Rain's a pain for McLaren

McLaren boss Ron Dennis believes the Australian rain has played a significant part in diluting Kimi Raikkonen’s world championship challenge.

McLaren arrived in Australia for the first race of the season in March with most experts tipping them for world championship glory following a successful winter’s testing.

But those hopes took an early blow when an ill-timed rain shower washed out their qualifying hopes and left Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya to struggle home in eighth and sixth respectively.

Renault stole a march on McLaren with victory for Giancarlo Fisichella in Melbourne and three successive triumphs for Fernando Alonso, putting the Spaniard in control of the title battle.

McLaren have since bounced back with two wins for Raikkonen but Dennis admits the frustration felt after their Albert Park troubles hindered them in the following weeks.

He said: “With the benefit of hindsight, we took a bigger psychological blow in Australia than we imagined.

“It was mind-blowingly frustrating to go from pre-season testing to having our qualifying washed out by rain.

“The drivers were desperate in the race and they both ran wide, damaging their deflectors.

“We came out of that as a bruised team and it took a while to recover from it.”

McLaren are already looking towards next season, when Formula One’s engine rules will change radically.

The current 10-valve three-litre engines will be replaced by V8 2.4-litre units and McLaren’s engine partner Mercedes are well on the way with their preparations.

Mercedes engine chief Norbert Haug said: “We are on with the programme which is fine. We have already run it in testing for the first time a few weeks ago.

“It is going according to our schedule and I would say it is quite okay so far.”