Schumacher Predicts Tough Race

With his Ferrari team's struggle for race-pace continuing at Hockenheim last weekend, he is not pretending that there will be a miraculous turnaround in form this time out.

"The last race prior to the short summer's break is coming up - following our performance during the last couple of weeks it will probably not be an easy Grand Prix," said the German.

"There's just a few days time in between Hockenheim and Budapest, so it's not realistic to expect any big progress in performance. Nevertheless, we are continuing to test and will surely improve.

"I've said a couple of times recently that I'm not keen on giving any predictions on the outcome, and I'd like to keep it that way before the Grand Prix of Hungary as well. We'll go there and do our best. And then we'll see what that results are."

Schumacher has already conceded that his hopes of winning the Drivers' Championship have now evaporated, although Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt is still refusing to give up on the Constructors' Championship.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo told a bi-annual meeting of Ferrari's management staff on Tuesday that he still believes the team can win races this year.

"We knew that we couldn't win forever," he was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport. "This is a very difficult year, but I'm convinced that with the maximum effort, together with our friends at Bridgestone, we'll soon go back to winning ways."