mclaren

Where Ferrari are exuberent and emotional McLaren are reserved and like to keep their real feelings a closely guarded secret. Lapses in judgement and displays of real feeling are few and far between and you get the idea that almost everything said by Ron Dennis and Adrian Newey is carefully planned and prepared down to the letter. When they do speak without thinking first it usually results a statement that they later come to regret, accusations of Brain Fade spring to mind.

Despite this pre-planned efficiancy there is no doubting that McLaren at their best are ruthlessly efficiant, they design good cars that when coupled with good drivers are extremely competitive. The 1998 car is probably the best of recent years and started the season head and shoulders above the rest. Were it no the sensational driving of Michael Schumacher it would have been easy to imagine a season where the championships wrapped up by July.

The 2001 season was not one of the happiest for McLaren. Mika Hakkinen clearly lacking something, showing little of the determination that got him two world championships and David Coulthard in a lesser car than Schumacher is never going to stand a chance.

There was also some internal politics at work during the 2001 season that for once caused the normally solid team to show a few communication breakdowns. The Adrian Newey saga was one thing that the team did not need particularly when they are struggling to keep any sort of pace int he championship. It's difficult to imagine that Ron Dennis is the easiest of people to work for and he has clearly got on the wrong side of his drivers, in particular Coulthard, on more than one occasion. The brain fade accusation didn't help but it is easy to believe that this is just one incident in what has clearly always been something of a rocky relationship between driver and boss with Coulthard always having suspected favouritism towards Hakkinen.

It is difficult to see the championship coming back to Woking for 2002. Kimi Raikkonen probably doesn't yet have the experience to compete against Ferrari and Williams and Coulthard, though experience probably doesn't have the skill. We expect the challenge of Ferrari and Williams to be too strong. Expect them to come third.

If Kimi lives up to the promise he has shown in his first season it's easy to see him going on to win a championship eventually. Whether it is for McLaren or not probably hinges on whether Hakkinen attempts a return or makes his `sabbatical` a little more permanant. We don't anticipate him back any time soon, the competiton is too strong now.