The emerging of Jenson Button as the new British hope has thrilled compatriot Ann Bradshaw as much as it has thrilled the young racers she spent the weekend with, at the Formula BMW UK meeting in Brands Hatch. That race also reminded her what is Ayrton Senna's real legacy to motor racing

I wish I could get excited about watching Michael Schumacher win races. In fact, I should rephrase that: I wish I could get excited about Michael Schumacher leaving the opposition in his wake and winning races by a country mile. I can't and so that is the last time in this column that I'll mention his name.

I can get excited about Jenson Button doing well. It is great to see him get pole and then finish second and leave lots of the bigger boys looking silly. Both him and his BAR team deserve this success. The team has had its very public ups and downs but at last it is stable, everyone there is working for the same result and it shows by what Button did on Sunday. I suppose the only down side was the failure of his teammate, Takuma Sato's engine. I am sure there would have been lots of Japanese men ready to throw themselves on very sharp swords if the same had happened to Jenson's Honda power plant. Luckily it didn't, and so in the champagne that must have flowed afterwards I am sure this was almost forgotten.

Honda have had a bad year in bikes - Valentino Rossi left them for Yamaha and then rubbed their faces in the tarmac in South Africa - so letting down Jenson, who is admired by everyone, would have been very humiliating. However, they didn't so David Richards, the boss of BAR, and Honda are the toast of the UK today. They have given us back an F1 hero.

We thought David Coulthard might give us something to shout about but sadly for him and McLaren their year goes from bad to worse. We lost both our underdogs – Ralph Firman and Justin Wilson – and most people felt that if former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve couldn't lift BAR out of its doldrums, then who could. Thankfully for all of us, the grown up Jenson Button stepped forward, took on the mantle of being an elder statesman and proved he is a leader of men (and women). He has the looks – modern in a slightly scruffy way; manners – very polite and loves his dad; the lifestyle – flat in Monaco and an expensive boat; and the girlfriend – his fianc?e is beautiful, sensible and famous in her own right.

I was watching the Grand Prix at Brands Hatch - the track is now owned by ex-F1 driver, Jonathan Palmer. I was there with Formula BMW UK and so was watching the race with some pretty knowledgeable kids. I call them kids as they can be as young as 15 and no older than 25 to race in this series. Anyway, I was watching with several of these and a few mums and dads, and I was certain that all of them were looking up at Jenson leading that race and dreaming that one day it would be them.

It was also interesting to hear their thoughts on the drivers. They all liked Jenson, their dads used to marvel at the driving skills of Nigel Mansell and surprisingly there was not a lot of support for my favourite, Juan Pablo Montoya. One of the youngsters told me he felt he was saying too much and doing too little on the track. No mincing words there!

With safety very much in mind, I was also thinking about Ayrton Senna later in the day when the second of our races was run. So much has been written about him over the past week - some I agree with and some I felt was better left alone and not repeated. He was a great driver and was a great loss. However, ten years later, in all the words written about him most were personal reflections and not a lot about his legacy.

In Brazil, the Senna Foundation, run by his sister, makes sure millions of Brazilian children have a better life. In Motorsport, he did not die in vain as the safety measures brought in since then have saved lives. His death made people realise that the old saying about remembering when 'sex was safe and motor racing was dangerous' could still be applied. Now cars are built to sustain amazing high speed crashes and the drivers are cocooned against all but the worst of disasters.

I saw a stark reminder of that five laps into race two of the Formula BMW UK series, when a 19-year-old Portuguese driver called Duarte Felix da Costa had what could have turned out to be a very serious accident. The first I knew about it was when one of the officials of the meeting - who had kindly allowed me to join our Formula BMW UK Chief Instructor, Andy Priaulx, in race control - called out 'car rolled at Druids; Safety Car deployed'. From then on things happened very rapidly. I could see the spot from the window but could also see it on the circuit's cameras. Then we saw a replay: the car had veered off the track and then rolled over several times before coming to rest upside down against the barriers.

