Hungary a Disaster for Ferrari, Says Lauda

Ferrari described Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix as a disappointment but for former champion Niki Lauda it was no less than a disaster.

"This was a disaster race for Ferrari," he said after a lapped Michael Schumacher limped home eighth with his Championship lead over Williams's Juan Pablo Montoya slashed to one point with three races remaining. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was a further point back.

"It is impressive how they (Ferrari) have gone backwards," said Lauda, champion for Ferrari in 1975 and 1977 as well as being a former consultant to the team. "Now they are so bad it's unbelievable. They have been dominating the last three years, nobody could get near them and now they get lapped."

Schumacher, chasing a record sixth title, was lapped by Renault's race winner Fernando Alonso nine laps from the end as the Spaniard became Formula One's youngest Grand Prix winner.

"Obviously not a great race for me," commented Schumacher, ever a master of the art of understatement. "I spent a lot of time stuck behind a slower car and so could not run at my maximum pace. Then we had a problem with our second pit stop as we were running out of fuel.

"Basically a lot of things did not go the way we wanted."

Finest Hour

This time last year, Ferrari romped to a one-two finish at the Hungaroring with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello leading the way to hand the Italian team their fourth successive constructors' title.

Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo, who watched Schumacher win 11 of last year's 17 races and Ferrari triumph in 15 altogether, would call it his team's finest hour.

On Sunday, Barrichello suffered a dramatic suspension collapse and crashed out while Schumacher started from his lowest grid position for five years. This year, Ferrari have failed to finish one-two and five-times champion Schumacher has not won since Canada in June.

Lauda felt that Ferrari were slipping up on the little details that they would have picked up on in previous years.

"I think the problem for Ferrari is that something has gone wrong consistently," he said. "Sure, the tyres didn't help. But there are more things, little details which for whatever reason they are not taking care of as in the past.

"Michael's performance at the moment worries me a bit," added Lauda. "For the last few races Barrichello was quicker which I do not understand.

"Between Michael and Barrichello there has always been between three and five tenths. But now he (Schumacher) is always behind. He makes mistakes himself, like in qualifying, which is interesting. I'm sure that Ferrari are not performing like they always do because they have won too many races.

"What happens if you win too many races is that you ease off a little bit. And Michael is not doing a perfect job under pressure. He is trying too hard...he's losing performance over the last four or five races by trying too hard."