The San Marino Grand Prix weekend provided countless headlines: from FIA president Max Mosley announcing a proposal to radically change the face of the sport, to Jenson Button clinching his and BAR's first ever pole position. But that was a small part of the action. Roger Horton reflects on the weekend's events

Michael Schumacher made it four wins from four starts when he cruised to yet another easy victory in what could well be the last ever San Marino Grand Prix. For a brief, but welcome, 24 hours, the Honda-powered BAR of Jenson Button threatened an upset, having grabbed an impressive first ever pole position on Saturday afternoon.

But as soon as the young Englishman peeled off at the end of lap nine in the race to take on more fuel and fresh Michelin tyres, the timing screens turned purple for the German's chasing Ferrari, signalling the end of Button's challenge for the lead. Running in clean air the Ferrari driver was easily able to build a sufficient cushion to emerge after his own stop in the lead. We have seen this particular move from Schumacher and Ferrari so many times over the years one wonders when they will file the patent papers!

But it was great while it lasted, this all too rare fight at the front of a race this season, and it lifted for a moment the general doom and gloom atmosphere that seems to be emanating so strongly from contemporary Formula One. The carmakers' announcement on Friday that they had terminated their talks with Bernie Ecclestone, the sport's commercial rights holder, on a 'peace deal', once again raises the threat of a breakaway series.

Then into the mix comes FIA's president Max Mosley's new technical and sporting proposals which are so radical it is hard to just know where to begin in any serious analysis. Throw it all together in one weekend and you have a sport in such obvious turmoil that one wonders just what the average punter makes of it all, whether they even care anymore, and if they do, for how much longer.

Sure, in the subtexts there are serious issues at stake which the FIA has been trying to address with the one engine rule and other changes over the last two seasons, but now it appears Mosley has given up fiddling around the edges whilst Rome burns and is proposing to run a bulldozer right through the middle of the city, not caring about who happens to be standing in its way.

One change that is sure to come from all these Mosley-Ecclestone inspired moves is a change to the current Concorde Agreement, which requires unanimity amongst the stakeholders before serious changes can be made. There is surely no other major sport that gives so much power to its participants, essentially giving them the right of veto over any change that might be perceived to disadvantage them, no matter what greater good for the sport as a whole the changes might achieve.

A move to majority voting - and a figure of around 80 percent is commonly mentioned amongst those involved - would allow changes to be made gradually in tune with the changing needs and views of the majority and stop the current practice of one holdout being able to extract deals and concessions that are out of cinch with the rest and are often unbelievably short sighted.

The sad fact is, though, that once again the politics and chicanery off the track is likely to overshadow the action on it, and for a good time to come and this is bad news for everyone. The sight of one bunch of rich team owners fighting another bunch of richer ones, whilst the mega rich Ecclestone trades deals and quotes in the middle, maybe not as newsworthy as the latest David Beckham story, but it is about as cheap and tawdry, and surely the sport of Grand Prix racing should be above this?

But back to the one really positive story from Imola, which was, of course, the rise and rise of Jenson Button and BAR. Prior to joining his current team there seemed a danger that he was going to be one of those 'nearly' men; a driver of obvious talent and ability that somehow got lost on the way to greatness. Button has always had the speed to go with an even temperament and some perceived this latter quality as a weakness, claiming he was 'too nice' to succeed in F1's cutthroat environment.

The 2001 season saw him hit rock bottom, squeezed as he was between a personal management team that was not focused on his real requirements, and an unsympathetic team boss in the shape of Flavio Briatore. Together, these twin pressures combined to all but bury him as a rising star as he struggled to adapt his super smooth driving style to the task of man-handling the recalcitrant B201 Benetton around at a speed that could match his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.

So the whispers started, and for much of that season the young Briton often cut a somewhat forlorn figure in the Paddock, as he fought his corner with quiet dignity while his reputation - so recently gained in his debut season at Williams - was cut to shreds.

Somehow he survived and the experience made him stronger. He survived everything that Jacques Villeneuve could throw at him last season at BAR and now, once again, just like in 2000, he has a car that handles well and a team that believes in him. Suddenly he is the flavour of the month and everyone wants a taste - including Ferrari, if technical director Ross Brawn's recent comments to the BBC are to be believed.

One can only hope that an older and wiser Jenson Button will take all this new found adulation and attention in his stride and see it for what it is: recognition for the progress he and his team have made, which shouldn't obscure the fact that he still remains winless. After all, winning is what this business is all about; pole and a second place finish might be sweet indeed, provided it is a stop on a journey towards greater things. But at 24, Button has time on his side and his driving shows plenty of hunger to ensure that, sooner or later, he will take that final step.

Button's performance aside, the main talking point the race produced was the first lap shenanigans between Juan Pablo Montoya and ultimate winner Michael Schumacher. A still angry Montoya fanned the flames in the post-race press conference by calling Schumacher "blind and stupid." Obviously Montoya's frustrations at not having a car to challenge for race wins is fuelling his outspoken tendencies, which are never far from the surface with the Colombian anyway.

The incident at the Tosa corner itself was pretty much a 'racing deal', although Schumacher made sure he used all the road on the exit as he was entitled to do, because to do less would have scrubbed off the speed he needed to stay ahead. In holding his line he knew he would be forcing his rival off the road, but that is the price Montoya should have been prepared to pay for attempting an outside pass.

For both drivers the stakes were high, because for Schumacher, with Button rapidly disappearing into the distance, the only way he was going to lose the race was to get stuck behind a slower car on the opening stint and so he weaved and defended his position as aggressively as he has done throughout his career.

For Montoya it was a case of 'all or nothing' and he has a habit of making these moves stick. At the end of the day it cost him nothing although challenging the FIA to take action against the six times World Champion - who, after all, is currently participating in an FIA sponsored road safety campaign - could be a potentially dangerous game politically, especially when his case was pretty weak to begin with.

A final thought. For nine wonderful laps a Honda-powered BAR led the 2004 San Marino Grand Prix. Not through luck or the ill fortune of others, not through an out of sequence pitstop strategy or a lucky break with the weather, but on pure merit from pole position, earned through the prowess of the driver and the speed of the car.

One can only wonder, then, what could have been the thoughts of former lead driver Jacques Villeneuve and team boss Craig Pollock as they watched others achieve what they couldn't. Formula One, though, is a hard and ruthless business that always looks forward and quickly forgets those it spits out. As BAR have gone from strength to strength this season, you can be sure that no one at this Brackley-based team is basking in nostalgia for the recent past to which Pollock and Villeneuve now firmly belong.

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