David's fizzing but fellow Brits fall flat

If the last three years are anything to go by, Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix promises more of the same. The McLarens simply eat up the sweeping turns, slow corners and long straight of Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya. Hakkinen and Coulthard have finished one-two since 1998.

"All I can do is perform the best I can," anticipated Coulthard. "Maybe now is my time. I'm going to drive as hard as I can. I'm going to keep improving. I know I can win a world championship but it's not about talking, it's about racing. I'll be ready for Barcelona."

Coulthard's plane crashed five days before last year's Spanish Grand Prix.

It was not until after the race that he mentioned the three ribs he had broken. Neither then, nor since, has he chosen to make public whatever trauma he might have experienced. A year on, it seems not so much that he has changed, rather that observers are reaching more sensible conclusions.

Coulthard turned 30 three weeks ago and it seems likely he has realised that time is both plentiful and short. It is short in as much as every day is to be valued, and he may have fewer seasons left in Formula One than the seven he has had. But time is also plentiful - it is not a matter of life and death if he has not yet found the love of his life.

He has had two long relationships during his time in Formula One, and this is the first season where he not been accompanied by a significant other.

Coulthard conceded elliptically: "This year my life is less cluttered. When relationships are working they fall into the category of a pleasurable distraction, so they're a good thing. But as we were coming to the end of our relationship, if it had continued into the season then that would have been a distraction.

"Those who've had break-ups know how difficult it is. It's not as if you suddenly fall out of love with that person.

"Heidi and I played an important part in each other's lives for four years and neither of us will forget that. But things move on."

Coulthard's intelligence tends to be pretty obvious when he talks. It was before the start of last season he made a particularly pertinent observation about Button's arrival in Formula One - that his very naivety would protect him from the political maelstrom of the sport, freeing him to perform well.

Only now is the 21-year-old finding out what it is like at the other end of the equation. Benetton is not the team to be in this season.

Matters reached a new low in San Marino 10 days ago when Button qualified 21st, outpacing only the lumbering Minardi of Brazilian Tarso Marques, and finished a distant last.

Worse, he knows he might still have been driving the sexily-competitive Williams, if only team boss Sir Frank Williams had not loaned him to Benetton for two years to make way for Juan Pablo Montoya. Instead, he can only watch as Montoya and Ralf Schumacher grab the glory.

Sir Frank is not known for his caring, sharing qualities but he has made a point of repeatedly reassuring Button in private and public that matters will improve eventually.

"In a fast-moving business like this it's very easy for people to forget what happened last year," said Sir Frank.

"Jenson was outstanding and that sort of talent just doesn't go away. It's innate. Jenson will be back in Formula One at the highest level."

The same cannot be said for Irvine, who seems destined to play out the twilight of his career at Jaguar. He has finished only once this season - 11th in Australia - and is unlikely to be terribly excited by the advent of a new team-mate, Pedro de la Rosa, in Barcelona. The triumphs of 1999 are very distant. In 2001, only Coulthard has reason to smile.