Dennis warning for Ferrari

Ron Dennis has warned Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher to expect a McLaren backlash over the rest of the season.

McLaren suffered a “worse than dismal” start to the season, with their 2004 car struggling to even score points in the first few races.

But a new car introduced in France earlier this month has turned their fortunes around, and Kimi Raikkonen pushed Schumacher hard at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix before eventually having to settle for second.

McLaren boss Dennis was upbeat afterwards and promised to push Ferrari even harder in Germany in two weeks’ time when his team will have further improved their car.

He said: “I don’t think we are that far away. We have the pace in qualifying, and that sort of makes you think ‘where’s the difference?’. You look at the Saubers, and they certainly had a better race car at Silverstone.

“At Hockenheim we will take Ferrari even closer. We have a particularly good step in performance coming from the test this week.

“I think we will go to Hockenheim with a bit more pace and give them a bit more of a harder time.

“I don’t think anyone has pushed Ferrari harder than we did at Silverstone. We have made him [Schumacher] sweat and we will make him work even harder at the next race.”

Dennis was relieved to see McLaren take their first podium of the season, adding: “It won’t quite be as painful as it has been waking up on a Monday after a race in the last few months.

“But more determination has come out of it, and we are close to being able to press.”

Dennis is renowned as someone who refuses to accept second place lightly and has designs only on victory.

He admits: ““Some people think that is a failure, but I think its fundamental in Formula One.”

That attitude made the start of this season particularly difficult for him.

Dennis concedes McLaren’s lack of speed was a surprise and he paid tribute to his team for coming up with a new car in double-quick time to put them back among the leaders.

“The objective is to win,” he said.

“We had very successful testing before the start of the season, and it was only at the very last test that we started to realise there were a couple of cars who certainly had more pace than we had.

“It was a far worse than dismal start – appalling might do. Clearly the new car is significantly better than the old one, as is the Mercedes engine that is in it.

“It was a considerable effort both on the engine side and the chassis side.

“There were areas of weakness on the old car and we did a lot of testing on the new one to make sure it was better – and so far it has delivered.”