Blundell's view: Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hi folks...

F1 goes to Hungary this weekend and the Hungaroring is normally a difficult race, because there is no rest on the track for the driver and predominantly it is always a hot weekend too.

It's a tough little race circuit, but the biggest issue with it is no overtaking, which is always a bug-bear for a grand prix driver.

It lacks a little bit of character compared to some of the other big circuits around the world, but at the same point it is always well featured in terms of people travelling in for the race. It is smack bang in the middle of Europe and as such there are always a lot of F1 fans from all over the shop!

I am going to be commentating for ITV Sport this weekend, as Martin Brundle is away, so that is going to be somewhat different to what I normally do. It's always an enjoyable thing to do that now and again and I just hope it's an interesting event so I have lots to talk about...

As for the German GP last Sunday it wasn't too bad. It was a little bit of an improvement over what we saw at Silverstone and it was full of ups and downs. We saw a couple of moments from some people which gave us a bit of entertainment, but at the same time it was still lacking real wheel to wheel racing which is what we all want to see.

Before hand I said I felt Fernando Alonso was going to be the guy to pull off the championship this year and following his win - and Kimi Raikkonen's retirement - that seems to be the case even more now.

What we really want though is to see Raikkonen, Alonso, Juan Montoya and Michael Schumacher back up there. We want to see them all racing and really battling it out to see who can pull off the championship. At this moment in time however it does look more or less a one horse race.

McLaren's reliability problems are turning out to be a real issue and they have got to get on top of if they want to get back to winning world championships, which they know how to do very well. They need to make sure their durability is a hundred per cent. We have seen that with Ferrari in years gone by, they've won championships through not only having the best of the best, but having reliability in the performance of their car and team as well. Renault is doing it at the minute, you haven't seen Alonso break down with failures race after race and it is costing Raikkonen dearly.

I'm sure McLaren are the last people that need to be told that, because they know for sure what the situation is. But it is something that is hurting their championship challenge.

Montoya of course didn't help either if McLaren want the constructors' title following his error in qualifying, but at least he made amends with a very, very good race. He had that little trip at the end of the qualifying lap - which looked like it stepped out on him and he tried to correct it and didn't catch it - as he was trying to do that extra bit to try and sit on pole. He came from last on the grid really, to a very good second position and if only he'd started on the front we may have seen something very different. But at the end of day McLaren were very happy with his performance and so was he.

BAR also did well again and Jenson Button finally got back on the podium. His move on Michael Schumacher helped spice up the race a bit too. It was very good - textbook stuff. Jenson now seems to be getting back in that regular podium, top four or five spot now too and that is great news - good for the team and good for him.

You can see that they are starting to build now and you can see progress is being made. But they all know what it is like to be there - they were there regularly last year, so it is nothing new. What they really want now is to go that next step on the podium and get first and seconds.

As for Ferrari what can you say? Fifth and tenth at the finish is not where they expect to be - and I think they definitely need something on the tyre side now to make progress. They don't have a lot of teams around them with good resources to start collecting data at the same rate of knots that Michelin can do and it is there achilles' heal.

I am sure though there are a couple of other areas that they need to improve too - it is one of those situations where they need all of the package, with all the ingredients before they can start to make improvements and step forward. Until they get on top of the biggest problem, which seems to be tyres from the outside looking in, they are still going to struggle.

Toyota got some points thanks to Ralf, but I think they were expecting a bit more than that. I think they had a strategy worked out, which seemed to be paying off to a certain degree, but they are still not in there with the big boys and that's where they should be on resources and budget. I also think that is where they feel they should be as well by now.

Red Bull scored again with David Coulthard coming home seventh. DC I think is driving very well and I think he is really enjoying his racing. At this point in time all they can hope to do though is keep finishing in steady point scoring positions, because they don't have a chassis under them that has got enough performance to fight it out with the likes of McLaren, Renault and BAR. But that is something they need for next season and I am sure they are working hard to get it.

Sauber had a mixed event - and while Felipe Massa was eighth, Jacques Villeneuve had quite an unfortunate race. At the end of it all though Sauber are very much a stabilised package in terms of where they keep turning up in qualifying and in the races. It seems to have been the pattern that is hard to break. Maybe things will change when BMW step up and take them over in 2006. They have just got to keep working hard for now and make sure they keep scoring points consistently, but really they should be in that top six area.

Of the rest there is not much to say about Jordan or Minardi - or even Williams for that matter.

I suppose one of the most noticeable changes here was on the driver front at Minardi, with Robert Doornbos taking over the drive from Patrick Friesacher. It is difficult to assess how he performed, especially when he is in a car that clearly doesn't handle and the only comparison is with his team-mate. I think when guys walk into F1 if they had a car underneath them to make a spectacular entry then it would be much easier to give a verdict. But when the cars they are in are not up to scratch then it is a tough call.

We have got to give him some time and then see whether he can speed up and if he really annihilates his team-mate. If that proves to be the case then we know there is a good level of talent there.

So now to my prediction... I see Jarno Trulli scooping the pole, while the race honours will probably go to Alonso, followed by Raikkonen and Button, then maybe Montoya with Giancarlo Fisichella and Trulli rounding out the top six.

Enjoy the race...

MB