A collective groan will have echoed around the glass and chrome clubhouse of the British Racing Drivers' Club at Silverstone on Thursday, if the TV sets were tuned in to the increasingly dire motorsport-based reality TV programme, The Race.

Despite starting from pole position, Tamara Ecclestone, daughter of F1 supremo, Bernie, who has enjoyed a long love-hate - OK, mostly hate - relationship with the Northamptonshire circuit, was passed by five cars before she had reached the end of the pit straight, and shortly afterwards span off on to the grass.

Later, the youngster was seen in the pits, crying her eyes out, being consoled by (team captain) David Coulthard, who told her; "even Michael Schumacher makes mistakes".

In recent years we have heard much from Bernie regarding Silverstone, virtually all of it negative, there was even talk of the Englishman taking former BRDC President Jackie Stewart to court (whatever happened about that?).

However, on a day when the F1 supremo admitted that his latest ploy is to suggest that Silverstone share a Grand Prix slot with Magny Cours, the sight of his little girl spinning helplessly across the Northamptonshire countryside is likely to have been the final nail in the coffin for the former airfield.