What an eventful time we've had since the last Grand Prix. Two teams have changed hands and there are still seats for the taking or, rather, for the buying. We must remember that, these days, a Formula One seat does not necessarily involve any actual racing.

Luca Badoer, Alexander Wurz, Pedro de la Rosa and Anthony Davidson are all paid more than some drivers on the grid in real terms they are straight employees and do not have to bring the sponsorship out of which their wages will be paid. They each receive the salary of a CEO of a medium sized company and they each have one of the greatest chat up lines on earth.

Luca Badoer is one of the best paid racing drivers on the planet, but he does not actually race. I believe he last raced in 1999, before Kimi Raikkonen first raced a car.

It seems that we have our first Israeli Formula One driver in Chanoch Nissany who, at the age of 41, has signed to undertake testing for Minardi. If Nissany is called up to drive in a race, he will become the oldest debutant in the World Championship. I am not, of course, counting established Grand Prix drivers who were older than that when the World Championship began in 1950.

Meanwhile there is Max Mosley call for a maximum age for Number Two drivers. Oi, Max, leave it out, you Ageist. There are laws forbidding discrimination against refusing to employ someone on account of their age. We wrinklies have our rights, don't trample on our dreams. Take away from Editor, Chris Balfe, the fantasy that one day he may get an urgent call from Maranello or Woking and what do you leave the poor old boy with? (Woking? White Hart Lane! - Ed)

Chanoch Nissany knows that it is unlikely that he will do more than a few dozen laps over the season, Minardi is not known for an extensive test programme save in the sense that anyone with the right licence and a bag of cash can 'test' a Minardi. Paul Stoddart was once quoted as saying he bought Minardi because he was buying into the world's greatest franchise. He is right, he can sell 'testing' to any mug, I mean driver, with the dosh. It sounds like it should be a nice little earner, but is there an equivalent in any other sport? Other professional sports actually pay people.

Regardless of that, Nissany will go down in history as the first Israeli F1 driver and nobody will ever be able to take that away from him as, no doubt, his grandchildren will discover. It also gives him rare distinction in Israel, a country not normally associated with sporting achievement, not since the David vs Goliath bout.

All the statements about Nissany's contract make the point that it should raise the profile of Formula One in Israel, but there is nothing about actually racing, let alone winning. It is, however, surely right that Nissany will raise the profile of F1 in Israel, even though he lives in Budapest. You need human interest in order to generate interest in a sport. No doubt Nissany is already signed up to sections of the Israeli media. He is the one local man who has actually driven Formula One cars, the guy with the pass to the paddock. There is nothing like the local lad or lass to stir interest.

Even in the UK, which has won more drivers' and constructors' championships than any other country, media interest in F1 tends to be linked to particular drivers. When Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean were winning everything in ice dancing in the early 1980s, the British media was besotted by ice dancing, you would have thought that ice dancing was the pinnacle of sporting achievement. I cannot remember the last time I heard about this so called sport, but then there has been no local interest for twenty years.