Hungarian Grand Prix Review

McLaren got the strategy just right for both Raikkonen and Juan-Pablo Montoya, especially given where they were qualifying on Saturday. After his Hockenheim DNF, Kimi was first out on the Hungaroring dustbowl; thus McLaren gave him a three-stop strategy to vault him up the grid. On top of that, they brought him in early for his first stop, even though he probably still had a few laps' worth of fuel, thereby outfoxing Ferrari and luring main rival Michael Schumacher into a false sense of security.

It suggested to Ferrari that, on their more orthodox three-stop plan, Michael would still be making his second stop after Kimi did, when pitting later is always an advantage. But not only did Schumi make his second stop before the Finn, but McLaren also short-fuelled, so that, in effect, Kimi's race would be divided into short-long-short-long stints. That gave him track position over the German, although by that stage Michael's Bridgestones were going off and in hindsight Kimi would have had him beaten regardless.

Montoya, however, was on a two-stop plan - possibly the more optimal given the McLaren's speed advantage that would allow him to not be penalised too much by having the extra weight on board. Before his driveshaft failed, Raikkonen was catching up to him, but both still had only one stop to go. It would have been a close-run thing, but as The Iceman said at the post-race press-conference, we'll never know whether he or the Colombian would have come out on top.

On the side, Montoya fronted up to Hungary with a new helmet design, replacing his old scheme which had been drowned in a chrome overdose anyway. The F1 Rejects verdict: we like it, and we hope he keeps it! Meanwhile, McLaren also stopped being mobile billboards for weapons of mass destruction by ending their almost three-decade association with cigarette companies. We wait to see who will be their new title sponsor, after it was revealed that Johnnie Walker's sponsorship will be minor for the time being.

There was a little bit more joy down Maranello way, as Schumi recorded his most competitive outing probably since Imola. It was his first pole position since Japan last year, and his longest pole drought since he went 19 races without starting from the top spot from Spa 1997 to Spa 1998. There was no doubt that it was a scorching lap, aided by new and improved Bridgestone tyres, but in hindsight he and Ross Brawn were out-thought in the race and the tyres weren't up to the task for a full race distance.

There's little doubt that the F2005 itself isn't the world-beating weapon its predecessors were, but if blame for this year's underachievement can be distributed then it's probably 70-30 against Bridgestone, and Michael's improved performance here went some way to proving that. From making a tyre that could neither perform over one lap nor over a full race distance, the Japanese company can now do the former but still not the latter. Makes you wonder why there are rumours some Michelin teams are thinking of switching.

Toyota were back to genuine competitiveness after a dull few races, and not just in qualifying but also in the race, where they showed some very solid pace. Ralf Schumacher's 3rd place, his first podium for his new team, and Trulli's 4th meant that Toyota took away more constructors points than anyone else. But Trulli ran the whole race with damage to his diffuser after the collision with Barrichello, which makes you wonder about Ralf's inherent pace when Jarno was only 18s behind at the finish.

Had the race lasted a few more laps, it would have been interesting to see if Ralf would have made a more concerted attempt to pass his brother for 2nd. On general history, probably not, for his reluctance to so much as try a manoeuvre on his more illustrious sibling is well known. But it was in Hungary in 2003 that, going into turn one, he made a fantastic move to scythe past Michael. Still, the Ferrari seemed to be getting better drive out of the last corner than the TF105, so a pass was probably never on.

BAR were not 'best of the rest' like they were in Germany, and unlike for Montoya, the 007 did not have enough intrinsic speed to make a two-stopper work. But really, no one was paying attention to what Jenson Button was doing on the track; it was Buttongate Mark II that had everyone talking. It was very ironic, almost amusing, that Jenson had made his bed but was now refusing to lie in it, publicly declaring that he wanted to renege on his contract with Williams for 2006 and stay with BAR.

It was interesting to note how all of Frank Williams, Ron Dennis and Bernie Ecclestone called on Jenson to honour his contract and go to Williams next year. Was that Frank and Ron trying to avoid a(nother) courtroom showdown between two of the 'Group of 9' teams? If so, why was Bernie getting involved? And at the end of the day, as was the question we asked last year, would it be good for Jenson to drive for a team he doesn't want to be a part of? Would he give his utmost in that situation?

