Those Brazilians have a pretty good record in F1. Apart from their world champions, there have been others, such as Carlos Pace, who were good but never had a car that was capable of winning consistently. And today Barrichello and Massa continue the tradition of quick Brazilians.

Nelson Piquet was the second Brazilian to win the championship, the first being Emerson Fittipaldi. And he was second too behind their greatest champion, Ayrton Senna.

Or was he? I have mentioned before that Piquet’s car control was phenomenal and there is a short video that proves it. Interestingly, the man he is fighting for position in this clip is Ayrton himself – and guess who wins. Piquet is in the white and yellow Williams, Senna in the black Lotus. The video quality is poor (and I must apologize for the Rolling Stones soundtrack) but one can still see Nelson do something in a be-winged F1 car that isn’t supposed to be possible – slide it through a corner.

It happened during the Hungarian Grand Prix of 1986. Have a look.

The combination of rain and driver penalties gave us a race to remember at the Hungaroring. Once again tires played a major part in the events on track, the Michelin wets and intermediates proving superior to Bridgestone’s, although the situation was reversed when the track dried out. Through all the chaos of spins, collisions and tire choices came Jenson Button, looking supremely in control in the Honda RA106, to take his first and thoroughly deserved win.

This was a victory that was going to happen, even if Alonso’s rear suspension had not forced an almost unheard of Renault retirement. Jenson was catching the race leader easily before Alonso came in for dry tires and thereafter the Honda was unassailable at the front.

The team can be proud of their performance on a day when they got everything right, Barrichello coming home in fourth to emphasize their effectiveness while others struggled in the changing conditions. Staying out of trouble was the order of the day and Honda demonstrated how it’s done.

Which cannot be said of Michael Schumacher; he looked so wild whenever anyone attempted to pass him that I feared for the safety of the other drivers. It was only justice that he should break a trackrod by running into the rear of Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber after the young German had already got by.

Michael had earlier risked disqualification by cutting the chicane to retain his place and was running on intermediate tires that were worn treadless and almost certainly illegal therefore. His retirement enabled him to avoid a storm of protest from other teams and also meant that he was classified ninth, later to become eighth when Robert Kubica’s Sauber BMW was excluded for running lighter than allowed. So, with typical Michael Schumacher luck, he picks up one point that should not have been allowed, in my humble opinion.

But Kubica was another story of the race, not only because he drove with such passion and verve, spinning out a couple of times but pressing on regardless and finishing in seventh position. On this showing it is understandable that BMW Sauber have decided to keep him in the race seat for the rest of the season, as announced after the race. It was a mutual decision between the team and Jacques Villeneuve, apparently, and means that yet another of F1′s most flamboyant characters is out of a drive.

But let nothing detract from Jenson’s excellent victory. The man has always had the talent; let us hope that this is but the first of many wins and that the Brits have a new hero to shout about.

The qualifying sessions are becoming more entertaining than the races, judging by the French GP and today’s session at Hockenheim. The Ferraris were quick, just as we expected, but Alonso failed to provide a serious challenge to them. That was left to Kimi Raikkonen, who threw in a very quick lap to take pole position on his first set of new tires. It mattered not that later he went farming in the McLaren when trying to better his time – he had done enough already.

The Hondas bounced back from their run of bad form, Button taking fourth spot and Barrichello sixth. And the Toyotas were disappointing, only Ralf managing to make it to Q3 and then slotting in at eighth.

It’s all a bit confusing as regards tires. If the Bridgestones had retained their advantage, we would expect the Toyotas to have done better. The Ferraris look very strong, however, and Michael must be favorite for the race in spite of Raikkonen’s amazing lap. Kimi often makes the McLaren look better than it is, so it is easy to assume that his time was the product of genius alone, something that will be almost impossible for him to maintain throughout the race distance tomorrow.

Or will it? The speed of the Hondas suggests that Michelin are at least on a par with Bridgestone in Germany. And we should not forget that the removal of the mass dampers from the Ferraris and Renaults may have adversely affected their performance, especially in Alonso’s Renault. It is hard to think of anything else that could have caused the sudden loss of form from Renault.

So maybe we are seeing the reality of life without mass dampers and the McLarens are as good as they looked today. Pedro de la Rosa finished in ninth spot, which is not a bad effort after his earlier coming together with Ralf’s Toyota.

All of which is bad news for Alonso and good for Michael Schumacher. Even if Kimi proves equal to the task of winning the GP tomorrow, Michael should finish no lower than second while Fernando will have to work hard to bag a decent number of points. The Ferrari team have said that they need help from the other teams if Michael is to catch Alonso in the championship – a McLaren resurgence would be just what they need. If Renault weren’t sweating already, they should start now!

One final word for the guy who grabbed tenth position: David Coulthard. Once again he proved that experience counts and confirms himself as the best buy outside the trio of star drivers. If he can produce such good results in a Red Bull, how would he fare in a Renault or Ferrari?

As usual, this time of year is filled with more rumors of driver changes than you can shake a stick at. Michael Schumacher seems fairly definite for Ferrari next year but the other two hot properties of the moment, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, are still suggested as wild cards. Renault is reported as trying everything to persuade Alonso from his McLaren contract for 2007 and Raikkonen could be with Ferrari or Renault or even stay with McLaren.

Such is the fuss surrounding these three that it’s easy to forget that there are other good drivers available in F1. Jacques Villeneuve made a very good point when he spoke out against the present fashion for throwing new wonder boys into a top F1 seat without them serving an “apprenticeship” in a minor team first. Even the great Ayrton Senna did his time with Toleman.

It will be surprising if Renault and McLaren take the risk of putting Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton into their second cars, in spite of all the rumors. Far more likely is that one of the smaller teams will take them on.

Which suddenly increases the stock of the older drivers. Jacques himself must be a good buy, considering his experience and continued motivation. And David Coulthard becomes the bargain of the year, being experienced, reliable and quick enough to win grand prix. Had Montoya continued, he too would be an excellent choice for any team.

There are other drivers too that are capable of doing a good job. Webber, Barrichello and Button still have tremendous potential if given a decent chance. And Scott Speed would be an obvious pick if you fancied a minor gamble that could pay off handsomely. He is showing good pace and has the added benefit of bringing American interest with him.

What we tend to forget very quickly is that a solid and honest second driver is always an asset to an F1 team. And it is not always a good idea to have two stars driving your cars; remember how Senna and Prost used to collide occasionally and steal points from each other. Second drivers care about the team, stars care only about winning.

So I don’t see a Schumacher/Raikkonen combination at Ferrari as the dream ticket. It would be interesting, of course, and settle a few arguments about who really is the best, but the team would suffer from the inevitable prima dona squabbles. Far better for the sport would be for the three hot shoes to be in separate teams.

I suspect that, when the dust of the silly season settles, there will be few new faces in F1 and even fewer surprises. Raikkonen will be at Renault, Alonso at McLaren and Schumacher at Ferrari as always. In the second seats will be reliable and proven drivers and any newcomers will be with Toro Rosso, Red Bull, MF1 and Super Aguri. Honda and BMW Sauber might experiment with one car but will keep a wise old head in the other.

It’s the way things usually pan out and it makes perfect sense to me.