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Ferrari has given Fernando Alonso an extraordinary public rebuke in the light of negative comments the Spaniard made after Sunday’s Hungarian GP.

The fact that Alonso’s management has had contact with Red Bull Racing has clearly created extra tension in the camp as the team struggles to keep its title challenge on course.

A story on the Ferrari website today about Luca di Montezemolo’s reaction to an uncompetitive race for the team in Hungary has exposed to all the world that the previous rock solid Alonso/Ferrari relationship is in danger of going off the rails.

The story noted: “Montezemolo is doing his utmost to ensure that the team has all the support and resources it needs, starting with the announcement that James Allison, formerly with Lotus, will join the Maranello team, starting work already on 1st September. However, there is a need to close ranks, without giving in to rash outbursts that, while understandable in the immediate aftermath of a bad result, are no use to anyone.

That was a reference to the latest comments from Fernando Alonso, which did not go down well with Montezemolo, nor with anyone in the team. So, when Montezemolo called the Spaniard this morning to wish him a happy birthday, he also tweaked his ear, reminding him that, “all the great champions who have driven for Ferrari have always been asked to put the interests of the team above their own. This is the moment to stay calm, avoid polemics and show humility and determination in making one’s own contribution, standing alongside the team and its people both at the track and outside it.”

It remains to be seen how Fernando reacts to the story…

Ferrari has confirmed that James Allison will start work as chassis technical director on September  1- which means that his first race will be the Italian GP.

Meanwhile Pat Fry has moved to the role of engineering director, with both men reporting to Stefano Domenicali.

Allison has worked for Ferrari before and his return to Italy has been expected ever since it was announced that he was to leave Lotus earlier this year.

Michelin’s interest in returning to F1 is genuine, sources close to the FIA have confirmed to this writer.

While it’s long been assumed that Pirelli will remain as sole supplier in 2014, and has made commercial arrangements with both teams and Bernie Ecclestone, the bottom line is that it has not yet signed a deal with the FIA.

Nor has the FIA yet issued an official tender for the supply contract, which it would normally be expected to do.

It’s believed that Michelin’s formal interest would trigger a tender, and that the FIA will go through the motions of asking all possible suppliers if they are interested before considering the offers from those who are.

It goes without saying that recent events have weakened Pirelli’s position with the FIA, and upset teams as well – some of whom may be keen to see a change. They are also still frustrated about having to pay for the annual supply.

It remains to be seen whether Michelin could really be ready in time for 2014 – and it’s highly unlikely that Pirelli would agree to do an interim deal for 2015 and then walk away.

The other key issue is that Bernie Ecclestone is close to Pirelli and is more than happy with the lucrative ongoing commercial deal that he has with the Italian company. Meanwhile it’s no secret that Jean Todt is close to Michelin.

There are some other key questions, not least the fact that Michelin always said it preferred competition and ultimately wants to go to low profile tyres, as used in other forms of top level sport. The FIA’s informal position on that is that current F1 tyres are unique and there is no point in switching just for the sake of it, when there are technical compromises involved. Wheels would also be heavier and potentially more lethal in accidents.

One possible outcome could of course be a return to tyre competition by 2015 or beyond, but the rules would have to be changed to alllow it. The upside is that two companies would be pumping money into the sport, but the complication would be controlling speeds and keeping a lid on testing costs.

Meanwhile Pirelli is pushing for a change of rear tyre sizes for 2014 as it continues to learn more from the teams about the new car/engine packages, in terms of the expected downforce levels and the loads put through the tyres.

In essence Pirelli wants a bigger contact patch, which could be achieved by a combination of diameter and width increases. The former however would involve significant design changes for the teams, and even at this stage it would delay their 2014 projects. An increased width – the figure 20mm has been discussed – is a little more realistic.

The problem is that the technical regulations have been defined already and the FIA is reluctant to agree to a change.

Stefano Domenicali admits that Ferrari has lost its race form just as it appears to have edged a little closer to the front in qualifying.

Hungary was a rare occasion when Fernando Alonso failed to improve on his grid position, the Spaniard starting and finishing fifth despite suffering no specific problem other than lack of speed.

