The weather forecast ain’t good. The car parks in Northampton are already on ‘amber alert’ and ‘The Silverstone Contingency Plan’ is being readied. With no Glastonbury this year, get set for a rash of mud-monster pictures in the Daily Mail. Sadly they will be of hardcore British race fans, not Kate Moss.

On the track, look out for something familiar on the sides of the Lotus E20. Batman. The team has done another of its ‘for one weekend only’ tie-ups, this time to promote The Dark Night Rises, what with their cars being black and everything. Bruce Wayne drives a Lamborghini in the movie, by the way.

The rear of Romain Grosjean’s Lotus E20 might be sporting some tin-can shaped aerodynamic aids as the charming Swiss-Frenchman has married since the last race in Valencia, a race Grosjean might have won had his Renault engine’s alternator not packed up.

(Oh, and take note of anyone you see Paul di Resta talking to. He’s split from his manager Anthony Hamilton, aka Lewis’s Dad. It is rumoured Di Resta is being lined up to replace Michael Schumacher, whose return to the podium has come too late to convince Mercedes it wants to continue its ‘Senior’ programme beyond Schu’s contract end at the close of this season).

The Red Bull RB8 cars will also look a little different. If you got in soon enough, your face could star in Sunday’s F1 action with both Vettel and Webber’s cars carrying thousands of little pictures of donators to its Faces for Charity campaign. The campaign has raised over Rs 5.14 crore for Red Bull’s ‘Wings for Life’ spinal chord research charity. Cute idea.

McLaren meanwhile believes the speed the RB8s showed at Valencia was ‘venue specific’ and does not expect them to disappear over the horizon. That will no doubt calm Jenson Button, who is coming to terms with learning it’s his habit of braking earlier and carrying more speed into a corner that’s causing his tyre problems. Lewis’s more banzai approach to braking points gets heat in to the front tyres more quickly. It was the opposite on last year’s rubber.

Are McLaren fast enough to win? Vettel, Hamilton and, of course Alonso are all on short-odds at the bookies. If you want to consider something longer we reckon it’ll be Fast Pastor Maldonado in the Williams-Renault this weekend, and not Clumsy Pastor Maldonado of Monaco and Valencia.

Lastly, we don’t need to tell you to throw a bit of extra support at Marussia. We wish Maria and all of the team the very best on what will be a difficult weekend.