Suzi Perry talked to David Coulthard on the MotoGP grid yesterday, and mentioned rumours that in retirement next year, as well as consulting for Red Bull, he might be popping up on the BBC’s Formula One coverage - which he certainly didn’t deny is a possibility. Stupidly, I’d not thought about that.

Martin Brundle - part of Coulthard’s management team, incidentally - joined the TV world of Formula One when it moved to ITV, despite reservations about moving into television. That’s because he was advised that if he didn’t take the opportunity at that point, when it was changing broadcaster, another opportunity might not arise.

So Coulthard could well be thinking the same thing. I’d be surprised if the BBC dropped Brundle, so perhaps Coulthard would take on the role of pundit. In the nicest possible way, he would have to be seen as an upgrade on Mark Blundell, who has been out of Formula One racing for some time; Coulthard obviously has far more recent experience, so would have more to say about the tracks and technology. And of course Coulthard isn’t afraid to say what he thinks about other drivers.

In any case, after his attempt at commentary recently, I don’t think anyone’s got to worry about the BBC going after Damon Hill to replace them; his contribution seemed limited to saying that he likes Robert Kubica over and over again.

There’s a proud tradition in all sections of the specialist media of reporting on not news - stories purporting to be news, but which tell no-one anything new. With a quiet weekend ahead, not news has had a particularly prominent role to play on Autosport this week.

There’s the shock news that NASCAR driver Tony Stewart is aiming to win a race that he’s won four times before. Equally surprising is the news that Chris Vermeulen is targeting another MotoGP podium finish, after finishing on the podium at the last two races. Were it not for these important articles, I would have assumed that both men were intending to do really badly.

We have two revelations from the Ferrari camp. Kimi Raikkonen - who has qualified down in sixth for the last two races - says he needs to qualify better to keep his Formula 1 championship chances alive. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa - who retired from the lead of the last race three laps from home - says that Ferrari need to improve reliability to keep him in the championship fight. This sort of deep insight from drivers into how teams operate is simply invaluable.

Elsewhere, we have word from the A1GP technical director that the new Ferrari chassis the series will be using - which has been designed to encourage overtaking - will allow plenty of overtaking. I would have thought that he would be pessimistic about the new car, and tell us to expect really rubbish racing.

It’s a barren weekend: there’s no live motorsport on Freeview.

MotoGP is on its summer break, back next week in the Czech Republic; the WRC is in Germany next weekend; it’s a couple of weeks before Formula 1 makes its debut in Valencia; and the British Touring Cars are at Knockhill next weekend. So next weekend is busy, and I’m really looking forward to the first Formula 1 race around the streets of Valencia. But that doesn’t help me this weekend, does it? Honestly, it’s just inconsiderate.

There’s only the British Superbikes at Knockhill to look forward to this weekend, for you Eurosport types. Tom Sykes will doubtless be brimming with confidence, after his double race win at the last British Superbike meeting, and his wild card performance in the World Superbikes at Brands Hatch last week, including a 7th place in race 2.

It’s likely to be a subdued Knockhill paddock though, after the tragic death of Craig Jones following a crash in the World Supersport race at Brands Hatch last week. RIP.

I don’t think so. Superleague Formula is a vaguely interesting concept, in that the teams are branded with individual football teams. But my prediction comes from looking at the website today, after seeing the news that Tottenham Hotspur are the English team entering the series.

What’s my prediction based on? Well, it just seems like a bit of a mess. Most visibly, the website looks cluttered and unprofessional. More concretely, I can’t find anything about TV coverage - and without that, it’s never going to be a serious international motorsport championship. Plus early information about the series talked about payments to teams from TV rights, so it’s certainly part of the plan. With only 23 days until the first round at Donington Park, there’s not much time to generate interest if a deal is yet to be announced.

But on the other hand, there are some decent motorsport teams (including Fisichella Motorsport) and drivers (like Robert Doornbos and Andi Zuber) involved. So they must see something in it. But that something could just be prize money of €1 million per race weekend - which for the first season has presumably been put up by the financial backers, and that could quickly dry up if there are no signs of commercial success.

“I would be happy to finish my career at this team, to be honest.”

That’s what Heikki Kovalainen has said about McLaren. But why would he say that?

Presumably he’s expressing his delight in having his McLaren contract extended, despite a season which has been lacking in high points for Kovalainen. But this is only his second season in Formula 1, and he’s only 26 years old. It’s a bizarrely negative thing to even think about the end of his career, let alone talk about it - albeit just in passing.

But more than that, surely it puts Kovalainen in a weak position when it comes to contracts. If he’s so happy, and wants to stay there for ever and ever and ever, he’s in a very poor position to demand much in the way of money.

I’m sure that, as always, I’m reading far too much into a throwaway comment. But it’s still a very odd thing to say.

Max Mosley has won his libel case against the News of the World, and I’m very pleased about it.

I didn’t watch the video of Mosley’s “party” - as his legal team described it - because, frankly, I didn’t want to see it. Whatever the nature of the footage, when the allegations were published, I generally thought that he should have stepped down, because that’s what people in high positions do when their reputation is tarnished.

