MPH: Mark Hughes on...

Mention F1's three-week 'break' to anyone technical at Ferrari or McLaren and you'd get a derisory laugh. With the championship fight at a critical stage, each was flat-out adding performance to their cars. The Ferrari factory traditionally has a one-week summer shutdown during this period; for the windtunnel and production boys it was cancelled.

Ferrari turned up at Valencia with significant aero developments around the bargeboard and sidepods. Although McLaren's changes appeared less significant, this was more a reflection of the two teams being at different points in their development cycles; McLaren made major upgrades at Silverstone and Hungary. Ferrari made theirs here and is expected to have yet more at Spa. But McLaren had been every bit as busy; it's just that it was in fine-tuning rather than major upgrades.