Title talk is premature says Dennis

McLaren boss Ron Dennis is naturally very happy that his team has won the first three races of the season but says it's premature to talk about winning the title. Kimi Raikkonen's Brazilian victory put McLaren 18 points clear at the top of the Constructors' standings, from Renault, and Raikkonen himself leading the Driver's standings by 11 points from Coulthard.

Dennis is still wary of Ferrari, despite the team's poor start to the season: "Obviously it's great that we won the first three but we're under no illusions," he said. "Ferrari is a very formidable competitor. I'm not a great supporter of statistics, you can make them virtually say anything you want but reality is that it's a good way to start."

"But there's a hell of a long way to go yet. I think title talk is premature, very premature. This race didn't really reflect anything other than the weather conditions and the single-lap qualifying and the way that it works."

The new McLaren MP4-18 is not expected until perhaps Spain but Ferrari still intends to introduce its new car at the next race. Testing will start again tomorrow at Mugello for the F2003-GA. "Unless there is some unexpected problem we will race the new car at Imola," team principal Jean Todt told the Italian press.

Yesterday's double DNF for Ferrari was the first for a long time but Todt is hoping Imola will give the team a victory: "It has been almost four years since we went a race without scoring points. We have had a tough start to the season but we hope to return to winning at Imola."

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