Motor Racing: Ferrari fired up for heat of battle

Hungarian Grand Prix: Hakkinen and Schumacher prepare for sweltering showdown

THE CIRCUIT should be more to his car's liking, the conditions should favour his fabled fitness, so anything short of victory is unthinkable. For Michael Schumacher, this is the last chance saloon.

He is characteristically defiant in the face of a 16-point deficit, but concedes he cannot afford to lose more ground to Mika Hakkinen in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix here.

Schumacher's Ferrari was hopelessly outclassed at Hockenheim, last time out, and McLaren-Mercedes can safely anticipate being at the head of the field again this weekend. Even Schumacher's own fans appear to have given up on him. Seventy per cent of Germans polled recently considered his championship a lost cause.

Schumacher, however, maintained yesterday: "At the beginning of the season people said we could not win races but I have won four, so we'll see. It becomes more difficult when you drop points, and I really have to make up some ground here. This is a good circuit to do that. I'll never give up on the championship until it is mathematically impossible to win it."

Schumacher again protested his innocence yesterday amid rumours that Ferrari were using an illegal traction control system to boost the car's performance so that it could compete with the superior McLaren-Mercedes.

The rumours had been fuelled when it took longer than usual to download the computer software from the Ferrari so that it could be checked after the last race in Germany a fortnight ago.

"I find this all rather silly," said Schumacher, who faced similar speculation during his first world title season with Benetton in 1994. "I do not believe for one moment that any car is using an illegal strategy. People did not believe us in 1994 even though we did nothing illegal and that did upset me."

Typically, McLaren have left nothing to chance in their preparations for the heat of the Hungaroring, testing at a similarly stifling Jerez, in southern Spain.

"It is like a sauna here," Hakkinen said. "The sweat runs into your eyes and makes the driving very difficult. You have to make sure you take on a lot of fluid before the race."

Equally typically, Schumacher seized the opportunity to pick off a couple of psychological points. "Compared with saloon cars, Formula One cars are air-conditioned," he said.

Schumacher, of course, has raised the physical stakes in grand prix racing, and the rest have had to play catch-up. But Hakkinen's team-mate, David Coulthard, is convinced the Finn will not be found wanting if the temperature reaches its expected near 100 degrees here on Sunday and Schumacher is breathing down his neck.

Coulthard said: "I'm sure Mika is fit enough. There are no worries about that. Over the past couple of years the team have had the facility to test our fitness and we've worked on improving it. Mika won't have a problem if it comes down to a close fight between the two of them.

"It is incredibly hot and this will be one of the hardest races of the season. I've been training more in the heat than usual, especially for this race. We've also been testing in Jerez in similarly hot conditions. Every single part of the car is stressed more and we have wider front tyres here.

"It's also harder on the mechanics. They work long hours and a couple of them had problems here last year.

"Michael was on pole here last year but I'll be surprised if we're not at the front. I believe we have the best overall package anywhere. It would take a brave man to bet against Mika now. It is a critical race for Michael."

Damon Hill's negotiations for a new contract at Jordan are apparently unlikely to be concluded this weekend. The sticking point remains money.