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Despite all the off-track politics, we shouldn’t forget there is still a race on this weekend.

It could be the last British Grand Prix at Silverstone for some time and both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will be wearing special helmet designs for their home Grand Prix.

It is the first time Lewis Hamilton has altered the design of his famous yellow crash helmet for his home race since starting his grand prix career in 2007.

The design shows the top of his helmet peeling away to reveal a British flag underneath.  Hamilton said:

I’m really proud to be a British driver in a British team racing in front of the British crowd. I wanted to choose a design that not only showed that I am a British sportsman but, more importantly, recognised all the support I get from the fans at Silverstone.

Jenson Button, on the other hand, has a tradition of wearing a different helmet design for the British Grand Prix.  This year’s design was the result of a competition to give Jenson’s fans the opportunity to design a helmet that incorporated a British theme and Bernie Zobl’s ‘Push The Button’ design was the one chosen by Jenson.

Button commented:

For the last few years, it has become something of a tradition for me to have a special British themed helmet and this year is no exception. I wanted my fans to be involved so we ran a competition on my website www.jensonbutton.com and chose the winning design by Bernie. What I loved about Bernie’s design was its unique take on the Union Jack flag and how he had incorporated it into my own Button logo. The helmet looks great and I can’t wait to wear it at Silverstone this weekend.

More pictures of Jenson Button’s helmet are below.

Images: McLaren, Brawn GP

Well that’s that, then.  Nobody backed down.

After a four hour meeting at the Renault factory in Enstone, the eight FOTA teams (BMW-Sauber, BrawnGP, Scuderia Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, Renault, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Toyota) have decided that they are unwilling to sign up unconditionally to the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championhip and therefore have no choice but to begin planning their own breakaway series.

Here is the full statement:

FOTA UNITED ON THE FUTURE

Silverstone, 18 June 2009 – Since the formation of FOTA last September the teams have worked together and sought to engage the FIA and commercial rights holder, to develop and improve the sport.

Unprecedented worldwide financial turmoil has inevitably placed great challenges before the F1 community. FOTA is proud that it has achieved the most substantial measures to reduce costs in the history of our sport.

In particular the manufacturer teams have provided assistance to the independent teams, a number of which would probably not be in the sport today without the FOTA initiatives. The FOTA teams have further agreed upon a substantial voluntary cost reduction that provides a sustainable model for the future.

Following these efforts all the teams have confirmed to the FIA and the commercial rights holder that they are willing to commit until the end of 2012.

The FIA and the commercial rights holder have campaigned to divide FOTA.

The wishes of the majority of the teams are ignored. Furthermore, tens of millions of dollars have been withheld from many teams by the commercial rights holder, going back as far as 2006. Despite this and the uncompromising environment, FOTA has genuinely sought compromise.

It has become clear however, that the teams cannot continue to compromise on the fundamental values of the sport and have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 World Championship.

These teams therefore have no alternative other than to commence the preparation for a new Championship which reflects the values of its participants and partners. This series will have transparent governance, one set of regulations, encourage more entrants and listen to the wishes of the fans, including offering lower prices for spectators worldwide, partners and other important stakeholders.

The major drivers, stars, brands, sponsors, promoters and companies historically associated with the highest level of motorsport will all feature in this new series.

Your move, Max.

Update: The FIA have responded.

The last few days have seen letters flying back and forth between FOTA and the FIA like paper planes.

On Tuesday the FIA published a lengthy essay on what it feels the dispute is really about, accusing the teams of an attempt to take over the commercial rights to Formula One and the regulatory function away from the FIA.

This prompted a letter from FOTA to Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone which sought to ‘compromise and bring an urgent conclusion to the protracted debate’.

Mosley replied with a letter of his own in which he essentially dismissed all the FOTA proposals.  Instead, he suggested that the teams sign up unconditionally after which they could get together to discuss any regulation changes that could be made.

Interestingly, the FIA have also published a summary of cost cap discussions that took place between the teams and the FIA in January of 2008.  In a meeting on 11 January it seems that practically all the teams felt that a budget cap would be ‘the fairest and most effective way of minimising the impact of the recession’ and ‘only Jean Todt (Ferrari) disagreed, stating that a cost cap was not achievable for his team.’

This document also has links to the minutes of this meeting where several team principals speak favourably of cost-capping.  For example:

Ross Brawn felt that the FIA and the teams’ albeit worthy attempts in the past to drastically cut costs had failed due to the fact that although technical constraints had been introduced to reduce expenditure, the teams had continued to spend in other ways. He therefore felt that it might be preferable to consider budget caps in some if not all areas of car development along with technical constraints as he felt that this was the only way to really control actual spend.

