But his disinterest isn’t because Formula One now favors short slight men with tiny metatarsal bones. Sorry, Juan Pablo "El Gordito" Montoya, you’re talented but it’ll take a miracle and a costly Marie France makeover for men for you to steal a championship from F1 future Kimi Raikkonen, F1 present Fernando Alonso, and F1 past Michael Schumacher.

Hill has lost interest because F1 teams are no longer sponsored by the likes of Marlboro, West, Camel and sigarilyong Boss.

At least, that’s our take of an interview with the 1996 Formula One champion published in February’s edition of F1 Racing.

In a preview of a press release of the magazine interview, Hill, who won the championship while driving the Williams-Renault, longs for the days when tobacco manufacturers dominated the sport instead of car companies.

He says tobacco sponsors looked for "individuals who broke the mould" while the Blue Chip companies and car manufacturers have different image requirements. Methinks Hill is thinking again of short people with tiny feet.

Just look at the example Hill gives as an explanation for his belief that F1 is beginning to be taken over by corporate types.

Says Hill, "Mohammed Ali was, and is, the greatest sportsman the world has ever known – but, however brilliant he was, someone like Ali would be much too outspoken for modern F1."

Now Ali is a giant in more ways than one, and that includes his feet.

Hill also fears commercialism is transforming the sport into something not to the liking of most fans.

Says he: "Inevitably, everything that commercialism touches will turn that way. It’ll simply become an endeavour to satisfy its controlling commercial interests."

This, he says, will drive fans away. "Punters can choose. They can watch the Grand Prix Masters or A1 Grand Prix," says Hill. "If people don’t get what they want from F1, I’m afraid they’ll go somewhere else to get it."

Aside from the sport being taken over by lean men who don’t break the mould, another of Hill’s plaint about the sport he once loved is what he calls a dilution of the essence of F1.

Says he: "The essence of the sport is man and machine: A team of guys build a car and take it to a racetrack and watch this naturally gifted individual do his stuff with what they’ve built.

"That’s the essence of F1. TV audiences are now slipping, but that’s what people did watch and would still watch. They want to see a hero and a car, but more than that, they want to know that he’s relishing and reveling in his own abilities."

"But now it’s portrayed as a job. You know, what’s the difference between a guy who drives a Renault F1 car and a guy who designs cup-holders for Renault?"

Umm, maybe feet size?