BBC News Online: Sport: Formula 1

Hakkinen hungry for more success

Five races to go. It does not sound much. But do some elementary maths and there is no hiding for Michael Schumacher.

If Ferrari fail to improve on Hockenheim two weeks ago, Mika Hakkinen could be crowned world champion in Belgium in a fortnight.

This weekend in Hungary is the most important race of the year for Schumacher's title aspirations. He needs to break Hakkinen's winning roll and make good the deficit which has transformed the championship.

How he does that is open to question. The whispers and suspicions about Ferrari's alleged use of traction control will not go away.

If anything the race stewards' investigation of Ferrari software after the German Grand Prix has twisted the plot still further.

Nothing illegal was found but the doubters, who were so puzzled by Ferrari's curious under-achievement at Hockenheim, will not be silenced.

A resurgence this weekend will have tongues wagging even more.

Crucial point

The Hungaroring should promote much tighter competition, so beware of jumping to immediate conclusions. Ferrari did mile after mile of testing last week.

They know it is approaching make or break for the season.

"We're not panicking - we're just working very hard to make sure it comes good," designer Rory Byrne says.

"We've got to claw some points back and we've worked hard to make sure we're ready for the challenge."

Because the circuit makes it so difficult to overtake, Schumacher's best bet is to go all out for pole position - he has not been there since Hungary last year.

Then he has to frustrate the McLarens just as Thierry Boutsen did for Williams in 1990 when he led from start to finish and held off the great Ayrton Senna, who could not find a way past and followed home 0.3 seconds behind.

Cruising along

Hakkinen, however, is clearly on song. He has won that many races in 1998, and he probably starts whistling the Finnish national anthem to himself every morning.

And he starts red hot favourite to delight the hordes of Finns, who for some reason come en masse to Budapest.

David Coulthard's role may become increasingly important as a so-called support car. Team orders, of course, are acceptable to the FIA when the championship is at stake.

A Hill start

Aside from championship developments, this could be the weekend when Damon Hill finally commits himself to another year with Jordan.

Fourth place in Germany pleased all parties and this is a circuit he loves.

In 1993 he won his first F1 race. He won again in 1995 and last year he almost made it three. But then his ailing Arrows, starting from third on the grid and passing Schumacher's Ferrari on the inside early on, was caught on the very last lap by Jacques Villeneuve's Williams.

Hill's faith in the car is growing and new designer, Mike Gascoyne, is firmly of the opinion that the team should be scoring points regularly.

"We'll be aiming fo the top six in qualifying and we want to follow that up in the race," Mr Gascoyne says.

"We've got some new acrodynamic changes to the front of the car and it'll be good to see how much progress we've made, because we're currently developing the 1999 car."

Ralf Schumacher's three successive points finishes have put him in the shop window. British American Racing and Williams are reportedly chasing him, as much as Jordan.

It is amazing how contract talks concentrate the mind!

The heat is on

Johnny Herbert, whose 1999 options seem to rest between Stewart and Sauber, is bullish about his prospects of following up last year's third place.

Testing in Jerez last week was encouraging but the expected 100 degrees temperatures could play havoc with cooling systems!

Jacques Villeneuve, Hungary winner for the last two years, is, however, underwhelmed by Williams's chances.

He said: "We'll need a bit more luck even though the team's been working really hard to be competitive."

More luck? Surely he had a jumbo portion last year in catching Damon Hill. In any case, Montreal was meant to be the Silly Race of 1998.

In this section

Toyota set to join F1
Irvine's $2m miss
Hakkinen crowned F1 champion
Finn toasts team success
1999 Championship standings
Ferrari dream in tatters
F1's emotional champion
Dreams shattered in Irvine's home village
Grand Prix's favourite son
Mika's glory: Japanese GP in pictures
Top cat Eddie
The best man won
Damon Hill: An F1 career in pictures
Silverstone to stage F1 Easter parade