With several negative comments to the press by his star driver Kimi Raikkonen recently, fans and F1 insiders alike are left wondering just what is going on at the Woking squad. With the first race of the season due to get underway next weekend, McLaren will be wanting a strong result to kick off their championship challenge, but if Kimi’s comments are to be believed, the new MP4-19 is not yet up to the task at hand.
Speaking to the team’s official website, McLaren team boss Ron Dennis has confirmed that as far as he is concerned, the start of the new championship is ‘shaping up quite well’, but until they actually go head to head with their rivals in a race situation, they can never be sure of exactly where they sit in comparison.
Here Ron answers a few questions in regard to 2004…..
How prepared is the team for the start of the new season?
The 2004 season is shaping up quite well. We’ve done a fair amount of testing which has not been without problems, but that’s what testing is for. Most of the time we’ve been pretty competitive, but, of course, you just don’t know how strong your opposition is at this stage. However things have moved in the right direction and we are quietly comfortable with our progress.
Can you talk about the proposed development program for the MP4-19?
By the time the Grand Prix starts in Australia, we’ll have made available to the team four cars and probably by the time they have returned, we’ll be up to five cars. We’ve got an extremely intensive development programme which will unfold during the course of the next few months which will hopefully, provide us with added competitiveness. If we can build on a strong performance in Australia, great. If we are somewhat behind in Australia it will certainly give us some confidence that we’ll move ahead, because, we are constantly working hard in pushing performance.
Are you worried about the revised regulations for 2004?
The 2004 regulations have really changed how we go motor racing, rather than how the car is configured. We have accommodated the relatively minimal changes to launch control and gear box control systems well.
Do you still enjoy Grands Prix as much as when you first started out in motor racing?
I’m reasonably clinical about how I approach Grands Prix and Grand Prix racing as a whole, but that doesn’t mean to say that there isn’t an underlying deep passion and love for it, because that’s what ultimately drives me on.
;)
