Creating a Formula 1 fantasy team with all the past legends

He laid the foundation for Mercedes' record-breaking hybrid-era run with Lewis Hamilton before the poacher turned gamekeeper to run the whole F1 show. I saw him recently. He is supposedly retired but only 69 - and I reckon I could pull him back for one last job. There would be no one better.

Designer: Adrian Newey 

I should have asked while sitting next to him at the Autocar Awards earlier this year. The world championship count is up to 25 now. That's twenty-five.

Thirteen drivers' titles with Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Häkkinen, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen; 12 constructors' crowns with three teams - Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.

No one else comes close for hit rate or longevity. Uniting Brawn and Newey would be the racing equivalent of De Niro and Pacino sharing a screen for the first time in the film Heat.

Paths should have crossed in 1986, at the short-lived Ford-backed Haas squad (no relation to the current team owned by Gene rather than Carl), but thereafter they always worked against rather than for each other.

Imagine the combined brain power. Newey mumbles about retiring, but at 64 he's still addicted to winning - and surely that's now too easy at Red Bull. So one last throw of the dice with your old nemesis, Adrian? C'mon in.

Driver #1 Jim Clark

Comparing drivers from different eras is a fatuous exercise. But for me Moss and Clark are the epitome of all a racing driver should be.

Very different characters, of course, but I've gone for the quiet Scottish sheep farmer because I have a hunch he would have loved both Brawn and Newey - and certainly vice versa. Clark would have emerged a legend in any age.

Driver #2 Mike Thackwell

I'm heeding Frank Williams' warning about "two bulls in one field", so I won't pair Clark with another Galactico. Instead, I want the mercurial 'coulda-shoulda-woulda' young hero who will burn bright then burn out too fast.

I could name 20. I've gone for a Kiwi, the guy in the red helmet with a big white T, who caught my imagination as a kid. Mike Thackwell was just 19 when Tyrrell drafted him briefly at the tail end of 1980.

But he was too free-wheeling and unconventional for uptight F1. But alongside the inspirational, beatific Clark and with Newey and Brawn guiding him, maybe... just maybe.

In truth, he would probably be gone mid-season, to go surfing or run a bar or become a teacher for kids with special needs (all of which Thackwell did post-motor racing). But boy, what stories we would have giving him his shot.

Engine: Matra V12

Heart definitely ruling the head on this one. Twelve cylinders only rarely hit sustained success in F1. But that certain sound - you can't beat it, and the sonic cacophony of the Matra zinged the ear drums like no other.

Three GP wins, all with Jacques Laffite, was the lot (although Chris Amon came heartbreakingly close in the glorious MS120D at daunting Clermont-Ferrand in '72). But Newey and Brawn would find the key. Wouldn't they? If not, we can fall back on an old Cosworth DFV V8 mid-season.

Sponsor: Martini

Fags are out of bounds (nice one, Rishi), but how about booze? Martini stripes always pressed my buttons more than Gulf Oil's powder blue and orange - plus you can have them against silver (1974 Porsche 911 RSR 'whale tail, white (Brabham BT44 perfection) or 'rosso' (BT46B fan car).