Even if Eddie Irvine lifts the Formula One drivers' trophy tomorrow, the coveted number one will not appear on a Ferrari next year. The honour of pasting the premier digit on its nosecone will go to Jaguar, the team Irvine will race for in the 2000 season. Despite bringing Ferrari to the very brink of its first championship in 20 years, Irvine is being replaced by Rubens Barrichello.

Despite the much publicised fractiousness of Irvine's relationship within both Ferrari and with Michael Schumacher, it seems a senseless move. Why ditch a potential champion? In a sport driven by hundred-million dollar budgets and the relentless pursuit of perfection, on the part of both drivers and constructors, loyalty is a sometimes costly weakness.

Barrichello's switch to Ferrari to replace Irvine is a perfect case in point. The Brazilian, consigned to the Formula One wilderness after an initial move from Jordan to Ferrari in 1995 fell through, eventually found himself at the fledging Stewart team. As the team prospered, so too did Barrichello, the Brazilian's confidence returning under the protective wing of Jackie Stewart.

But when the call came from Ferrari, Barrichello couldn't resist. The lustre of Ferrari is hard to ignore and the chance to drive a championship contending car is too much to resist. The fact that Stewart brought Barrichello back from the brink counted for nought.

It would appear that drive is everything, duty nothing. Damon Hill, competing tomorrow in his final Formula One race, knows the downside of the sport's lack of loyalty better than most. Standing atop the Suzuka podium three years ago, Hill had already been sacked by Frank Williams and was on his way to lowly Arrows.

But for once loyalty did make a brief show as Williams's designer Adrian Newey railed against his team owner's callous disregard for his champion and walked out on Williams to move, after a quick and dirty legal wrangle, to McLaren.

Formula One remains a small pond. Potential big fish are snapped up by teams with ruthless speed and alarming disregard for the niceties of contract law as Jordan's frequent court battles to hold on to drivers (most notably Michael Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella) will attest.

For drivers too, the pickings are slim. With only 11 constructors, the attainment of the ultimate drive is the holy grail and if the grail changes colour and shape each season drivers will pursue it up and down the paddock.