How McLaren could manage Hamilton better

The British public always loves to see a home victory at Silverstone. So for the second year in a row that means the responsibility lies with McLaren, as Force India is not yet close to providing Paul di Resta such an opportunity. But in the past couple of races Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have been left wanting as Ferrari has popped up as Red Bull's closest challenger.

Hamilton has spoken his mind recently © LAT

There is clearly some frustration from the drivers - both Lewis and Jenson are world champions and they both want to win - especially at home. It's not looked good the past couple of races, so the team needs something for Silverstone to regain its drivers' confidence.

It's confusing why McLaren is going through this situation. The drivers don't seem to know if they are going to be competitive or not going into any given weekend. That must be quite tough for them. But when a team has two great drivers and it isn't winning, people aren't looking at the drivers as the reason for that - they are looking at the developments coming through.

Lewis was the centre of another media storm after Valencia, when he spoke quite negatively to the press after the race and then told the world to ignore the stories that were in the papers the next morning. I hate to say it, but with so many media faux pas recently, it looks like McLaren doesn't have control of its driver. We could applaud the team for allowing Lewis to say what he wants, but if it is their policy to encourage the drivers to say things that are less controversial and give the media less to run with, then that is not being achieved at the moment.

I can sympathise to a degree, because I said a lot of things in my career that I regretted afterwards. You are under this constant pressure in Formula 1, and the smart thing is to do a Mika Hakkinen and not say anything! People say that he wasn't very interesting, but you are not there to be a personality, you are there to win races. Mika was a master of not saying anything controversial. People would ask him a question, and he would look like he was giving it lots of thought before simply saying, "I don't think so".

DRS disappointment

I didn't expect the DRS zones to be where they are for Silverstone. Down into Brooklands, I don't think the straight will be long enough because the left-hand kink before it will not allow anyone to get close enough for a good slipstream. The old start/finish straight is not long enough either. I think it should have been on the Hangar Straight, giving you the chance to pass into Stowe. And then arguably you could have had the second zone into the following corner at Club, because it is possible to get a good run on someone out of Stowe sometimes.

Coulthard says someone needs to stop Vettel winning, and fast © LAT

The way the two-zone idea is working at the moment isn't really fair either. Not only do you get to pass someone who is a sitting duck in the first zone, but they can't fight back into the second one? Surely they could easily change that within the software if they wanted to.

Hopes of a title fight

Statistically, it looks like the chances of a title race are gone. If you apply the current points system to years gone by, then Sebastian Vettel's lead is bigger than any gap that has been overturned in the past without injury intervening. I've been on the receiving end of similar dominance in the past, but I don't ever remember feeling a drop off in motivation. Every race weekend was another opportunity to get one over whoever was doing all the winning. It's essential for the sake of a thrilling World Championship that somebody else starts winning. That's not to take anything away from Seb - he wants to win every race. But please don't!