“I don’t know,” said Domenicali when asked if the change of tyres had hurt Ferrari. “For sure we have seen that we have lost apparently the gap that we had in the first races during the race. The race pace we were clearly very strong, now in this condition at least today we have seen that we were not really where we wanted [to be], in both conditions, soft and medium. So we need to understand if this is the case, how to react, because this would be in terms of structure the tyres that will end the season.

“Of course a lot depends on the type of the compounds that will be chosen in the races that are still missing to arrive at the end of the season. So for sure this is something that we need to realise carefully. It seems for example Mercedes have solved the issue that they were suffering massively during the races in this condition, that’s for sure.”

Domenicali says he’s trying to keep the team motivated.

“It seems strange that I believe after the two bad races that we had from the performance point of view in Germany and Silverstone, we have improved the car, for qualifying for example. But we haven’t for the race. So we have already done a programme to be ready for Spa. Hopefully we will be able to manage it.

“There’s no reason to be going into depression or be negative, because this doesn’t help the people to work. I’m expecting a reaction from my technical group, and this is what I want to see.”

Christian Horner says that the Sebastian Vettel could have challenged Lewis Hamilton in Hungary had he not got caught behind Jenson Button after the first stops.

While Lewis managed to get in front of the McLaren and run his own pace, Vettel was not able to, and made his situation worse when he damaged his front wing. Nevertheless he emerged from the day with a third place and more useful points.

“It was a great race, I think certainly for the fans,” said Horner. “It was a tough race for us in all honesty, because with the damage that Sebastian sustained in trying to go past Jenson after the first stop that obviously compromised his race quite badly. Actually to have salvaged a podium out of it was a very, very strong result.

“Mark’s recovery was excellent, he had a good start, a good first stint, and that really put him back into the race, effectively running the strategy in reverse, with the soft tyre at the end there. To have come away with 27 points and extended our position in both championships going into the summer break after the difficulties we’ve had this weekend is a good result.”

Horner was happy to admit that Hamilton had done a good job to win the race.

“I think Lewis has always been extremely strong round here. If I’m not mistaken that was about his fourth victory here, which is a tremendous score rate. I think the damage was done effectively yesterday in qualifying. I think we could have given Lewis a harder time today if we had cleared Jenson cleanly.

“We didn’t, and he thoroughly deserved the win, was able to control the pace. Once we were stuck behind Jenson it freed him up and in many respects took quite a bit of pressure off. That was a shame for us, good for him, but nonetheless I’m very pleased that we managed to get plenty of points out of today.

“I think when you run in the dirty air it works the tyres a lot harder, and I think the benefit of running in clean air is not to be underestimated. That combined with some front wing damage definitely hurt the balance that Sebastian had today. It was frustrating, because I thought that we could really take the fight to the Mercedes.

“But after that first stop, getting tucked up behind Jenson and then sustaining some damage, effectively released Lewis, and put us back into the realms of fighting with a two-stopping Kimi. As I say, despite the damage Sebastian still managed to have very decent pace, and we could see from the pace that Mark had in clean air that the car was strong today. I think that unfortunately what happened after the stop compromised the race.”

Regarding the loss caused by the wing damage, he said: “It’s difficult to say in all honesty until we look at the analysis afterwards, but up to 0.5 of a second.”

While Bernie Ecclestone continues to struggle fine tune the details of next year’s F1 calendar the one bit of information the teams have been given is that the season will start on March 16 in Australia.

There had been moves to make Bahrain the first race, but Ecclestone has decided to revert to a more traditional schedule.

Ecclestone admitted in Hungary that there are doubts over India and Korea, and confirmed to this writer that we shouldn’t assume that Canada and New Jersey have to be back-to-back – meaning that June 8 and June 22 could work, with June 15 reserved by the FIA for Le Mans.

Meanwhile plans are well advanced on next year’s test programme, which as per the rules will consist of three four-day sessions. The first will be in Jerez at the end of January and will probably be followed – after a gap – by two visits to the Dubai Autodrome.

Jerez will thus be the likely launch venue for most of the new cars. However, some smaller teams may opt to miss it and spend the extra time on car development – knowing that their partners will be busy putting miles on the new powertrains and gearboxes.

