It's been unusually busy, busy, busy in Formula One and it's still weeks before the next race. Even peace has broken out with the signing of a new Concorde Agreement, though the details are likely to remain as secret as previous agreements. Why this should be, I do not know, but there is always something disturbing about secret agreements.

I have no idea what the FIA is up to by imposing a one-race ban on Renault especially since that race is in Valencia. Fernando must be able to race in his home country. Valencia would never have had the idea of staging a race were it not for the fact that Alonso has single-handedly made Formula One attractive to the Spanish.

My guess is that the FIA was freaked-out by Felipe Massa's accident, a few days after Henry Surtees was killed by a bouncing wheel. I have news for the FIA, shit happens.

The FIA has done a brilliant job in improving safety. Sometimes, however, a driver has to suffer for things that are unforeseen. A case in point was the death of Jo Siffert at Brands Hatch in 1971. Siffert, nicknamed, 'The Last of the Late Brakers', was an enormously popular driver. His BRM crashed and ignited. Jo was not burned to death, the fire burned oxygen in the air and he was asphyxiated. After that, many drivers ran with air bottles connected to their helmets.

Nobody needs to apply punishment to Renault for not getting a wheel change right. The guys involved will have punished themselves, there is no need for Men in Blazers to do anything. The Renault pit crew are front-line troops, they are elite, they have pride. Something went wrong, split seconds were involved, and nothing the FIA can do will change that, or prevent it from happening again in some other circumstance.

The Men in Blazers cannot apply anything like the pressure that the guys involved will have applied to themselves. The one-race ban is nothing more than window dressing.

I have been going to motor races for more than fifty years and on every ticket, on every armband. and in every programme have been printed the words, in capitals, MOTOR RACING IS DANGEROUS. I take responsibility for being at a race and I attend in the knowledge that shit can happen.

BMW is to withdraw and that is no surprise. Throughout history, motor manufacturers have come and gone as needs in the market have dictated. At the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed there was a special celebration to mark the fact that Sir Frank Williams has been in Formula One for forty years. The Williams team exists to go motor racing, BMW exists to make money by selling cars. Formula One has always been an adjunct to BMW's main activity.

What is inexplicable is that BMW seems ready to walk from its franchise which has a value. Many expected BMW to follow Honda's example and sell the team to Peter Sauber, who owns a fifth of the shares. Ross Brawn and his partners were able to buy the Honda team for a nominal sum and Honda reportedly paid a subsidy to sustain Brawn GP in its first year.

Honda's image has been enhanced by the way it acted. We all know that times are tough in the motor industry and nobody can blame a manufacturer for withdrawing from an expensive peripheral activity to concentrate on its core business. When writing off its Formula One operation, Honda acted honourably. It accepted responsibility for hundreds of employees.