remaining seconds were barely enough to do an out-sector, never mind an out-lap. He took the news calmly enough by the look of the camera, but the look on his face when a post-qualifying interviewer told him that his team-mate had caused the red flag was priceless.

The one good thing for Force India was that they did out-qualify two cars on merit. Unfortuantely for me and the rest of the crowd, one of them was Hamilton. Of all the races his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger could have chosen to watch Lewis race, this was not the best one!

Sebastien Buemi surprised everyone by bothering to go out in the 24 seconds remaining. Either he was milking the crowd (in which case it worked) or he wanted a tiny bit more data (success in that case being harder to determine).

Q2 was fairly uneventful, though Nakajima was kept off the top slot (which he'd held in Q1) due to a dominating display from the Red Bulls, along with good runs from Trulli, Barrichello and Raikkonen. Kimi's team-mate Massa got knocked out of Q2 and it seemed particularly baffling. He was joined by the BMWs, Piquet Jr. and Kovalainen, all of whom had inferior machinery to that required to be in Q3 (OK, Piquet Jr's team-mate Fernando got into Q3, but only by the skin of his teeth).

Q3 quietly established that the Red Bulls were still powerful, but Barrichello placed himself between Vettel and Webber. Button was 6th, 0.78 seconds behind the pole-sitter, which muted the crowd a little, but Vettel got justified applause for his success.

There were a few spots of rain at the start of the GP2 feature race, but they cleared away without the drivers needing to remove their slick tyres. That said, my support of the FMSI team did not go particularly well at the beginning - one of their drivers, Razia, spun in the pitlane exit while attempting to reach the grid! He started from the pit lane.

There was a crash on the first lap as one of the "Russia"-branded cars went off, colliding into Petrov (Valerio's team-mate) in the process. There were a couple of other crashes as drivers struggled a bit with the damp conditions. However, Valerio kept everything pointing the right way to win for Nelson Piquet Jr.'s team. I was pleased to see that FMSI's race had gone better than the pre-race omens indicated. Razia had gone from the pit lane to 10th while his team-mate, Andreas Zuber, went from 16th to 8th. This was important because it gave him pole for the sprint.

In Formula BMW, it was a tense battle between Dutchman Frijes and Malaysian-sounding but British-passport-holding Mansoor. The latter led for most of the race but was passed on the last lap, much to the crowd's disappointment. FMSI had a middling race, with Piñero starting and finishing 11th and his team-mate going from 24th to 17th. Oh well, there was always tomorrow...

The historics race was difficult to keep track of. A Lister E-type won the race, but most of what I saw was various cars heading out of the pits for repairs and the occasional crasher (a Lola T79 being the best crash, if such a moniker can be given to crashes that are likely to cost private collectors a lot of money).

With the day's racing over, we made our way back to the campsite. There was a hog roast, which interested us until we noticed they were charging £5 for a bit of pig in a cob. So instead Dad and I joined the 45-minute queue for the showers and I talked to a fellow camper about hire cars, Stonehenge and the wisdom (or lack of same) of following herds.

Later that night, I tried to sleep to a backdrop of "Wonderwall" being sung in about sixty different keys. The alarm was set for 5:30am, ready for what promised to be a magical day...

* - I had to block out my parents chopping wood outside and the ear defenders seemed overkill for the job.

Warning! Long entry alert!

This time last year, I did an entry about Renault's somewhat awkward start to the 2007 season, and what consequences might ensue. One year on, it would be intriguing to analyse how the Renault plan has panned out.

While I was correct about certain elements of the Renault plan, there was one factor I failed to take account of properly - Fernando Alonso. I had assumed that he would be staying at McLaren for the foreseeable future and that the Renault connection, however fondly remembered, would never be re-activated.

We now know that Flavio never agreed with that assessment. He began re-negotiations with Fernando before the 2007 season ever got going, in the apparent belief that his position at McLaren would be temporary. This idea would have been reinforced by the initial cause of Alonso's departure - a lack of long-term commitment from the parent company - having been long since resolved. Alonso's previous successes had Flavio convinced that he was a talisman for Renault.