Pirelli has asked the teams to go to Paul Ricard on the way back from Jerez for some wet weather testing. The response from the teams was that it might be a better idea to use the last couple of hours of one of the Jerez days for that purpose, rather than add the expense of dedicated test.

Intriguingly FOM intends to take charge of testing for the first time, which means it will organise freight for Dubai and so on.

In a meeting in Hungary FOM’s man apparently said that it was imperative that the testing plan was organised soon as he had discovered that Jerez was already heavily booked for the end of January. The teams had to point out that they had done the booking…

Talks between Fernando Alonso’s manager and Christian Horner have set up the intriguing possibility of the Spanish star emerging as a candidate for a Red Bull seat.

While he obviously has a Ferrari contract it’s no secret that Alonso has been frustrated by the team’s failure to win the championship since he joined in 2010 – and especially the poor one-lap form the red cars have shown over the past three and half years, which has left him having to fight through the field. He may also have reservations about Ferrari’s 2014 powertrain. The bottom line is he turns 32 on Monday, and the clock is ticking…

The big question is whether he has a way of getting out of his contract due to a performance clause of some sort.

There is also the very obvious question of how Red Bull could work with both Vettel and Alonso on board, although on the other hand the marketing advantages would be huge – and at the same time the Ferrari package would be weakened.

The whole saga also appears to weaken Kimi Raikkonen’s hand. It’s no secret that Christian Horner has been supporting the Finn’s cause and Helmut Marko is behind Daniel Ricciardo, but Alonso adds a new dimension to the search for Mark Webber’s replacement.

One far-fetched suggestion is that 2014 would be the perfect time for Vettel to move to Ferrari in a straight swap, and give himself a new challenge.

Asked about that by this writer Horner said: “That will never happen. I wouldn’t swap Sebastian for anybody.” As for the general prospect of hiring Alonso he added that, “You’d be amazed at who we have had interest from…”

Later when quizzed by the media Horner elaborated on the situation.

“We’re in the fortunate position where there’s quite a lot of interest obviously in the seat for next year. We’ve also been able to have a good look at Daniel [Ricciardo] at the test last week, and we’ll take a bit of time over the summer just to reflect on the options that are open to us and look to make the right decision to put the right driver alongside Sebastian next year.”

Asked if he would confirm or deny contact with Alonso, he said: “I think any conversations between any of the drivers or any of the parties are always going to remain confidential, but of course there’s been quite a few drivers who have expressed interest in the seat, as you can imagine.

“We’re going to take a bit of time to make sure we make the right decision, we’ve got some great options. We don’t need to be in  rush.”

Pressed further Alonso, he said: “Is he available? I don’t know, you ask him…”

Meanwhile Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali made it clear that he intends to hang on to Alonso, although perhaps he didn’t sound quite as convincing as you might expect.

“First of all we have a contract with him, and for sure everyone knows about it. Fernando is an asset for the team and we need him to work closely with everyone, above all in this difficult moment of the season.”

Asked about what Ferrari had to do to retain Alonso, he said: “It’s a team work. We have to deliver a job, full stop, and at all levels. But this is for everyone, not only for the team.”

Notwithstanding the Ferrari contract those who think the Alonso/Red Bull scenario is far fetched should recall the reaction to early rumours of Lewis Hamilton’s defection from McLaren to Mercedes. Stranger things have happened…

Kimi Raikkonen kept his World Championship challenge on track by rising from sixth to second in Hungary – and gaining a few vital points on leader Sebastian Vettel.

Having opted for a two-stop strategy Raikkonen said he was confident that he could keep Vettel at bay in the closing laps, despite the RBR driver having significantly younger tyres.

“I knew that my tyres are pretty OK and I was good through the last sector, so I was pretty sure there was no chance to try to overtake me into the first corner,” said Raikkonen. “But then obviously turn two was a bit more tricky for me all race. He got a good run, Sebastian, once before, and then a second time and I defended. Maybe I’m over a bit on the right and it’s a bit tight, but then I kept him behind, and that was the only time he had a good run on me. In there it is very difficult to overtake, because it is so narrow on top of the hill.

