Something is really rotten at the heart of Formula One.

Antonio Pizzonia has been over-shadowed by Mark Webber in the opening rounds this year and suddenly he is useless, and his drive in on the line. Who starts the rumours? Better still, ask yourself whose personal interests are best served by spreading the rumours?

Back in 1981, I was employed by a Formula Three driver called Dave Scott to assist his career. At the time he had won a single race, in Formula Ford 1600, though he did win an F3 race before the end of the year.

I conducted a campaign on Dave's behalf and, as a result, Colin Chapman invited him to test for Lotus. Jonathan Palmer, who had just clinched the 1981 British Formula Three Championship, then the most important junior series in Europe, was also invited, but Dave translated the session into a test contract with Lotus. Jonathan came home empty-handed.

Dave joined Roberto Moreno as Lotus test driver for 1982, with the main drivers being Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell. Both Moreno and Scott were paid for their work, there was no nonsense about paying Minardi a million bucks to test a car on a Friday at four races. Dave not only regularly drove F1 cars, but also put in more than a thousand miles on the prototype active suspension system which was fitted to a Lotus Esprit.

Colin Chapman thought highly of Dave, but Chapman died at the end of 1982 and his successors did not share the Master's opinion.

At the time I pulled off this amazing coup, I was a teacher and part-time journalist. How did I do it? I wrote letters, which Dave signed, to all the Formula One team owners. Nothing pushy, just asking if they would object to receiving a regular update of what he was doing. Nobody else had thought of doing that.

Of course, things were different then and F1 team owners read all their mail.

All I did was to make sure that Chapman was aware of Dave, I make no greater claim than that. No more than half a dozen people knew that I had been involved at all.

As part of my campaign, I was determined to make sure that Dave's main external sponsor got value for money so I placed stories about Dave in the regional press. Jonathan Palmer, who lived in the same region, was not best pleased and I had him on the phone telling me that I should lay off. I took the view that he should not have employed a useless person to conduct PR on his behalf. I continued to cut across his bows.

Like Jonathan's PR person, a drippy girl, I submitted copy to newspapers and it was up to the sports editor to decide whose copy to use.

Dave Scott plus me, Jonathan and a drippy girl? No contest.

If Jonathan won and Dave came third, that was the story, but it was a proper news story and I never put down Jonathan. In fact I had seen Jonathan's first test drive in a Formula Three car and he had impressed me very much indeed.

Even though I was working on behalf of a rival, there was no smear campaign such as is being conducted against Pizzonia. The dirtiest it got was Jonathan asking me not to get my man column inches in the Brighton Argus. Since Jonathan lived closer to Brighton than did Dave, JP thought he should have the Brighton Argus.

Brighton Argus? Hit me with the Big Time.