The unbridled elation of the McLaren-Mercedes squad at having beaten Ferrari for the second straight weekend was almost matched by the massive relief felt by Jordan at the fourth and sixth places achieved by Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher in the German Grand Prix.

Hockenheim meant that in three races Jordan has dramatically turned its season around. After the French event in June the team was staring into the abyss with no championship points to its credit: now it is fifth in the constructors' table, albeit with a modest tally of seven points, a massive 111 behind the pace-setters McLaren.

But if there was rejoicing in those two camps there was near despair in the teams run by two retired world champions, Jackie Stewart and Alain Prost. For them, Sunday was a painful affair.

As drivers, Stewart and Prost won seven titles between them, but both are currently making heavy weather of their new role as Formula One team owners.

At Hockenheim there was no respite for the two teams. The Stewart-Fords driven by Rubens Barrichello and Jos Verstappen retired with transmission-related problems while the Prost-Peugeots of Jarno Trulli and Olivier Panis trailed home 12th and 15th. Prost has yet to score a single point this season after an endless struggle mating the Peugeot V10 engine with his new chassis after switching from Mugen-Honda power at the end of last season.

Prost is reluctant to discuss his team's dilemma. "He would like Heinz-Harald Frentzen to drive for the team next season," said a source. "He believes his talent has not been used to best effect by the teams he has driven for in the past, but there is continued pressure from Gauloises (the team's sponsor) to have a French driver, which will mean keeping Panis."

Prost is also under increasing pressure from Peugeot to perform and would like to secure the services of John Barnard as his chief designer. Prost won two of his four titles driving Barnard-de signed McLaren-TAGs in 1985 and '86 and always had a fine working relationship with the British engineer.

However Barnard is trying to resolve a dispute between himself and Tom Walkinshaw, managing director of the Arrows team, for whom he has worked as technical director since April 1997.

If Barnard becomes available, then it is likely that Prost will spare no effort to secure his services. Whether the team would feel the benefit of Barnard's design input in time to save Prost's personal reputation is another matter altogether.

Stewart, at least has five points on the board, courtesy of Rubens Barrichello's fourth in Barcelona. But technically, the team has suffered a problematic reversal since 1997. Last year, Stewart was blighted by a seemingly endless string of Ford engine failures; this year the engines have been much more reliable and competitive but the cars, on the whole, have simply failed to perform.

"From our point of view we're perhaps now understanding why the second year of F1 is even more complicated than the first," said Paul Stewart, the team's managing director and son of the three-times world champion.

"There are certain elements in the design of the current car which we cannot change this season, but will be altered when it comes to designing the 1999 car.

"I think there are some developments from our tyre supplier Bridgestone which will help us, but we are not challenging regularly for top 10 positions which we were aiming for this season."

President Nelson Mandela is to meet Bernie Ecclestone, the vice-president of the sport's governing body the FIA, to discuss plans for grand-prix racing to return to South Africa next year for the first time since 1993.