Jean Todt tackled the subject of Rubens Barrichello's rumoured departure from Ferrari during a press briefing after Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix. While Todt was non committal on where matters currently rested, it was significant in that he raised the matter at all.

It is widely believed that Barrichello will switch to the BAR-Honda team next year, either as a team-mate to Jenson Button, or if the Englishman is unwillingly forced to honour his Williams contract, as the team's new number one driver. Close friend - and fellow Brazilian - Gil de Ferran, who is the BAR boss, hinted as much over the weekend. Speculation now surrounds the identity of Barrichello's replacement, with Sauber's Felipe Massa being the most widely tipped, a rumour given grist by team boss Peter Sauber's utterances that he would be 'unable to hold onto his driver next year'.

Controversy in Hungary also surround the continuation of tobacco sponsorship F1, as a new EU law came into effect on Sunday which curtailed tobacco advertising throughout member nations. While McLaren-Mercedes - concerned about the legal implications of breaking the new law - removed their 'West' insignia, Ferrari, and the other tobacco sponsored teams did not. Finally leaving this form of sponsorship behind is going to be a difficult process for some of the F1 teams, and this controversy is set to rumble on, with Ferrari adamant that the will carry 'Marlboro' identification during the Italian Grand Prix.

Jean Todt

Scuderia Ferrari team principal Jean Todt admitted to being optimistic for the future after Michael Schumacher finished second to Kimi Raikkonen in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. “We were very good for qualifying - even better than we could expect - and then very good for 25 laps during the race, and then came a drop of performance because of a drop of grip,” summarised Todt. “Slowly but surely we understand the problem with our friends from Bridgestone and we improve the situation, but as I said, one week ago, we will come out of it, but it takes a certain amount of time.”

It was, said Todt, a “general trend.” The tyres used at the Hungaroring were a development of those used the previous week in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. “It is a completely different philosophy of tyres. To be quick on the first lap, you have to change the philosophy so you start to learn a new situation again. We were competitive in qualifying and improved the performance but not to the past level where we were much quicker during the whole race. So slowly and slowly… you know, it’s like a cocktail. We are working on it.”
 

Todt explained that “we test about ten compounds every time (we test); there are a lot of compounds and constructions available and slowly but slowly we are able to target and to better identify what is the need to be competitive for the whole race. Until the 21st lap Michael was quick, then he started to be conservative. “We have solved part of qualifying, we have solved the beginning of the race,” continued Todt. “The next step is the other part of the race. Then we can challenge.” Asked if that was how Ferrari and Bridgestone tackled the problem, in such stages, Todt chuckled “I’m afraid so, yes.” He then revealed that the team would be testing for four days this week, establishing the tyres for the next couple of Grands Prix, in Turkey and at Monza.

Todt suggested that Ferrari were finally at a stage that they should have been at the beginning of the season. “We have a promising package. The only problem is that we’ve already done 13 races. If we were one month before the start of the championship I think we would have big hopes but now 13 races in makes life more difficult.”

Asked about rumours that Michael Schumacher’s teammate Rubens Barrichello might be leaving the team and heading to BAR next year, Todt initially said “I read that this morning. At the moment, I don’t have any comment to make on that.”
However, he then added “I always say this. I want people to be happy in the team with or without contract. If Rubens is demonstrating to me that he would be more happy somewhere else, I am happy to discuss it with him to make him happy. It’s something that will have to be finalised soon. I have said as well, that I will not wait until the end of the racing season, so it’s something which will have to happen in the coming days. I don’t say that he’s unhappy, but maybe he could feel that he would be more happy somewhere else. I don’t know so that’s what I’m going to debate with him.”

As for his own happiness, Todt said “I am OK. I was happy yesterday after qualifying, because I knew it was going to be very difficult to win, but as long as I see that things are moving forward I feel good and I think that things are really moving forward. It’s a good team, good partners, fantastic partners, motivated. I knew that this unbelievable success story would stop. Now I want to make sure that it starts again as soon as possible.”

Asked if Michael ever speaks about beating Ayrton Senna’s qualifying record – and he’s one pole away from that – Todt said “Never. I think we will have time to speak about that in the future, I mean when we are retired we can speak about that.”

“At the end of the year,” he was asked? “I’m not going to retire at the end of the year, neither is Michael, even if it makes some people happy, but we are not going to.”

Michael Schumacher

At the end of a weekend in Hungary the feeling remains that an even better result could have been achieved. Even considering the performance of the McLaren and the deterioration of his tyres, Michael reached his peak with the second place conquered at the Hungarian GP at Budapest. “We can be really pleased. This second place is a very good result for us, especially if you consider the weekend as a whole. The feeling that we could have done better comes from the fact that we have not been able to battle for the entire race as we did at Budapest. It is because of this that Hungary was a step in the right direction.

"For the guys in the team at the factory and at the track this podium is the best motivation and the best stimulus to continue working very hard, as we have done over the past few months. I am pleased to have been able to obtain this result for them”. F1 now enters its three week summer break during which there will not be much opportunity to test. “Despite this, we have to make the most of it seeing as we have made a step forward. We would like to continue on this path”, declared the current world champion. “We cannot rest on our laurels. Everyone at Ferrari is eager for success and our main aim is to win more races this year.

"From today we are conscious that we can build on what we attained at Budapest, giving life to a trend that we believe can be positive. It is not yet clear to us whether this second place is a one-off or if it marks our return to the top. In any case, I think that I speak for the whole team in stating that this is our objective from Turkey and in the successive races".