Green Notebook from Dunkirk

Strange though it may seem, Dunkirk is reckoned to have been the scene of the last battle on British soil. You might think this makes no sense because Dunkirk is in France and Britain has not owned any part of France since Bloody Mary lost Calais, but there is a village called Dunkirk in Kent. I’d seen it before on many trips from London to Dover, but I never stopped nor asked the question why it was there. I think I probably assumed that it was named in honour of the adventures in 1940, when the beaches of Dunkirk were used to evacuate what was left of the British Expeditionary Force. That is entirely not what happened.

Dunkirk was there a long time before that. I discovered this on my way to Dover when I saw the sign and decided that I needed to stop for a snooze. I was early for the boat and worn out by the weekend’s excitements and so I answered the question that the signpost had raised. Today the main road has bypassed what is left of the great forest and the old London road through the village is quiet. The hamlet was established by a group of “low persons of suspicious character”, who were probably smugglers. Nearby Faversham was notorious for its smuggling and it was said that the folk in Dunkirk shared the profession. The area was not part of any parish and so was without law and order and it quickly became a den of thieves. A pub called the Red Lion was opened. There was no shortage of business as Canterbury was a place to which pilgrims would travel to visit the shrine of Thomas à Becket and some would stop off at the Red Lion for a pint and a bit of debauchery on the way.

This meant that Dunkirk became known as the wildest place in Kent and on Oak Apple Day in 1838 there was trouble when a Cornish cellarman called John Thom, masquerading as Sir William Courtenay, started an uprising to aid the poor, promising to remove obstacles to the smuggling trade. In the course of this, he shot the brother of a constable who had been sent to arrest him. As a result a troop of soldiers from the 45th Infantry Regiment (later the Sherwood Foresters) was despatched from Canterbury and the “battle” occurred in Bossenden Wood. Eleven people were killed, including the ringleader, after which Dunkirk sank back into rural obscurity.

I hurried on to Dover where I was early enough to be offered an earlier departure by DFDS and was soon crossing the Channel, with the sun setting over the famous white cliffs behind us. It is slower than the Eurotunnel, but more agreeable (and half the price).

Just outside Calais there is another place worthy of investigation: Bleriot Plage. This is the place from where Louis Bleriot took off to England to claim a £1,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail to the first aviator to cross the English Channel back in 1909.

It was quite a competition with three contenders, including Britain’s Hubert Latham, who ended up in the sea during his first attempt to cross and was found sitting on the wing of his plane, casually smoking a cigarette after becoming the first man to ditch in water… Bleriot crossed a couple of days later and landed on top of the cliffs near Dover Castle, just above the ferry port. The name Bleriot Plage was not adopted by the locals until 1936 but it was nice that they did.

Finding out such stories is one of the joys of travelling around Europe between Formula 1 races, and my drive home from Silverstone took me by way of various interesting spots: the Marquise marble quarry, the start-finish line of the Circuit de Boulogne, a 1920s road circuit in the countryside behind the famous port, There was also Crécy-en-Ponthieu, known in France for its carrot soup, but in England as one of the most important battles of the 100 Years War.

There was also the Baie de Somme, where William the Conqueror sailed to England from, where there is a permanent colony of seals.

The journey home gave me time to ponder the Silverstone weekend where the big news was not that Max Verstappen won his eighth victory in 10 races, but rather that McLaren showed a big improvement and there was another good showing from Williams, which warmed the cockles of the heart of the British race fans.

The film industry was much in evidence in Silverstone and I was fortunate enough to be given a tour of the Apex Racing garage, which was very impressive, complete with the timing screens featuring 22 names (Michael Andretti would have liked it). The list included Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce, drivers for a backmarker team trying to win in Formula 1. The team was using an old FIA motorhome and has no fewer than six mocked-up F1 cars, built by Carlin, with two  powered with electric motors (for pit stop filming), two with F2 engines and two with F3 engines.

I did see Brad Pitt a couple of times during the weekend but he seems to spend his time being chased around by hundreds of selfie-seekers who think that standing next to someone famous somehow makes one famous. It’s not my thing at all.

Quite a lot of the F1 team bosses have taken to hiding away in their vast motorhomes but seven of them went to 10 Downing Street in the days before the British GP, accompanied by Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, FIA Deputy President Robert Reid and Motorsport UK chairman David Richards. Their goal was to press political flesh and tell the politicians that F1 is a big business, keen on pushing a green message. Doing this inside vast motorhomes is, of course, rather self-defeating but Lucy Frazer, the Culture, Media and Sport Secretary and Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, listened politely as the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was otherwise engaged. The message delivered was that F1 can always use more research and development tax relief; there will be sustainable fuels in 2026 and it would be really helpful if the post-Brexit system of carnets and work permits could be relaxed a bit to make life easier for the sport. These things have all become much more difficult since Britain left the EU.

