It’s a shame Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, Land Rover or Rolls-Royce aren't good enough for the Prime Minister

Now that was my kind of week. It began on 30 June at the Austrian Grand Prix with an on-track demonstration from Brit Lando Norris of McLaren (one win from 115 F1 races starts) that he may be suffering from ‘Damon Hill Syndrome’ – a condition afflicting up and coming drivers who struggle to overtake multiple world champions. 

For “nerve-wracked” Little Lando, Mad Max Verstappen (61 wins from 196 starts) was and always will be the problem. And although it was a bit sad that he and the Dutch driver crashed into each other in Austria, they at least facilitated victory for George Russell (2 wins from 115) and Britain. 

Shame then that come 1 July, our state broadcaster and national newspapers were so obsessed with saturation coverage of Wimbledon that they barely mentioned George’s world-beating success the previous afternoon. How very British!

The undoubted highlight of the week was on 2 July when we at Auto Express proudly announced the Citroen e-C3 as our Car of the Year 2024. As one of the founding fathers of the mag in 1988 and having attended dozens of our New Car Awards ceremonies over the last third of a century I struggle to think of a more worthy winner. The e-C3 supermini cum chunky SUV is a textbook example of the right car at the right time with the right RRP. Its comparatively low starting price of £21,995 means it can be yours for only half as much as the ‘average-priced’ new car on sale in Britain this summer. 

The morning after the night before I received data that allowed me to compile the definite list of best-selling companies in the first six months of 2024. No surprise that VW occupies the number one position, but more shocking is that the number two slot goes to BMW, thereby making it the most common premium car maker, ahead of third-placed Audi. Kia overtook fast-sinking Ford, Nissan is beating Mercedes, Toyota’s ahead of Hyundai, and Vauxhall is desperately clinging to 10th place.  

Come General Election day, the Conservatives lost badly and several of its most recent transport ministers – including Shapps, Trevelyan and Harper – lost their seats. Partly because they did a lousy job in looking after motorists who massively outnumber public transport users. Worryingly, one of the first people to congratulate incoming Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the night was his old friend Sadiq Khan – The Godfather of the London ULEZ scheme that I’m worried will soon be rolled out across Blighty. 

By Friday, the new PM arrived at Downing Street in an Audi. So isn’t a British-made Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, Land Rover or Rolls-Royce good and safe enough for you Keir?   

Talking of new jobs, Essex teenager Oliver Bearman has just left school, attended his first proper job interview and so impressed his potential employer that it offered him a multi-million-pound contract as a full-time Haas F1 driver. This means Oli was one of the few kids in the UK able to afford an entry ticket to the British Grand Prix this past weekend. On a more serious note, he’s an inspiration, a credit to his generation, school, family and country.