Last week, I wrote a post about Robert Kubica and his future at Renault, which was ruined almost instantly by the announcement that he would be staying with the team until the end of 2012. In the post, I was somewhat dismissive of Petrov, not for anything in particular, but perhaps for his anonymity in F1 at the moment.

A few things this weekend have made me rethink, or at least form an opinion, of F1's only Russian driver.

On Friday morning, prior to Free Practice at Silverstone, we went driver stalking, and watched as several of those participating climbed into their respective cars and headed towards the circuit. Vitaly Petrov was one of those who we saw, and he left the hotel only moments after Kubica had previously departed (he can't even manage to be first out of bed).

As the above picture demonstrates, there were several fans lining up to see who was going to emerge, blinking into the morning sun, and each time a driver came out you'd hear cries of: "Robert, Robert," or "Tonio, Tonio." When Petrov came out, there was just one lone voice, asking in an unsure tone: "Vitaly?"

Poor chap. I felt really sorry for him. Granted, he didn't sign any autographs or pose for any pictures, but would you want to if no one was asking for them? He wasn't so much grumpy as completely ignored.

Later that day, during the Audience with Joe, Mr Saward was sharing some thoughts on Petrov and his season so far. Whilst there is nothing outstanding to say about the performance on track, the fact that he hasn't been rubbished by Kubica and is at least catching up to his more experienced partners' coat-tails speaks volumes.

Something I hadn't realised until this weekend was that Petrov didn't do the karting thing. Whilst the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso rose through the ranks and gained vital experience at the wheel of a kart, Vitaly was doing nothing of the sort. He had a comparatively late introduction to motor racing than you might expect of the best these days, and spent the formative years of his career in the Russian Lada Cup. No, I haven't heard of it either.

Before coming to F1, he competed in GP2 for several years as well, but he's arguably one of the least experienced racers out there. Keeping his nose clean and steering clear of trouble seems like much more of an achievement knowing that!

Now that Renault scuppered my plans for debating Kubica's future, I can turn my attention to Petrov instead. Will he have a future with them? He doesn't seem to mind being in a team dominated by the other driver, but as he gets more experience, will he stay that way? Would any other teams want him? If not next year, then further into the future?

It’s 10.55am on Saturday, Jenson Button has just put the Brawn on pole in Malaysia, and within the hour it will be my turn to get behind the wheel of a single seater for a chance to see if I have what it takes to be a speed demon. After a quick sprint up the A43 past Brackley and the home of Brawn GP, I arrive at the hallowed, sacred ground that is Silverstone. The circuit evokes many strong memories for me, there’s something about the place I just don’t feel anywhere else. This is the home of British racing. It’s more than just a track, this is history.

I’d been given a Single Seater Experience as a Christmas gift from the family; it came with a six month expiry so I was determined to hold out until the good weather arrived. I couldn’t have picked a better weekend and was thrilled to see not a cloud in the sky and a strong dose of sunshine which I would hope could only improve track temperature and thus make me quicker. Upon arrival at the centre I handed over my driving licence as proof I could drive and was handed back a rather complicated looking circuit map with numerous dots and markings over it. As I read on it dawned on me all these little dots were braking points and apex points. The enormity of what I could be letting myself in for slightly unnerved me but in true racing driver style I hid any anxiety from my accompanying chaperone with a cursory shrug and a ‘looks cool’. After a brief wait a group of us were called into the drivers' briefing room and so the fun began.

The instructor couldn’t stress enough how powerful and different a single seater is to drive but he gave us excellent advice on how to get the most out of the car and ourselves in the session. He explained driving techniques, the car, rules, safety, and what to expect. Today we were driving the Stowe circuit (yes I was a little annoyed it wasn’t the GP circuit) which is just under 1 mile and contains two long straights leading into tight corners, chicanes, and a great driving challenge. A 20 min session behind a pace car then 25 mins free lapping was the itinerary. After being suited up and fitted with a helmet we were led out to the cars and strapped in. I could barely contain my excitement of being strapped into a single seater and immediately appreciated just how hard it is to ease one's frame into the cockpit. The familiar smell of petrol wafted over me as the cars in front started and it was time to get my game face on.

The cars look like an F3 car, beautiful looking machines, and the sort of curves men kill for! 0-60mph in 5.4 secs, 4 speed manual transmission with a 1600cc engine. I remember the instructor quoting they were five times more powerful then a VW Golf with the same engine capacity due to weight to power ratio. The gears are different to normal, no neutral as such and you have to be very positive to enforce the gear changes. Once sat on the grid waiting to go, all nerves I had dissipated and I was desperate to get going, so desperate in fact I didn’t realise the previous driver had left the car in gear so when I got the order to start up my car lurched forward and I nearly tapped the car in front. I felt like Fisichella in Malaysia or Hamilton in Canada, I couldn’t believe I’d made such a ‘rookie’ error!! Fortunately for me there was ample room to the car in front so my blushes were spared. Starting the car requires flicking down a switch and then pressing a big fat button to engage the starter motor, for someone who drives a standard road car each day it was a great novelty to start without keys.

The safety car pulled out and the cars in front filtered away slowly in an orderly fashion, pulling away requires 3,000+ revs and slow off the clutch. I lunged forward in a style Richard Hammond would be proud of and at last was cruising out the pits onto the track. The noise immediately hit me as we gently opened our throttles and powered down the back straight, the vibrations rendered the mirrors instantly useless and I braced myself for some heavy braking and getting it into turn 2 safely. The safety car built us gradually up to speed, highlighting all the braking points (like it’s hard to miss a big board saying BRAKE! on it) and showing us the best lines to take through the corners. After 20 minutes I was signalled into the pits for a 5 min break, in no time at all I was released back onto track for the final free lapping period.

