| NEWS | McLaren Restructure To Win | ||
| DRIVERS STANDING |
8-23-2002 McLaren boss Ron Dennis has promised the world that his silver cars of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen will defeat the rolling Ferrari juggernaut. The Woking-based chief, however, admits that a few horsepower or a chassis-tweak will not bridge the widening gap between McLaren and Ferrari. 'We are working on a completely revised structure that is devised to make us better,' the Briton said after his character-building trek to the twisty Hungaroring. Twelve months after former pilot Mika Hakkinen steered his Mercedes-powered MP4-16 to a new Budapest lap record, drivers David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen were left languishing on the sixth and seventh rows. David Coulthard called his silver mount an 'Alien', while Raikkonen grappled with an unbalanced, over and under-steering McLaren. Despite the humiliating defeat, however, Ron Dennis has vowed to take up the fight to Scuderia Ferrari in the future. 'We are trying all we can to raise our game,' he adds. 'The performance differential between us and the leaders is not down to fine tuning,' the Englishman continues, adding that a radical new approach to Grand Prix racing is being devised behind closed Woking doors. As the silver charge lined up half-way down the grid for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren International unveiled step one of their restructuring of the technical department. |
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After weeks of speculation, talented Arrows engineer Mike Coughlan officially
joined McLaren International as the new Chief Designer. Neil Oatley was
relocated to the role of Executive Director of Engineering after more
than fifteen years as Chief Designer. The team also announced that former Ferrari gearbox engineer John Sutton has joined the team as Principal Designer and will assume responsibility for transmission and rear end integration. 'I don't know why we aren't as good as we want to be,' Ron told The Independent recently. 'But nothing is more certain than that Ferrari will be beaten. The question is when.' Although David Coulthard conquered the opposition in the May Grand Prix on the streets of Monaco, a championship was last secured by the Woking outfit in 1999 at the hands of Mika Hakkinen. Since then, McLaren's modern resurgence has tapered out: 'We sustained a strong position for six or seven years,' Dennis adds. 'We have strong partners who are as committed as we are, and two drivers capable of going for the championship.' The most significant performance step, warns Dennis, is however going to have to come from French tyre partner Michelin: 'You can only be satisfied with a tyre company when you have won a world championship with it, and clearly we haven't won,' Dennis told Autosport. 'Williams and ourselves have won a race each with Michelin this year, but I don't think either of us can feel satisfied. 'There are two tyre companies in Formula 1, and one is always going to be better than the other. Certainly I think they have become closer. 'Michelin is an extremely competent company that we have won many races and world titles with in the past and I hope this is possible in the future. = 'But there is a lot of hard work to do.' |
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