These minutes do seem to cast FOTA’s rejection of a budget cap in a new light.  Ferrari have always been against a cap but the other teams seem to have been broadly in favour of it, at least in some form.  It really looks, as many have noted, that this is more about Max Mosley’s governance of the FIA than cost caps.

The teams have until Friday to sign up unconditionally to the 2010 Formula One Championship and I’m still optimistic some kind of agreement can be reached.  I get the impression most of the FOTA teams would be willing to compromise.  Ferrari, however, have publicly stated that they won’t compete in 2010 unless the regulations are changed so who knows what they will do?

At least we don’t have to wait long to find out.

In 1943 the Royal Air Force opened RAF Silverstone as a base for Vickers Wellington bombers.  After the Second World War, the Royal Automobile Club took a lease on the deserted airfield and held a couple of races on the runways with a track laid out in hay bales before switching to the perimiter track in 1949.

In 1950, Silverstone hosted the first race of the newly created Formula One World Championship.  The British Grand Prix then rotated between Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch before settling permanently at Silverstone in 1987.

If Bernie Ecclestone has his way 2009 will be the last time the British Grand Prix is run at Silverstone, at least for the next 17 years.  From 2010 the race will move to Donnington Park, a circuit not without its own history but still lacking the connection with Formula One that Silverstone has had for the last 60 years.

Last year, Lewis Hamilton proved he was a master in the rain when he won at Silverstone in one of Formula One’s greatest ever wet-weather drives.  Hamilton described it as “by far the best victory I’ve ever had”, eventually finishing over a minute ahead of Nick Heidfeld in second place.

Unfortunately for Lewis he has practically no chance of repeating that result on Sunday, even if it rains.  Silverstone is a high-speed track with more than 60% of the circuit taken at full throttle.  But it also requires high-downforce through the incredible high-speed corners like Becketts, and downforce is something the McLaren just hasn’t got right yet.

Jenson Button on the other hand is looking forward to racing in front of his home fans:

To be leading the championship going into my home grand prix is something that I’ve never experienced before and it puts a smile on my face every time I think about it.

Renault will be bringing developments to the R29’s diffuser and an upgraded front wing package and Technical Director Bob Bell thinks the high-speed nature of the circuit should suit their car:

We’ve got reasonably high expectations for Silverstone, although we’re remaining realistic because we know we’re not suddenly going to be fighting for the podium.

Toyota had quite a strong result in Turkey, with Jarno Trulli finishing fourth, and according to Toyota’s Pascal Vasselon the team are hoping to build on that at Silvertone:

So far this season, we have been extremely competitive at tracks which require high aero efficiency, so we are optimistic for Silverstone.

But the biggest threat to a Brawn GP victory on Sunday is Red Bull.  Both Red Bull drivers were on the podium in Turkey and the fast nature of Silverstone should suit the RB5.

To make your predictions in round 8 of the F1Buzz prediction game (and be in with a chance to win some nice prizes), just leave a comment on this post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:

Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:

Remember, the deadline for entries is start of qualifying on Saturday, that’s 12:00 GMT.

Good luck!

Image: McLaren

Ever wanted to race in Le Mans?  Here is your chance to pick up an extremely rare McLaren F1 GTR “Long Tail” in Gulf Team livery.

In 1995 McLaren built the first race version of the F1 and at Le Mans that year McLaren F1 GTRs took 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th places.

Despite being entered in the GT class, the reliability of the McLaren F1 saw it beat the faster purpose-built Le Mans Prototype cars, completing 298 laps at an average speed of more than 162 km/h.  It also recorded the highest top speed in practice, reaching 281 km/h.

Incredibly the first McLaren F1 GTR had only rolled off the production line six months earlier.

In 1997,  a number of changes were made to the GTR to meet major regulation changes but the most important was a substantial reduction in weight.  The ’97 car weighed only 915kg and this combined with an improved transmission and the new “long tail” aerodynamics saw lap times improve by four seconds over the GTR ’96.

At Le Mans in 1997 Gulf Team Davidoff won the GT category and also finished second overall.

Out of 28 McLaren F1 GTRs built, only 10 were long tails.  This one is chassis number 28 and was originally used as a Gulf Team Davidoff spare car that was raced during the second half of the season.

It might not be as rare or as beautiful as a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa but this is still an automotive work of art.

The ultimate race version of the ultimate road car.