The safety crews were marvellous. There was no panic. They were at the scene in seconds and, led by Dr Paul Trafford, carefully extracted the driver from the car. I say carefully as they had been practising all winter for such a moment, but hoping never to have reason to do it for real. The news was swiftly relayed that the driver was unconscious and those of us looking helplessly on went very quiet. We could then see how the professionals worked.

The car was put back on its wheels gently. The driver's helmet and HANS device removed painstakingly slowly. A neck brace was put round his head and then still in the BMW Rescue Seat, which is fitted in each car, he was lifted out. The Medical Centre was waiting for him. They checked him thoroughly and then the good news came back that he was okay. He had suffered a bad concussion but was comfortable and almost before the race was re-started was in a helicopter on his way to the local hospital for precautionary checks.

Several hours later the news came back he was being kept in overnight, his parents were at his bedside but he had no injuries. The other news was he was really upset as he hadn't scored any points in race two and this would mean he would drop down the championship order! I smiled to myself that this was his first reaction. However, I also smiled and thanked Ayrton. A fellow Portuguese speaker who was doing what Ayrton so loved doing was safe and well thanks to lessons learnt. He would be back in a car and continue with his career. Ayrton would never be, but his legacy speaks for itself.

Before I finally finish the column I want to go back to Imola and my impressions from the weekend. I was interested to hear the thoughts of FIA president Max Mosley on how Formula One can survive in the future. Some of the ideas were 2.4 litre V8 engines that would be used for two races, a control tyre, no spare cars, no tyre changing during the race, parc ferme conditions for the entire meeting, manual gearboxes and clutches, majority votes counting on technical changes rather than total agreement, drastic reduction in private testing and four cars per team able to score manufacturers' points. These are just the first in what I am sure will be many suggestions over the next few months. However, the idea is to have a firm set of rules in place by the end of 2005 for action in 2008.

Some of these ideas I like and some I don't - and I am sure the teams will have much stronger views than I have. However, things must happen soon if F1 is to survive. I doubt F1 as we know it can continue. The costs are out of all proportion to what is going on in the world and so something that can reduce this without reducing the public's excitement and perception of what F1 is – the top of the motorsport tree – must happen.

My only worry is some of these ideas mean F1 will become a glorified F3000. We don't want a high class, one-make series; we want true competition where very clever men such as Patrick Head, Gavin Fisher, Ross Brawn, Adrian Newey, Mike Gascoyne, Geoff Willis, etc. can show us just what it is possible to achieve. I like to think these machines are special and that it takes a very special man to design them. I like to think they can only truly be driven well by exceptional men such as… sorry, I forgot I was not going to use the S word, but I think you all know who I mean!

Nevertheless, there always has to be a starting point in such situations and I shall watch with interest how Max and the F1 team bosses reach a settlement.

Now for me, it is off to Magny Cours for round 3 of the FIA ETCC. I feel indifferent to this track in the middle of nowhere. I hope for my mates in F1 that if they cannot go to Imola again to sample the delights of that part of Italy, the powers that be can at least find them some place nicer than this featureless circuit in a part of France that is not known for its culinary delights. I won't eat badly next weekend, but compared to my mates who were tucking into the local Imola delicacies, I won't be doing so well either...

About the author:
Ann Bradshaw - Annie - began her motor racing career as a teenager, helping out her brother in local rally races in England, where she grew up. In the 1970s she organised motor racing events in England, and was later the press officer for the RAC MSA - the motorsport governing body in Britain. In mid 1980s, she became press officer to team Lotus, where she worked with Ayrton Senna. Shortly after, she moved to the Williams team and was working there for several years, when once again she found herself working with Senna. She worked with Damon Hill after the Brazilian's death, and moved with the British Champion to Arrows. She also worked with the Panoz team in the United States, before becoming a freelance press officer, now working with BMW among others. Annie joined Atlas F1 as a regular columnist in April 2002.

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