The reason why this proved so key to Renault was that as far as Flavio was concerned, at least one of the 2007 pairing of Fisichella and Kovalainen was always going to be dumped, no matter how well they did.

It should be remembered that an F1 team is made of many people and that there is a limit as to how much effect even the best drivers can have on a team with problems elsewhere. Between difficulties adjusting to the Bridgestone tyres and mistakes in the wind tunnel, it was soon clear that the Renault R27 was no world-beater. This was quite convenient for Flavio, because it would have made employing Fernando much easier to justify to the Renault board.

However, there was a spanner in the works that threatened Flavio's new plan. Renault have perhaps the lowest wages of any manufacturer outfit - as far as I can tell, they've never paid a driver more than 10 million dollars a year. The Renault board are somewhat averse to the big-spend culture that permeates much of F1.

McLaren, on the other hand, paid Alonso a compromise between what they thought he was worth and what Alonso and his intermediary manager thought he was worth (his senior manager, Flavio, had been frozen out of that particular negotiation because he would probably have barred it otherwise). The resulting sum was considerably more than the Renault board was prepared to match from its own coffers.

After several months of attempting to get round this problem (and some messes that need not detain us here), there turned out to be only one way Flavio could have Fernando. A consortium headed by Carlos Slim was prepared to sponsor Alonso - but only if a Latin American was his team-mate. Luckily Nelson Piquet Jr was the primary Renualt tester at the time. He'd done well for himself in GP2 (coming second in 2006) before doing Renault testing full-time in 2007. His potential was difficult to assess, but to judge by the evidence, he was better than the other Latin American drivers who'd not been in F1. Why his manager hadn't signed a deal that allowed him to automatically be promoted in case one of the prior pairing left will forever remain a mystery.

At this point, Flavio had two options:

1) Keep Fisichella and Kovalainen, stop chasing Alonso and annoy Piquet Jr (who'd made no secret of his belief that he should replace Fisichella in 2008). This is the strategy that I suggested Renault should take last April.

2) Drop both Fisichella and Kovalainen in favour of Alonso and Piquet Jr. This would effectively throw away the previous plan in the hope that Alonso would bring in better results (and compensate for Piquet Jr's inevitable learning curve).

Flavio went for the second option. So far, the consequences do not appear good for Renault. Heikki and Fisi have ended up demonstrating good leadership skills at McLaren and Force India respectively, casting doubt on the wisdom of dropping them. Piquet Jr is nowhere near meeting the pre-season hype. While Fernando is putting in the effort as Flavio hoped, it's all come to naught because the R28 is, relatively speaking, no improvement on the R27.

Flavio can blame nobody except himself (and due to Piquet indirectly paying for Alonso's drive, he can't even try). If Flavio can't even criticise Piquet Jr, then he certainly can't change him. Fernando is too central to Flavio's vision to change him either. He's scored points often in the opening races, but that didn't help Fisi keep his place at Renault.

So the only strategy Flavio can do now is to keep his hand-picked pairing, grit his teeth through the inevitable learning curve and hope it comes good... ...eventually. If it doesn't, Alonso will leave, Flavio may join him and Renault really will be up the creek without a paddle. This may work... ...but probably won't because Piquet Jr doesn't seem to be learning as quickly as Kovalainen and the real problems never were driver-related.

Changing the drivers instead of putting all efforts on changing the aero and the car's relationship with the tyres was like fixing a leaky dyke with a tube of superglue - while superglue is perfectly OK for patching some things, dykes are not among them. Changing drivers fixes driver problems (and occasionally team atmosphere problems, as per dropping Alonso for Kovalainen at McLaren) but won't fix a problem with bad aero or dodgy handling of tyres.

And the car improvements necessary are too numerous for Renault to deal with. Which is why Renault are hovering around lower points-paying positions right now.*

* - Sadly, this is the exact same concluding two sentences as I used last year. They're as true now as they were then. I don't even feel that sorry for them this time around...