Button's title is in the balance. True, McLaren and Ferrari may have taken points off Red Bull but it's their threat of locking Brawn out of the points that really matters...
Button Is In Big Trouble NowTempting though it is to repeat the argument that Jenson Button and Brawn were let off the hook in Budapest, it would be utterly misleading to imply that their overriding emotion should be relief rather than concern. Brawn are in a hole and, from the sounds of it, they're the ones doing the digging.
Something has gone badly wrong on their car at a period of the season when Renault, Ferrari and, in particular, McLaren have taken a giant leap forward. The upshot is that the team have been swallowed up by the chasing pack and Button's title lead is distinctly vulnerable. As they desperately need to discover why their car is suddenly a dud, the onset of F1's two-week shutdown couldn't be timed worse. In any case, Brawn are, relative to the opposition, under-manned to fight the ongoing development war. Forget all those notions about Button cruising to the title; he's in a scrap and feeding on them too.
Undoubtedly, Button would have been delighted by the retirement of Sebastian Vettel along with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen finishing in front of Mark Webber. But this was no more than a crumb of comfort. While Ferrari, McLaren and Renault all look capable of taking points off Red Bull, the larger threat is of them locking Brawn out of the points altogether. But for Felipe Massa's absence and Renault sabotaging their only driver, Button's afternoon would have been, like his team-mate, pointless.
When Webber remarked in his press conference that "We are still up here, we can take our car to a lot of venues and fight and we are still very much a force" it was obvious where he intended his message to be delivered. The revival of the big three is far worse news for Brawn than it is for their closest challengers.
Now The Hard Work Really BeginsStill, if there is a positive for Button and Brawn to cling on to then it is that they now have an opportunity to really prove themselves.
As remarked previously, the team took the easy way to the front for 2009 by leaving the 2008 season at the first available junction. But fixing their car in mid-season - and that's exactly what they'll have to do if they are to secure one or both titles - will be truly champion in comparison.
A Triumph For WhitmarshWhat relief for the new McLaren team principal. While the sheer size of the Woking operation ensured that the team would not remain down and out for long, the speed of their comeback speaks well for their new team principal and it's no wonder his relief was palpable in the post-race celebrations.
Whitmarsh will need to deliver success over a long period of time before he can prove himself an adequate replacement for Ron Dennis, but this victory stands as a valuable endorsement of his powers of motivation and leadership. Whitmarsh deserves considerable credit for successfully guiding McLaren through the most damaging crisis in the team's history.
Form Is Temporary, Class Is PermanentThe haters be silent. Hamilton's imperious, faultless drive was a trenchant riposte to his tedious band of critics as well as a blistering reminder of his considerable qualities.
He, like Button, seems to only truly come alive when he is given a piece of machinery that offers real hope of victory. All season long, Hamilton and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen have been reasonably equal-paced. Even this weekend, the Finn was there or thereabouts. Except that, when it really mattered, Hamilton suddenly found a different gear on Sunday - the hallmark of a truly outstanding competitor.
The Stewards Are Taking Too Long To Investigate The Wrong IncidentIt may have taken the German GP race stewards ten laps to investigate Mark Webber's first-corner swerve two weeks ago but that was pole-position pace compared to the efforts of their counterparts in Budapest this weekend. Just what reason could they have had not to investigate Raikkonen's first-corner activities until after the race? Are they race stewards or post-race stewards?
Their apparent bafflement at what to do is our bafflement about why they take so long to do it. A startled Raikkonen had to be told by reporters that he was being investigated so if it was the case that the stewards wanted to speak to him before considering their response then it was hardly as if they were in a rush to get to work.
Raikkonen's veer towards Hamilton was less sharp than that of Webber towards Barrichello in Germany and he also has the excuse, if required, that the KERS-boosted speed of the McLaren would have come as a bolt from the blue. The reality of some cars being so much quicker than the rest going into the first corner is that accidents are inevitable.
The second surprise from the stewards' office is that they did not chose to even investigate the release of Webber from his pit-stop into the path of Raikkonen. In commentary, Mark Brundle declared that Webber/Red Bull should be spared because "he didn't slow Raikkonen down." Really? Replays of the near-incident showed that a collision was avoided because Raikkonen took evasive action, which must have slowed him down, and that in avoiding Webber the wheels of his Ferrari crossed the sacrosanct white line separating the pit lane from the jurisdiction of the pitwall. You don't have to be a hysteric to consider that dangerous and worthy of investigation.
2009 Is About To Become A Testing GroundWith every team obliged to close their factory for two weeks during F1's mid-season break, development will be minimal for Valencia. It might also have been the case that development delivered for the rest of the season would be limited once teams start to switch attention towards 2010. Except that, with on-track testing strictly rationed, it's likely that the teams will use the rest of 2009 to try out new parts. Ferrari are reported to have done just that in both Germany and Hungary.
Rosberg Is A Driver On The RiseThe difficulty for Williams is that the better Nico Rosberg does, the more likely that he'll be lured to McLaren for 2010. The German - and his nationality would undoubtedly appeal to McLaren's partners Mercedes when the identity of Heikki Kovalainen replacement is debated - has become a model of consistency this season: in the process of scoring points in each of the last six races, Rosberg has steadily improved from finishing eighth in Spain by taking sixth in Monaco, fifth in Turkey and Britain, and now fourth in Germany and Hungary.
Goodbye To Nelson Piquet...The decent, calamity-free debut of Jaime Alguersuari has probably put the final nail into Nelson Piquet's F1 career at the age of 24. With in-season testing outlawed, the argument against jettisoning the hapless Son Of was the lack of on-track experience any young-and-up-and-coming replacement would have. Alguersuari has shown that it needn't be mandatory.
Funnily enough, incidentally, Alonso was one of the few drivers to back the appointment of the 19-year-old Alguersuari, declaring: "All the signs are that he is very good, if you are a Formula One driver it is because you are good. I am in favour of beginning as young as possible."
So If Renault Are Suspended For Fernando's Home Race...What price Alonso being hired as Massa's replacement?
Pete Gill
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