Refreshed Schumacher Confident for Hungary

A refreshed Michael Schumacher has warned World Championship rivals Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen he is up for the fight in this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Ferrari driver Schumacher, who has lost 17 points to Montoya in the last four races, is clinging onto a slender lead of six points in the Drivers' Championship and has not won for four races. He admitted he needs to get his season back on track but said he was confident ahead of the Budapest race.

"We are conscious of the situation in the fight for the World Championship and we will do our best to fight for the win in Budapest," said Schumacher. "After the short break I feel extremely fresh and thirsty and can hardly wait to get back in the car again - and although we do have much development on the car to do because of the test break we can still go to Hungary with confidence.

"It's true we were not very competitive in Hockenheim, but we won in Silverstone. Performance is linked to more than just one factor and you have to consider elements like the characteristic of the corners and the track surface. So, I think the situation is very open and hopefully, in Budapest, we will be stronger than people expect."

Schumacher is facing a difficult final four races of the year as he prepares to fend off the challenge of the young pretenders to his long-held crown and fight for a place in the record books. He won his fourth World Championship in Hungary two years ago but after dominating again last year he is now facing a tough fight to claim his record breaking sixth world title.

He is calling on all the strengths of his strategic team and technical chief Ross Brawn to help him in his hour of need - so that he and Ferrari can think their way to the world title this year.

"The strategy plays a big part," said Schumacher. "It does on all courses that offer few overtaking possibilities and I do not see why this should not be a good race for us. With the new rules you can arrange the strategy to be more flexible so you have more opportunity to vary it. We have already proved several times that we can deal with that very well."