Can you believe it? Taki Inoue has moved to such a lofty position in the current Formula One crop that he is now out-qualifying teammates by more than one full second. After so many weeks of getting whipped by three, six, and even eight seconds, Taki has apparently come of age. He may become F1's version of Mr. October. This week, in case you failed to carefully study the qualifying results, Inoue dominated superstar Papis by over one second. Has Taki moved into the elite driver's fraternity, or have Formula One teams now loaded the grid with a bunch of third-rate (but sponsor-heavy), untalented drivers?

Obviously, this is nothing new. While all F1 fans must be thrilled to see the Villenueve name returning to the series, the already small grid has become home for a curious bunch of undistinguished racing nobodies. I am sure that all of us welcomed the arrival of ultra star Mr. Lavaggi. Here is a guy who could hardly qualify for local go-cart races, but suddenly, he is sitting on the grid at our beloved F1 races. He has so much talent that he can stay within a few seconds of his lightning-quick Pacific teammates. I do not mean to beat a dead dog, but the infusion of the Lavaggi crowd can only reduce the respect real F1 fans have for "the world's greatest drivers."

Actually, the big news in Hungary must have been the movement of various drivers from one team to another. Inspect the qualifying times, and one immediately sees the impact of the off track maneuvers. With respect to Berger, Alesi had his worst qualifying time of the year. That suggests to me that Alesi is no longer trying to impress Ferrari at all, otherwise, he would have held steady in his normal pattern of beating, or nearly equaling, teammate Berger. Johnny Herbert was beaten like a red-headed stepchild. After a season of descent qualifying against the world's best (and most marketable) driver, Johnny found the brakes, lost the pedal, and qualified several seconds behind Schumacher. After several months of competitive qualifying, Blundell was several seconds behind his McLaren teammate--why wouldn't Mark attempt to impress his other potential employers? Finally, while on the track, Eddie Irvine absolutely dominated teammate Barrichello. Eddie is going up, Rubens must be searching for an explanation of the lack of qualifying speed in the 1995 campaign; last year's pole is a fading memory for all of us, including the all important sponsors.

For the record, the 107% rule would have been very bad news for drivers Papis, Moreno, Montermini, and Diniz. Mr. Lavaggi better start campaigning for a 112% rule in a hurry, otherwise, he is back to karts. Given the 107% rule, only 19 cars would have made the field.

Rather than concentrate on the growing majority in F1 of questionable racing talent, I suggest we all start counting the days until the name Villenueve clearly re-establishes F1 as the ultimate goal for any talented driver who hopes to display his talents on the true global stage.