Damon Hill was on good form on Tuesday at Silverstone. He was meeting the press to launch a new campaign, 'Back the Brits', an initiative designed to show off the circuit's support for the home nation's Formula One quartet and promote this year's British Grand Prix at the same time.
Since he accepted his nomination as the president of the BRDC last year, Hill has made it very clear he is back in love with motorsport. When he retired from F1 at the end of 1999, he couldn't wait to get away. But time heals, and the 1996 world champion is reborn as a simple, enthusiastic racing fan - albeit one with a touch of firsthand experience to draw on!
And the thing that has really fired Hill's enthusiasm is the retirement of his old nemesis.
"I think for the first time in a very long time it is a much more open playing field," he said of the new post-Schumacher era. "There are going to be more opportunities without Michael Schumacher. He dominated so much. I don't know the statistics, but he must have won half the races during the past six or seven years."