Dennis still confident despite setbacks

As team principal, McLaren's Ron Dennis is willing to take the criticism the Woking squad has been facing recently but said a single person cannot be blamed for the shortcomings. McLaren has had a dismal start to 2004, with Kimi Raikkonen yet to finish a race due to car failures, and David Coulthard only managing four points so far.

Ron Dennis.

Photo by Brousseau Photo.

It has been speculated that McLaren put too much of its focus on the new technology centre the company recently moved to, at the expense of the racing team. Dennis, naturally, refutes this: "I can understand why people might think that," he said, according to the UK's Guardian newspaper. "But they are wrong. The fact is that I have tremendous confidence in our organisation, but inevitably we can't get it right all the time."

He disputes the poor performance of the team is down to any one individual. "I don't want to hide behind anybody else," he added. "I have no problem in taking criticism. It's painful, but only a fool would identify any individual in any organisation and say that organisation succeeds or fails because of that person."

Bahrain saw both McLaren drivers retire, something any team can do without but a harsher blow given the situation Dennis' outfit was already in. "However, the entire team will continue the efforts to optimise our package," said Ron philosophically. "Whilst we have had a difficult start to the season I'm confident that we will improve."

The next race, Imola in three weeks, may not see any great step forward for McLaren but the following event in Spain is when Dennis thinks improvements will come. "It's still going to be tough for a couple of races but I think things will improve after that," he said prior to Bahrain. "We are hopeful of quite a bit coming on the car for the Spanish Grand Prix."