Whether there will be any real value from this excursion remains to be seen as the ruling Conservative Party has popularity ratings that go far below ground, with an impressive 80 percent of voters dissatisfied and surveys suggesting that 47 precent of voters will support the rival Labour Party, nearly twice as many as those who plan to vote Conservative. There must be a General Election before the end of January 2025, so there is not a lot of time to do very much. The fact that Labour has few members who have government experience might help but after 13 years of Conservative rule – five Prime Ministers and a lot of scandals – the country seems to want a change.

When one drives around the UK and sees the state of the roads, it is clear that the British GP is not going to get any public money, as there are many more pressing problems than motor racing, glorious though the future may seem.

Silverstone is busy negotiating a new contract with F1 as the current deal runs out next year. However there is little likelihood of the race being dropped as Silverstone is no longer fighting with F1 and is working with the sport to create more sustainability, a better show and a better experience for the fans. This year Silverstone had its first major concerts of the modern era and the crowds were huge, totalling 480,000 over four days. The circuit is also about to unveil a new international kart circuit, which will be built in the infield area between Farm and Luffield. This part of the track was used this year for a vast concert stage and that may continue in the future with the kart track being used for the rest of the year.

The future of British F1 is looking bright because while Sir Lewis Hamilton is getting on, although he will stay agree a new contract at some point soon, George Russell, Lando Norris and Alex Albon are all building up their careers to replace him.

Norris and Albon were the subjects of wildly diverse rumours about the future over the weekend, with both being mentioned in connection with Ferrari and with Red Bull. Whether such moves make sense for either man in open to question but there are some who believe that Lando may already have some kind of pre-contract with Ferrari. I cannot see that as being a logical career path, given where Ferrari currently is, but then going to Red Bull and trying to beat Max Verstappen is also a career path from hell. The rumour mill now thinks Carlos Sainz will go off to Audi in 2025 while others think Charles Leclerc will go mad if he stays where he is at Ferrari and that Mercedes would love to have him. I am not saying any of this is true, I am merely pointing out the chitchat.

The big question mark in the immediate future remains Sergio Perez, who has been having a horrible time of late as Max Verstappen’s team mate. The Mexican’s has had his socks blown off in recent weeks and although he has a contract for 2024, there is fear in the team that if the opposition is stronger next year, Red Bull will need a better second driver. I think this is probably why Daniel Ricciardo is being given a chance to show his paces with Scuderia AlphaTauri for the rest of the year.

The latest speculations suggests that Liam Lawson is likely to show up in an AlphaTauri (or whatever it is called in 2024) but that stories about Spain’s Alex Palou being with Red Bull team are fading and although the IndyCar driver has been talking to other teams, the chances are that he will end up back in IndyCar, with either McLaren or his current employer Ganassi.

Interestingly, the word in the US is that former F1 driver Marcus Ericsson is going to move to Andretti, where he will partner with Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta. Another F1 refugee Romain Grosjean is expected to be in the fourth car, but that deal is not yet confirmed and if Ganassi is losing Palou to McLaren and Ericsson to Andretti, he might want to make a bid for Romain, who has come close to winning races in the last couple of years.

The F1 calendar was published with most of the races as previously predicted in these pages, but it is clear that this is not the perfect calendar by any means as four stand-alone intercontinental races in Australia, Japan, China and Miami are not the way to go if sustainability is the future. The Canadian GP promoter was at Silverstone and there is no doubt that Formula 1 is pushing for the race to move to link up with Miami in May. This makes sense for the world but not for Canada, although holding out risks accusations of not being a very sustainable race. Still, the Mexican GP promoter’s argument that F1 does not have an environmental problem, because it makes people stay at home on Sundays, rather than going out for drive, might render such arguments less troublesome than they appear. Sustainability is a complex argument because while the teams may all become carbon-neutral soon, the sports needs to address its spectators as well… with public transportation being the thing needed most of all.

It is worth noting that the F1 Group’s calendar-maker Chloe Targett-Adams is departing her role and heading for pastures new and at the same time Formula 1 Managing Director – Commercial Brandon Snow will also move on soon. Snow has only been in the job for a short while but has struggled to live in America and work in London (and all over the world), so he is not going to do it after the summer. There will be restructuring which will see bigger roles going to F1’s General Counsel Sacha Woodward Hill, who has been with the sport since 1996, and Liam Parker, F1’s Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, will extend his portfolio to cover government relations and marketing. The race promoter negotiations will be handed to Australian lawyer Louise Young, who joined F1 in 2018 after working with the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.