“After that I had no issues. That was the only part of the circuit that I really had some problems with the tyres. But it was good work for the team, the car was working well but unfortunately Saturdays keep making the race a bit difficult for myself. Hopefully we can fix that a little bit, and be a bit more on the front at the beginning of the race.”

Regarding the Lotus team’s current form he said: “Obviously we always hope for more, myself and the team hopes for more. I think we’ve made progress, for sure. Now we have tyres that are a little bit different and I wasn’t so happy with how things ran on Friday and yesterday – more happy in qualifying than the whole weekend before that but still not ideal and in the race we usually run better than in qualifying.

“I was happy with the car in the race but obviously when you start from such a bad starting place it’s difficult to make big progress on this kind of circuit but I managed to do two stops and we’re still pretty competitive so we’re happy how we’ve done.

“But we’re here to try to win races and if we keep finishing second and third like we’ve done many times this year, it’s probably not enough for the championship. The best thing today when we finished second we gained a few points on Sebastian, so it’s better than nothing, but with a win it would have been a much bigger difference.”

Ferrari has been fined €15,000 for a DRS infringement on Fernando Alonso’s car in Hungary, but the Spaniard has held on to his fifth place.

Alonso was reported to the stewards after the race after data showed that he had apparently used the DRS on three occasions when he was not within a second of the car ahead.

In essence the team forgot to change the DRS from qualifying to race settings. The drivers always anticipate DRS use by pressing the button as they approach the zone, and in practice and qualifying they can use it every lap.

In the race they press the button if they think they might be within a second and when they are, it activates. In this case when Alonso pressed the button the DRS activated anyway as it was still in qualifying mode.

On two occasions he used it for the whole straight and on the other he was told to switch off.

Thereafter he had to wait until told by the team that he could activate it, and thus in effect potentially lost more than the second that the FIA estimated that he had gained with the illegal DRS uses. Thus it was deemed that a fine was sufficient.

Lewis Hamilton’s first win for Mercedes came in his 10^th start for the team, and resulted from a superb performance by the former World Champion.

Hamilton didn’t put a foot wrong all afternoon, not only keeping up a good pace while conserving his tyres, but also making decisive passing moves that ensured he didn’t lose time behind other cars that were still due a pit stop.

“It’s been a great weekend, really a great weekend,” said Hamilton. “I really didn’t expect it coming in. It’s probably been one of the toughest weeks for me. Obviously we hadn’t had the test, we were on the back foot when we came in. I really wasn’t even expecting to be on pole.

“Really surprised with that, and then at the start of the race the pace was OK. I think maybe Sebastian perhaps was just as quick or a little bit quicker but fortunately he was behind and my tyres went off just maybe a lap or two before his. I think I called the pitstop just right – the first one – and after that it was just managing the gap.

“I had to make sure I got past people. I thought when I came behind Jenson I thought it was just my luck, because that’s what usually happens. But I got past him and was surprised to see Sebastian and the others get stuck behind him as well. I guess he did me a favour there. But I think generally we had the pace on everyone today.

“I know I was really controlling the pace, particularly through the second, third and last stint, particularly on the last stint. This is just down to an exceptional job from the team. We came here with upgrades and constantly doing work to try and understand these tyres. I think today we bolted them on and they just worked for us.”

Hamilton conceded that the new tyres seem to suit Mercedes.

“As I said, coming into the weekend, we are making improvements, but not big enough to make the difference it did today so I’m assuming that a large part of that was the tyres. I really wasn’t expecting it. Our long runs didn’t look that great in P2 but I got the balance just spot on today with the front wing and yeah, if we can be quick here in a race with these track temperatures then I’m very hopeful that we can be competitive everywhere else, so this could be a good turning point for us.”

He said that the first Mercedes win was special for him: “I think it feels different. It always feels like it’s the first time, that’s for sure, when you win. I remember the first time I won it was exceptional, an exceptional feeling and today it was a really calming, relaxing feeling when I came across the line. I really wasn’t expecting it. As I said yesterday, I talked it down a lot because I really was expecting a real tough race today, I thought we were going to fall behind.

“The experiences I had at McLaren were some of my greatest but I think this is one of the highlights of my career up to now. Moving to a new team and a team that was struggling massively last year and to finally get a win with them after the first nine or ten races is a great feeling.”