After the latest viewing figures came in from sources around the world, Formula One was confirmed as the second most-watched sport on the globe, with almost 1 billion fans tuning in to watch the fortnightly endeavours of Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

The sport has always been historically popular in South America, with Aryton Senna helping to build an interest in the 1990s, when he was widely acknowledged as the world’s greatest driver. The sport has been growing in popularity in key markets such as the US (who favour the NASCAR series) and in Asia, where Tony Fernandes’ new team based in Malaysia has helped to develop a local pride, and trigger a growth in uk sports betting.

On top of record-breaking audiences in the UK (thanks to the races being broadcast on a free-to-air TV channel for the first time in years) the number of fans engaging with F1 is expected to grow in the UK over the next few years, not least because of a new tourist centre which is set to be built at Silverstone – the home of the British Grand Prix.

Whilst there used to be a small gift shop on the Silverstone site, it never really did much to attract fans of the sport to the racetrack when there weren’t any races on. With the new tourist centre, which will feature all sorts of interactive displays and gadgets to entertain and amuse both young and old alike, people will be queueing up to play with cars, and witness a piece of Formula One history.

The centre is being part-funded by the National Lottery’s heritage fund, which was set up with the express intention of helping to build local museums and make them more accessible to citizens of the UK.

Jackie Stewart hailed the new tourist centre, saying that it ensured “the heritage of the site and that of British motorsport can reach a far wider audience than before, and cements its importance for future generations.”

She has said that she has never seen Gilliland move over for someone. The attention that Gilliland has been receiving from the media and other NASCAR drivers is what irritates Danica right now. It was Patrick who first came to the war of words with the criticism against Gilliland, who responded by sending out a statement along with the four words through his spokesman. This is the first full season in NASCAR for Danica Patrick. She is currently 25th in the table after having taken part in eight races. Gilliland, meanwhile, is a couple of places below Danica in the 33rd position.

Patrick also failed to comment about any speculation on her personal life, as she recently got divorced from her husband Paul Hospenthal.

“I don’t think he races me like everyone else. I watched him move over and let someone by so, no, I don’t think he does. And that is what makes me mad. He is just getting more attention for this than he deserves,” said Danica Patrick ahead of the next race. He was speaking at the Richmond International Raceway. It is learnt that she is currently going out with cup driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr, who is six years younger than Danica. Ricky is also a rookie in the sport.

Movie Ranking: / five

Movie Rating: 2 / 5

He has said that the race was extremely tight with several passing opportunities for the competitors. This made for a great spectacle according to France. Joey Logano and Hamlin have been part of a major incident only last week, but the chairman France has said that he does not intend to hold talks with the pair in the hopes of repairing their relationship. He has acknowledged that NASCAR remains as a contact sport and such incidents are bound to happen in the latter stages of the race. The most important thing according to France was that both drivers were extremely competitive.

However, France did confirm that the organising committee is studying the incident involving the drivers. “What I know is when the racing is tighter and there’s more passing, there’s just more excitement and more contact and more things that happen. That’s kind of what NASCAR is all about. Kind of what happened on Sunday was a prototype event for how we would look what a good event ought to look like. They were going at it. It probably didn’t hurt the competitiveness that both drivers didn’t want the other one to win,” said France, who said that SAFER barriers could be installed to prevent such incidents in the future.

Video clip Score: 4 / 5

Video Rating: 4 / five

Vaulkhard will be hoping that the test goes smooth. His career has been slowed down by a number of factors including financial difficulties. He rose to fame back in 2007 after winning the SEAT Cupra R series title, while later moving to the British touring car Championships. Even though he has remained with the BTCC on a consistent basis, he had to miss the 2011 season as a result of a lack of seat. He recently signed to raise the European NASCAR series, but had to pull out due to several reliability and financial problems. The 27-year-old has made it no secret of the fact that he would like to get into NASCAR racing.

“It was just before Christmas and I got an email from the team offering me the chance to test in the USA. I have to say it was quite a nice pre-Christmas present! MacDonald Motorsports is a top-end team so it was great news. I’m really looking forward to giving it a go. For a while I’ve been looking at NASCAR as where I want to be. I’ve always felt that it would suit the kind of driver that I am and it’s a series I’ve always loved,” said Vaulkhard.

Video clip Score: 5 / five

However, the German managed a sixth place finish and won the F1 world championship title. Alonso recently spoke that title is not the only thing that matters because he is extremely happy with the way he competed throughout last season. Alonso was one of the best drivers through to the last season and held the lead in the championship standings for most of the season. Ferrari are expected to bounce back strongly according to the team boss, who is expected to adopt an aggressive strategy for next season. After falling behind Red Bull during the back end of the season, Ferrari recovered strongly to finish the season on a high note. Domenicali expects things to progress from that stage.

“It is not easy when you do such an incredible season to lose in that condition. But the strength of a champion is to make sure that in this break you recharge and once again be the best. If you put yourself in his shoes, he knows and he knew at that stage he would have deserved the championship. Honestly. That’s without putting any negative words on Sebastian – he won and so he deserved that,” said the Ferrari team principal. Ferrari were disappointed not to win the constructors championship.