Over the next 25 minutes I was out alone on track living the dream. I deliberately dropped back off the pack (instructors advice) and let them zoom away for 1/3 lap. This freed up the circuit for me so I could literally drive flat out and not get stuck behind traffic. With every lap the tyre and brake temps came to the car which, coupled with a rapidly growing self confidence, made me push harder and harder with every single lap. Towards the end of the session I started to catch other cars up and the satisfaction of being waved through under blue flags was immense. I was Senna hunting down the pack (well in my head I was) and I duly dispatched every driver but one (12 of us). I can’t convey how good it feels following a car though a corner then burning past them on the main straight. On one lap I took two people in one move and felt thoroughly satisfied, all that homework had paid off. The best experience was storming down the straight at easily 120mph, then slamming the brakes down hard to get into the corner. I never appreciated how hard it is to control the car in that state. It’s rocking from side to side and you're half expecting to go straight on into the ever increasingly looming crash barrier. The noise, the vibrations and all this coupled with looking out of a little Perspex visor makes it an incomparable experience. After the fastest (literally) drive of my life it was nearly all over as I could see the chequered flag waving away. I buried the throttle and raced through the last few corners and couldn’t resist the temptation to raise my arm as I took the chequered flag. Sad I know but when do you ever get a chance to be a racing driver?

We all pulled in happy, with huge beaming smiles, and some very sweaty looking faces. A quick presentation followed with me getting second fastest time of the day - 45 second lap. I was 0.8secs off the best time of the session and 10 secs clear of the slowest driver, I was delighted (especially beating a police ‘driver’). We all received a nice looking certificate and telemetry print outs showing every lap time, performance increase, speed, average lap time etc. With that, we signed out, with the option of purchasing pictures taken of us on track (onboard footage £40). I got back in my shed of a car and raced off down the A43 back home, satisfied that for that brief hour I was Senna.

For reference I did the Single Seater Experience which is the more expensive of the two options on offer from Silverstone, it cost approx £120 and worth easily double that. You can view an onboard lap here, which shows it is simply worth every penny. Where else do you get to drive on the limit in a race car?

If you cast your mind all the way back to the end of January, you may remember we made a trip to the Porsche Human Performance Centre and met a chap called Mike Garth. At the time he mentioned he'd just finished working on a television show that attempted to discover a real life racing talent from a collection of bedroom gamers.

That programme has now been released, it's called GT Academy and is currently airing in the UK on Dave.

The brief was to find out what happens when you take 25,000 gamers, from 7 territories, all playing Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and then try to whittle them down to just two finalists capable of racing in the 24hrs of Dubai. A proper race, for experienced and professional race drivers.

Mike of Sun 1400 took the role of Head of Race Psychology, in a team of four judges which also included Eliot Challifour (who trains with Mark Webber and is a key member of the Porsche Driving Experience Centre), named as Head of Fitness. Sports car ace and ex. F1 driver, Jonny Herbert turned up to offer a few words of advice and encouragement for the hopefuls.

Four 25 minute episodes make up the series and depending on where you are in the world, you may be able to watch them online at Joost. I especially enjoyed the poor guy who lost his team mate mid-way through a karting competition, and found himself having to sit in a plastic seat for more than three hours, putting in 168+ laps in the process. Given our own mild mannered karting escapades earlier this year, that sounds like incredibly hard work.

The key question posed during the series was, do virtual skills transfer to reality? Mike said that before filming he was sceptical that they could, but did find himself surprised on a number of occasions. With the highly anticipated Formula One game from Codemasters rumoured to be heavy on realism, one wonders whether it can match GT5's legendary physics engine and one day offer future F1 stars the chance to make it big, via the TV in their living room?

The virtual world of motor sport simulation just got a whole lot more interesting. Check out the program this Saturday at 7pm and let us know what you make of it all.

As a quick recap of the tale we all know so well, Alex Wurz used to be a racer, then he was pushed aside in favour of Jenson Button and became a test driver.

For many, many years.

2007 saw his return to driving in anger, but he called it a day one race before the end of the season. So where does that leave us now? With Wurz returning to the safety of test driving with perennial grid-struggler's Honda.

I like Alex Wurz and I was really happy with him getting a seat for 2007. The same way I felt good for Anthony Davidson, all that hard work wasn't for nothing after all. You couldn't exactly call it a stellar season for Wurz, but it wasn't one of the worst either. I was surprised when he announced he was retiring from racing, even more so when he couldn't see it through to the end.

In an interview recently, Wurz said he didn't think he had the energy to complete another F1 season.

You must know that the thing we drivers love, which is of course driving these cars and pushing them to the limits, is about 10 percent of what we really do.

Which is all well and good, but this leaves me in a bit of a quandry. Wurz has spent the best part of a decade testing out cars. He is really good at what he does, and he's bound to make a difference at Honda. But is it really fair?

He's happy to admit that he doesn't want to race, yet he's signed as a reserve driver. We assume that if one of the main drivers was sick, he would have no objections to racing in their place - but he wouldn't really want to, would he?

With opportunities for new drivers in such short supply at the moment, is it fair that a guy who has admitted his racing days are behind him continues to hold a top position. What about all those young rookies that could do with a leg up into the pinnacle of motorsport? God knows, they could use the experience.

I'm not saying Wurz shouldn't be there, because he's bringing all that wealth of knowledge to the team. But at the same time, I've always assumed that the test role is more the predecessor of a race drive. Weren't we all a bit shocked when Hamilton jumped into a race seat without testing first?

Without really being able to come to a conclusion, I shall therefore turn it over to my good friends and blog readers. So, should he be testing or stepping aside for a younger driver?