Brits on Pole

Compound fractures, gold medals and the hitherto completely unsuspected fluffy side of Dietrich ‘Didi’ Mateschitz. Read on for the best of the week’s F1 and motorsport news…

F1 fans worrying that they might have to face the new season without the wit, insight and occasional dogged determination of Martin Brundle, fear not! He’ll be on the BBC - but hopefully without the damn grid walk…

Jenson Button has won a ringing endorsement from his Honda team’s management, which reckons he could take on Lewis Hamilton with the right equipment. But they are not yet certain enough to give him a 2009 contract, it would appear…

Jonathan Palmer has put a proposed redevelopment of the Snetterton circuit on hold for up to a year because he says this is no time to be undertaking big construction projects. So, where does this leave Donington?

Button is denying that drivers are ganging up in the paddock to steal the Boy Wonder’s pocket money. And, in the process, he takes a wonderful swipe at Fernando Alonso.

Now, here’s something you don’t read about every day - the story of a sponsor who has reportedly taken his investment in a motorsport team a little bit too seriously.

People in Formula One’s top tier, it would seem, are not reading from the same script at the moment after Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo vented his frustration at his team’s abject performance in Singapore.

We’ve long since learned that people are more interested in motor racing than Max Mosley - which suits us just fine. But sometimes he says things that can’t be ignored.

For some reason the pre-race publicity for the Belgian Grand Prix has thrown up a bumper crop of funny quotes. We can only speculate that everyone connected with F1 is on a carbohydrate high from the waffles and the French fries.

Hearing Ferrari fretting about its engine following Felipe Massa’s and then Kimi Raikkonen’s travails at the last two grands prix reminded us of something - it just took a while to locate what.