Mark Webber is fourth in the World Championship standings. (Photo: Getty Images)

What Hellmund does seem to have is local government support. The press release includes a lengthy quote from Susan Combs, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Forgive me as a Brit if I don’t quite understand what that means, but she makes is clear that this is a big deal, noting that “the visibility and prestige of this event will spotlight our state on the international stage.”

The Governor of Texas, and the Austin mayor, are also quoted. So will state or city money be poured into making it happen? That’s a good question. At the very least, one might assume that planning and noise issues and so on will not be a problem. But using public funds could prove to be somewhat controversial...

The Austin event is sure to be a major topic of conversation when we get to Turkey this week, but as I said earlier, there’s been plenty more to talk about lately.

Mark Webber has been at the focus of much of the chat, as he has suddenly emerged as a key player on the driver market, and has even been linked with Ferrari.

For months it’s been suggested that Webber intends to retire from the sport at the end of the year, and that Kimi Raikkonen – currently driving a Red Bull liveried car in the WRC – will step into his shoes.

It’s a strange concept, because Mark only turns 34 in August, and this is only his ninth year at the top level. You wouldn’t think that he would be ready to put on his slippers and slide into an armchair.

It’s not as if he’s lost his edge on the track and the team is keen to replace him, which is pretty much what happened with David Coulthard, his former RBR teammate.

Indeed after the last couple of weekends it seems that the team is falling over itself to re-sign him, while others are taking an interest. Logic suggests that should Robert Kubica go to Ferrari and Mark might like the idea of moving to Renault, having turned the team down in favor of Williams a few years back. But then, why leave the situation he has now? Whatever he does he would be wise to take advantage of his "man of the moment" status, because the F1 world is a fickle one.

One little bit of news that crept out of Red Bull last week was that the team had found an "issue" with Sebastian Vettel’s chassis, and that he’ll have a different one for Turkey. The German has clearly struggled to match his teammate over these last two races, so there’s a clear implication that he was driving with the equivalent of one hand tied behind his back. That has put a little dent into the reputation that Webber has boosted over the month of May.