At the Hungarian Grand Prix three weeks ago, we finally got an answer to the question: What would it have been like if Tim Henman ever won Wimbledon?

After 113 grand prix, three teams and three seasons of putting up with Takuma Sato as his number two, Jenson Button—Formula 1's version of Henman—won his first race. I'm thrilled that he finally gets that monkey off his back. Now his name can be uttered in the same breath as guys like Olivier Panis, Jean Alesi and 50 other F1 drivers with one victory. Good for him.

As we head into the home stretch of the season, Formula 1 also has a legitimate title race. There are five races remaining at five of the most intriguing tracks on the calendar. Yes, I used the word intriguing. Nothing else can describe having Turkey this weekend, followed by Monza, Shanghai, Suzuka and Brazil to close the season. It's intriguing. We've got a high-downforce technical one weekend and a high-speed low-downforce the next. We've got a new track then a classic track and then a new track. And the Brazilian GP is like the Cyclone rollercoaster at Coney Island. You're never quite sure about its safety standards. Anything can happen.

And we're down to Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher. Two champions in the two most reliable cars on the grid. If Renault hadn't already thrown its budget down the toilet, this would have the makings of a classic, but let's get to that in a second.

A few other things have happened since Hungary:

To no one's surprise, Jacques Villeneuve decided to walk away from his contract with BMW. Didn't his stint reek of George Costanza? No one wanted him there. There was no future with the team. And the team was nowhere close to winning. It seemed like JV stayed on just to spite everyone.

I've always felt that he never got over his father's death. It was a cautionary tale that he carried with him in the back of his mind. After his championship in 1997, he hardly ever pushed himself. And when he did, it was done with such little confidence, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. And he inevitably crashed hard in those scenarios—as he did this year at Hockenheim. All of which furthers the debate of whether or not JV was ever that good in the first place or if 1997 and 1996, when his Williams-Renault teammate Damon Hill won it (at the very untender age of 35), should be wiped off the record books completely.

Mark Webber signed with Red Bull on his way to the American Le Mans Series. What's the over/under on his years remaining in F1? One season? One and a half? Really, I wouldn't give anyone two. To replace Webber, Williams F1 promoted Alexander Wurz to a race seat. This is one of the positive repercussions to the engine freeze ruling. It frees up budget for smaller teams to pay for drivers, instead of scouting the Netherlands for sponsored drivers. It's a great move for Williams. Behind the scenes, people have always felt that Wurz is one of the top drivers in Formula 1. At worst, he's a poor man's Mark Webber—minus the brain freezes, which might be the only difference.

This item doesn't have so much to do with what happened in the past three weeks except I came across the video of Kimi Raikkonen walking to his yacht after his McLaren-Mercedes conked out of the Monaco GP.

Kimi at Monaco

Right now Kimi is fourth in the points, tied with Giancarlo Fisichella, which is kind of ironic. They're probably the two unluckiest drivers in the series. The McLarens have been downright lousy this year. But I also get the feeling that there's something going on in Woking that we're not hearing about, like the team is a front for a secret organization bent on taking over the world, in a "Boys From Brazil"-sort of way.

OK, enough of the riff-raff. Right now, only Michael and Fernando matter. Ten points separate them. Both are on top of their game. And we haven't seen this type of rivalry in a long time. Let's quickly look at their chances at the championship:

Michael Schumacher
He's got the momentum: He's won three out of the last four GPs and finished second or better in five of the last six. Ferrari and Bridgestone have finally put it all together. They have the best combination for qualifying and racing. Jean Todt even has time to parade Michelle Yeoh, his trophy wife, to every GP. But even with all of this momentum, there had always been one thing that bothered me...

Felipe Massa. As history has shown us, Schumacher hasn't been able to win at Ferrari without a solid mistake-free number two. Earlier in the season, Massa looked more Eddie Irvine than Rubens Barrichello. But recently? Massa has been unconscious—qualifying second, blocking traffic, scoring second place points, refilling Michael's Gatorade bottle during practice sessions.

So even though this hasn't been a vintage Michael Schumacher season, when Massa is destroying the field, Ferrari/Bridgestone definitely have it going on.

Fernando Alonso
This is depressing. I had this whole thing written up about how even though Alonso and Renault are losing the technology race and how Fisichella is taking dump on the second half of the season that Alonso still has a shot of winning the championship because he has the ability of winning with an inferior car and team strategy (see Imola 2005).

Then came the FIA ruling against the use of the Tuned Mass Damper system. This has pretty much put the kibosh Renault's chances this season. Although several other teams are experimenting with the system, including Ferrari, the Renault R26 was built around it. Basically, Alonso will have to relearn how to drive the car. Not good.

Still, if by some miracle it comes down to the last race, I'm going to go with Alonso and here's why: He's a better pressure driver than Schumacher, who has never been so great under duress. He lost championships in 1997 and 1998 due to mental errors at the final grand prix. In 1997, he crashed into Jacques Villeneuve after giving up the lead. In 1998, he stalled at the start after qualifying in pole position. And that's the strange thing with Schumacher, for all of his exploits, he has shown that he's human too often for a 7-time champion.

Who is the 2007 F1 Champion?
Michael Schumacher

Fumes appears the first and third Tuesday of every month. Richard Chang can be emailed at rich@urbanracer.com.