But Mosley didn’t follow convention, and weathered the inevitable storm to clear his name - to an extent. The alleged Nazi connotations have been found to be false - and it’s that which caused most concern for the likes of the German and Japanese car manufacturers. Mosley has accepted that his sexual tastes are unusual, but nothing more than that - and it has been found that this is not in the public interest.

There will inevitably be plenty of people who are interested in Mosley’s sexual tastes though, and there the damage has been done. To that end I think Mosley is absolutely right to have remained in his position of President of the FIA. He’s done nothing wrong, and if people see wrong in what he has done, then that’s their problem.

My opinion of Mosley has changed from general indifference to the utmost respect. He’s clearly a determined man of principle, and that’s got to be desirable in his role.

Red Bull Racing have confirmed Sebastian Vettel as Mark Webber’s team mate for next year, ending speculation that they’re after Spanish super villain Fernando Alonso. Let’s speculate wildly.

Vettel’s vacated Toro Rosso seat is an interesting one. Red Bull ultimately want to unload the team, but everything is in place for 2009, so there’s no immediate threat. What it does mean is that a one-year driver deal is perhaps most likely. Which all means that an established driver is probably out of the question - but then it always would have been.

Vitantonio Liuzzi has said that he wants to race in Formula 1 again, but would the team take him back? I’m sure Super Aguri refugees Davidson and Sato would jump at the chance.

Probably more likely is that a GP2 driver will step up from the Red Bull Junior Team. There’s Karun Chandhok, currently 8th in the GP2 standings; but I think the favourite is Sébastien Buemi, currently 3rd in GP2 and a Red Bull Racing test driver.

I’ll resist the temptation to second (or indeed third or fourth) guess what would happen in 2010 if Alonso moves to Ferrari. Except to say that the driver market would descend into mayhem.

I’m intrigued by Formula 2. When it was first announced, it sounded like the FIA wanted it to be like the GP2 Series - which that Bernie Ecclestone is involved in - but magically much cheaper.

Some more details have come along, and it’s a bit clearer. The intention is that it be a “one-make arrive-and-drive category”: there would be a pool of cars, from which teams would be assigned cars randomly for each race weekend, all maintenance being taken care of by the manufacturer between races. Teams would only have to repair accident damage over the course of the weekend. This has inevitably caused teams to question what exactly would be the point of them being there.

But my question is whether, like that, it could be a true Formula 1 feeder series. GP2 and Formula 3 have a similar team set-up to Formula 1. Without experience of that team relationship at a sufficiently advanced level, could a driver really step straight up to Formula 1 from this idea of Formula 2? It seems to me like more of a GP2 feeder series. And I’m sure that’s not the FIA’s intention.

I am very disappointed that I couldn’t find, on YouTube, a video of highlights from the weekend’s British Formula 1 Grand Prix, set to either ‘Round Round’ by the Sugababes, or even better, ‘You Spin Me Round’ by Dead Or Alive. The original version, that is, not one of the many remixes. The Internet has let me down.

It was a good race though, wasn’t it? Admittedly I did want to punch Felipe Massa in the face for spinning repeatedly - doesn’t he know I’ve got money on him winning the championship? Probably not, to be fair. He doesn’t even know why he kept messing up.

Surely the best news - better even than a British winner in the shape of that there Lewis Hamilton - was Rubens Barrichello’s third place finish. I had a feeling that a Honda might end up doing well, because Ross Brawn does have a habit of getting things very right in such conditions. In truth I hoped Jenson Button might spring a surprise win on us again, but Barrichello on the podium is pretty excellent.

His Honda contract expires at the end of the year, but he wants to carry on. I see three possibilities: he stays at Honda, does a Fisichella and moves to a small team, or leaves Formula 1. Let’s hope he sticks around. He seems nice.

Bloody hell, the British Formula 1 Grand Prix is going to Donington Park from 2010. Quite a coup for Donington, which now has the top race on both two and four wheels. The development costs? About £100m.

That pretty much strips Silverstone of its title of ‘the home of British motorsport’. There had been word that Bernie Ecclestone was talking to Donington, but a deal wasn’t looking likely. Announcing the news at the start of the British Grand Prix weekend is something Silverstone and the BRDC are unlikely to be chuffed about, especially if it’s as much of a surprise to them as it is to me.

It leaves Silverstone looking for a big headline event. The World Touring Car Championship has gone to Brands Hatch; Donington has taken Formula 1 and the European round of the Superbike World Championship. The British round of the Superbike World Championship and DTM are at Brands Hatch; MotoGP and the new Superleague Formula are at Donington. So if nothing changes, the only international race at Silverstone will be the Le Mans Series. That doesn’t sound sustainable, does it?

However, the venue for the British A1GP race hasn’t been specified on the provisional calender for next season. So my prediction is that Silverstone will do everything they can to take the race away from Brands Hatch - and probably succeed, simply because they need the race more.