McLaren will fight to keep Raikkonen

McLaren team principal Ron Dennis believes Kimi Raikkonen will be a title winner many times over and is not about to let the Finn go. Ferrari has previously shown interest in Raikkonen and while the driver is not reported to be thinking about leaving McLaren, Dennis knows that could change if the team doesn't give him a competitive car.

Podium: race winner Kimi Raikkonen celebrates.

Photo by xpb.cc.

"We will fight to keep Kimi on the team," McLaren Dennis told Finland's MTV3 television channel. "Kimi Raikkonen will stay on this team as long as he wants. He has a capability of winning many, many world championships. Not one, many."

Raikkonen had a difficult start to 2005 while Renault's Fernando Alonso won three races in a row and currently leads the drivers' standings. However, at the last race in Barcelona Raikkonen was the man in the spotlight with a great drive to take his first victory of the season.

Raikkonen has a 27 point gap between himself and Alonso. It's still all to play for but Dennis is under no illusions that Kimi won't look elsewhere if McLaren can't keep him in the title fight.

"If we don't deliver it (the championship) to him, I am absolutely sure that he will look at other grand prix teams in the future to find it elsewhere," Dennis remarked.

Raikkonen himself will keep fighting on track: "We don't have much to lose any more and we need to win the races and that's the only chance to get back in it," he said after Barcelona.

"It's going to be difficult, but it's a long season and you never know what is going to happen in a race so we need to do our best and hopefully we can get back there."

McLaren is currently testing at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, where Raikkonen topped the times on Wednesday. Teammate Juan Pablo Montoya joined the test today, Thursday, as work focuses on preparations for Monaco.