There was a time when I really enjoyed the Silly Season, it began around Silverstone and was over by Monza. It was like a fruit which came into season for a short time and was the more enjoyable for not being a year-round commodity.

Back in the day, if some promoter wanted to get a rumour started, they first had to get it past a small number of informed journalists. In the UK, there were two weekly magazines devoted to the sport and the situation was no better anywhere else, although France and Italy have long had daily papers dedicated to sport.

There was a time when Formula One was a minority interest so newspapers published only race results, they did not publish gossip. A story like Lewis Hamilton's contract negotiations simply would not have appeared anywhere. Now, of course, Lewis is a celebrity whose private life is picked over by the press. There are papers who use any excuse to print pictures of his toothsome girlfriend.

There has always been paddock gossip the year round, but publication was reserved for the summer months and usually came with a disclaimer.

With the Internet there has been a democratisation of outlets and I am not complaining since Pitpass.com exists because of it. It has, however, brought pressure to print gossip as though it was news. Not long ago we were told that Mark Webber would move to Ferrari for a year to keep the seat warm for Sergio Perez in 2014.

This was on the evidence of a handful of races. Mark was being written off while Sergio had scored a fine second place in Malaysia. The reasoning went that Perez could have won, but he allowed Alonso to take the flag so that he, Perez, would be in the good books of Ferrari.

This is rubbish. Ferrari, like any team, would have been more impressed had Perez won. Every team wants to hire winners. If you have an Alonso, a Hamilton or a Vettel in your camp, it means that the opposition does not have them.

In my view, Fernando Alonso is the most complete driver in Formula One today and he does not need a compliant team-mate. Ferrari, however, has a policy of employing a second driver whose role is to support the Number One. Ferrari does not want to employ a makeweight since its aim is to win the Constructors' Championship.

Media attention centres on the drivers, but team bosses look at the constructors' title. Team bosses and engineers want to win, it is the reason why they are in motor racing and not in any other line of business. Sir Frank Williams knows that he could never be an F1 driver, but he has won championships.

Ferrari has the same agenda, but for a different reason, it sells cars and faces competition from Lamborghini and Aston Martin, both of which have been revived, and McLaren, which now offers direct competition. Away from the track, Ferrari is a business which also owns Maserati. They are both in the Fiat empire, sort of, but the paperwork says that they are independent.