There were a lot of 'goings on' in Budapest. You can't call it skulduggery, because it wasn't malicious - it was all part of the game of F1. Mark Webber's release of his Red Bull seat has unleashed a series of moves, counter-moves by both Red Bull and the drivers that might be in contention for the seat.
As Flavio Briatore (Fernando Alonso and Mark's overall manager as it happens) commented to Gazetta Dello Sport later in the week - Mark's retiring a season too early anyway. His race performance in Hungary and Germany showed that he is as much the real deal as Kimi Raikkonen, it's just his car is rarely as good as he is.
As one fellow journalist said, "Though he's been a bit tetchy recently, Mark takes the serial failures on his car with a familiar weary sigh of resignation. Can you imagine Kimi being so patient...?"
Up until the Hungary race weekend it was assumed that the battle for the Red Bull seat was a straight fight between Daniel Ricciardo and the much admired Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi is both fast and reliable and seems to be forever stretching his points-scoring races towards the horizon - 27 at last count (the best of which was his 10th place in Monaco, even if it was a harem scarum ride to the line, get hold of the onboard footage and enjoy).
Ricciardo is turning into a superb qualifier, but in some grands prix he has struggled to match team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne and often his qualifying result is the high water mark of his race. Certainly that's what "JEV" believes, as he told L'Equipe last weekend.
Red Bull had the chance to run Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel in close succession at the driver test at Silverstone, a very rare opportunity when you're considering a new driver. They certainly have all the data they need to make up their minds. What was interesting - apart from the fact that Daniel could run at almost exactly the same pace as Vettel - was that they chose to release it to the press.
The fact that he could match Vettel was good. The fact that they chose to publicise this was presumably bad, because F1 teams don't go spilling data for no reason at all. This was intended to show Kimi Raikkonen's manager, the extremely adept Steve Robertson, that Ricciardo was a serious option. So don't ask for big bucks. Had they made their mind up to sign Daniel straight away presumably they'd have kept quiet and released that information when they made the announcement.
In Hungary, into this two-horse race came the Prancing Horse candidate Fernando Alonso. Fernando's personal manager Luis Garcia Abad was seen visiting the Red Bull team and Christian Horner in a less than clandestine way. Abad is also the manager of Carlos Sainz Junior who did a fine job at the Silverstone Young Driver test but is still only 7th in the GP3 series.
The story from Abad's side is that he was keen to get Carlos Junior hooked up with Red Bull, but you'd think that would be a trip to see Dr.Helmut Marko and not Christian Horner. Christian duly spoke to the press, smiled broadly and said that he didn't realise there were circumstances that Fernando would be available in 2014. Horner, like everyone else, was playing his part in the game, winding Ferrari up.
What has come out of the Hungarian GP weekend is that there must be release clauses in Alonso's contract that allows him to jump ship if Ferrari don't perform.
Alonso might well have been using the public visit of his manager to shake some action. The best driver in the world is now 32 and looks unlikely to win another world title this year. Next year we switch to turbos, something Ferrari were never really good at in the past. It could be another two years before they get on terms with Mercedes and Renault and by then, the turbo kings, Honda, will be back in the game. When a top drive comes along you have to take it.
Equally, the visit could have been to create some panic at Ferrari to get the team performing. There must be some part of Alonso that thinks 'I've dragged this team to the front for too long'. In 2010 they had a World Championship-winning car. In 2011 and 2012 it was more the sheer will of Alonso that kept them in contention.
Luca Montezemolo reacted with typical fury and guile to the visit by getting the Ferrari press officer, Luca Colajanni to let the press know that Alonso had been rebuked and had his ear "tweaked" without getting too much involved and issuing a statement to the press himself. There is no such verb as 'tweak' in Italian (google translate thinks it should be modificare) but it's doubtful that Luca said Fernando's ear should be modified.
Luca's response was also partly in reply to Fernando saying that he would like "someone else car" for his birthday. But maybe he was simply meaning Felipe's...
When asked for his opinion on the Alonso situation, Sebastian Vettel was admirably candid with the BBC's Lee Mckenzie after the Hungarian race. She asked him who he'd prefer, Kimi or Fernando? You expected him to follow the company line and suggest that Daniel was also in the equation, but he quickly said: "I prefer Kimi, he's always been really straight with me."
The implication from Seb was that some of the mind games that went on towards the back end of last season still rankled - the 'Vettel to Ferrari in 2014' rumour and the post-Brazilian GP protestations about passing cars under yellows, to name but two.
So it's unlikely that Fernando will be spending a great deal of time in Milton Keynes next year. How it leaves relations with Ferrari senior management remains to be seen. Disloyalty, even a suggested disloyalty doesn't go down too well. For all his spectacular ability, Alonso has a history of turning against his team. He suggested that Renault didn't want him to win in an acrimonious outburst after the Chinese GP of 2006 (he was off to McLaren in 2007) and in 2007 he turned McLaren over to the FIA after they refused to favour him over Hamilton. He's older and wiser now, but that old self-interest started peeping through in Budapest.
As for Ricciardo vs Raikkonen, it's too close to call. But one pairing has a lot more opportunities for badminton.
Frank Hopkinson
http://www.planetf1.com/editorial/885256...vs-El-Nano
