It all points to Schumacher

But like Man Utd, the more Schumacher wins, the hungrier he gets.

True, things can sometimes change fast.

In the five races between France and Belgium last year, Schumacher scored 12 points to his then chief rival Mika Hakkinen's 42.

Great statistic - except Schumacher still won the title anyway.

Should Coulthard take Sunday's chequered flag he will become the first driver to win three straight British grands prix since Jim Clark.

But the fact is Coulthard has scored nine points in the last four races. Over the same period Schumacher has amassed 36 points, while Ralf Schumacher has gathered 19 points to close the gap on the Scot.

Monaco was the turning point. Coulthard trailed by only four points going into that race, and if he could have converted pole into victory the present vast deficit might never have opened up.

But the McLaren's launch control failed off the Monaco grid, and remains a complete lottery even now.

If Michael Schumacher wins here for the first time since 1998, he will equal the record 51 career victories of Alain Prost.

But he is still troubled by memories of the crash in 1999 which shattered both his knee and his title chances.

"Now and again the pictures come back," said Schumacher. "I can't control it. Suddenly the thought is there without a recognisable trigger."

Meantime, Jaguar's Eddie Irvine has decided now is the perfect time to announce that Coulthard would never have been a contender at all without the best car at his disposal, and furthermore that the Scot is McLaren's leading challenger purely because of Hakkinen's demise rather than his own improvement. Irvine tends to grate on other drivers.

"Eddie should shut up and get on with his own job," said Rubens Barrichello angrily. "When I was in his car (when the team was still called Stewart) I had a lot more points than him."

Any driver with any points at all has more than Jenson Button just now.

Life has changed a great deal since he came a creditable fifth on his British grand prix debut 12 months ago.

Then he was driving an increasingly competitive Williams and lionised as the sport's new young gun. Now he is at the wheel of a dismal Benetton, and lagging disastrously behind his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

"Jenson had success too soon," judged team boss Flavio Briatore crushingly. "Talent is not enough on its own. He needs to have fewer distractions.

"He must be more involved with the team, with the engineers, to try to sort out what is wrong. He was too busy during the winter and now he needs a vacation. This is not the time for one and he has a problem."

Elsewhere rumours abound that former champion Hakkinen is about to hang up his helmet for good, having amassed a dismal nine points so far by comparison with Schumacher's 78.

Yesterday the Finn was at a funeral in his homeland, so McLaren issued a supposed 'clarification' which naturally only clouded the issue further.

"It would be a big loss not to see Mika at the circuits if he did retire," commented Schumacher, who lost two world titles to Hakkinen. "I think he should be left in peace to take the decision in his own time."

But one fixture of the Formula One scene knows this will definitely be his last British grand prix.

Murray Walker attended his first such race at Silverstone 53 years ago and bawled his first commentary for BBC radio the following year, before the Formula One world championship so much as existed.

Walker insists he is not feeling remotely nostalgic and is simply concentrating on preparation for the race. But he is sentimental at heart and - like the heavens - can be relied upon to shed a tear come Sunday.

Then again, it might be 1,000 gallons of tears in the heavens' case.