Almost forgotten was that Takuma Sato scored his first point of the season for 8th place, but would that be enough to save his seat? The Barrichello rumours had Rubens being signed to replace either Jenson or Taku - it was simply a matter of having the Brazilian on the pocket. Accompany that were stories of Felipe Massa taking Rubens' seat at Ferrari. Despite the denials and the silence, rarely do such strong rumours prove wrong. There are more 'worst kept secrets' than such strong rumours that don't eventuate.

In the middle of the Button controversy, it was an important race for Williams to bring Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber home in 6th and 7th respectively. That meant an improvement of 6 places for Heidfeld and 9 for Webber from their grid positions. The excruciatingly long first stints in a two-stop plan paid dividends, especially for Mark, who had made rare errors on his qualifying lap and was starting from his worst grid position since Austria in 2003.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Red Bull
Wrong place. Wrong time. Twice!

Where did all this leave championship leaders Renault? In truth, they were not the most competitive all weekend, having only started 6th and 9th for Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella. Just as they were not very flash at Monaco, so they were caught out again by a slowish track. Fisichella's race was already compromised by being held up by Heidfeld early on, and it was completely shot right at the end when he needed an unscheduled splash-and-dash stop. His underwhelming season continues.

By his lofty standards this year though, Alonso's race was a disaster. He was entitled to dive down the inside of Ralf at the first corner, assuming Ralf braked at the same point as Fernando. But the German braked later, and at that point it was too late for the Renault to pull out. Thus it was a racing incident, and the resultant damage to the bodywork by the front wing breaking loose resulted in a 7% reduction in downforce and therefore 1.2 seconds a lap. So they say, at least.

If that is true, then we were mistaken on the podcast made immediately after the race, and it would explain why he had zero impact for the rest of the race. But even if he had had a trouble-free race, would he have scored the 4th place or better that would have kept Raikkonen behind the eight-ball? One suspects not. But there is no reason to panic. Only rarely does anyone have a perfect season like Schumi did in 2002; generally, even a high-scoring campaign will include the odd failure here and there. It's part of the game.

It was, of course, an unmitigated disaster for Red Bull. Wrong place, wrong time, for both the unfortunate Christian Klien and David Coulthard. Neither Klien's flip or DC's shattered suspension as a result of hitting Alonso's stricken front wing were their fault, but Red Bull nonetheless get our 'Reject of the Race' award. Certainly, it's a case of reject by unfortunate circumstance rather than reject by design or daft conduct, but to have both cars out in separate incidents on the first lap deserves some recognition.

It is a good thing that Klien will still drive the number 15 car in Turkey and Italy. Even if his recent form has not been quite as good as it was at the start of the season, it is still somewhat better than what Vitantonio Liuzzi has been able to show. The Red Bull management have already toyed enough with Tonio and Christian's careers this season; instead of making decisions for the few races ahead only, they should lay down their cards so both can know with certainty what their roles until season's end will be.

Jordan are still yet to give the EJ15B its race debut, and it's getting to the stage where one wonders if it's ever going to happen, or if the modified car will be worth introducing at all. Perhaps they've scrapped it altogether, given that Nicolas Kiesa has only driven an EJ15 at Hockenheim and the Hungaroring. It was a tamer performance from Narain Karthikeyan this weekend as he revealed that he has been in talks with India's A1GP franchise owners for a drive in that series over the European winter.

Albers in turn blamed Webber for the incident, which was as much an indicator of Christijan's recent excellent form as it was of Williams' recent horror run. He was able to run as high as 14th during the race, despite the damage from the first corner incident, before hydraulic maladies struck and left him 11 laps down at the end. Likewise, Robert Doornbos continued to impress in his second race, passing Albers at the first stops and catching the Jordans when hydraulic problems befell him, too.

Of course, of even more interest to us was the GP weekend debut of Chanoch Nissany on Friday, who became the first Israeli to participate in an official meet, and also the oldest man to do so since Nigel Mansell's disaster at McLaren in Spain in 1995. Nissany didn't cover himself in glory on his home track (he lives in Hungary), spinning off after only eight laps of free practice. We doubt he'll ever actually race in F1, which is a shame, because otherwise he'd probably be a perfect candidate for this website!

And so we move on to the new race for season 2005, the Turkish GP in Istanbul. Along with all the excitement that comes from a new Grand Prix anyway, this event is even more eagerly anticipated. The exotic location, the unique Hermann Tilke-designed track layout that runs anti-clockwise, and the renewed championship struggle between Raikkonen and Alonso, means that the race can't come soon enough. But after four races in five weeks, the three week gap to Turkey seems painfully long.