Formula One's multi-million-dollar swop shop has put up its shutters and closed for business....early.

Usually, just about now, the surreptitious comings and goings behind the darkened windows of the teams' trackside HQs, are at a peak level of intrigue.

Valencia, the scene of this weekend's European round, will see no such shenanigans because for some strange reason contentment over salaries and conditions at the top teams seem to have assuaged drivers of championship value and put them in a stay-put mode.

The paddock was rife with rumour that Aussie Mark Webber was legging it from Red Bull next year.

Not so. The late developer, and early pacesetter, has just re-signed for one more season at 33 years of age. The same goes for Felipe Massa, who was said to be heading for the exit door at Ferrari. But the Maranello hierarchy has opted to hang onto the popular Brazilian for another two years.

And that has becalmed Pole star Robert Kubica at Renault. He was earmarked for a job switch from the French outfit to the Prancing Horse set-up in 2011. Not any more....

Successive champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button — on £10 million and £6 million respectively, but with personal deals, they can double those salary figures — set the scene as non-movers with McLaren. As is usual with F1 the copy cat attitude swiftly engrosses the teams and the status-quo stance is now on firm foundations.

And there is not the remotest chance that 23-year-old wonderboy and Red Bull ‘s favourite and favoured son, Sebastian Vettel, will be departing the team happy as he on a base pay of £5 million with title place bonuses looming to take it to £10 million. Not bad for a virtual beginner in the top flight.

So the grand-prix money-go-round has ground to a dramatic halt and the historically mind-blowing driver-trading turnover that regularly stretches towards £100 million has, to the gratitude of most bosses and banking supporters, come to a full stop.

Maybe the under-achieving comeback of seven-times-champion Michael Schumacher won't be quite so disappointing if, after another comparative flop in Valencia, he decides to cut it short and decamp back to his lakeside mansion in Geneva. His total deal, I am told, is worth around £50 million — but I cannot believe there isn't a cut-off arrangement that would save Mercedes a bag of gold.

 

The author is an expert on motorsport based in England