McLaren vow to end Schumacher’s reign

MCLAREN have vowed to put an early end to Michael Schumacher’s title celebrations.

The Ferrari driver captured his seventh world championship with second place in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. But Kimi Raikkonen won in style to announce McLaren's return to the top step of the podium and team boss Ron Dennis joined the Finn in warning Ferrari to expect tough times ahead.

Dennis masterminded Mika Hakkinen's title double in 1998 and 1999 the last time Schumacher was beaten in the championship and his sights were trained on the German again.

He said: "We've shown in the past, in two world championships, that Michael is not indestructible. Congratulations on his world championship, but the big consolation for us is that Ferrari cannot now win all but one of the races which we did in 1988. We have enjoyed periods of dominance and hopefully this is the start of theirs declining. The tyre battle swings backwards and forwards. The remaining races will be linked to the tyres and I think we can look for wins in them."

Raikkonen is also determined to cap McLaren's turnaround with more wins before the season ends. He had the measure of Schumacher throughout Sunday's race and received a standing ovation on his return to the McLaren motor home having sealed a victory which looked so unlikely after their dreadful start to 2004.

Raikkonen said: "Obviously congratulations to Michael, hopefully we can challenge him more next year. It was a good day for the whole team, starting 10th and winning. Many people didn't believe we could do that. I knew that the car was pretty good because of the dry running we did on Friday when we were quick.

"I think once we get everything sorted out we can fight with Ferrari. It will be difficult to win the rest of the races but we will do our best as a team and hopefully we can win some more. I am happy for myself and for the team. The start of the season was so difficult for us and finally we have got something back from our hard work. Hopefully now we can keep it up."

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn remains undaunted though and sees no reason why Schumacher's remarkable run of success should come to an end. The Italian team have the biggest budget in Formula One and benefit from arguably the greatest minds in the sport. Brawn, who was born in Manchester, admits Ferrari cannot win forever but offered little hope of a change of champion next season.

He said: "It is inevitable that the run must stop at some stage, although I don't know what the reasons will be. We will try to keep it going as long as we can. We are already looking to implement changes for the remaining races ahead of next year and we did that here, which made the result even more pleasing. I am very proud of this team what we have won over the past six years represents something incredible."

Ferrari managing director Jean Todt said the team was "writing a unique chapter in the history of Ferrari".

"Obviously we have got used to the taste of victory this season but I have to say that the 14 points from this race are particularly satisfying and significant."