Haug apologises after Raikkonen engine failure

Norbert Haug has apologised to McLaren for the number of engine failures they have suffered this year, admitting: “We are just not good enough.”

Kimi Raikkonen suffered his fourth engine failure in practice of the season yesterday, bringing with it an automatic 10-place grid penalty.

That became largely irrelevant when rain in qualifying left him 17th fastest, but the other incidents – as well as the failure Raikkonen suffered whilst leading in Germany, have terminally damaged his world championship hopes.

Fernando Alonso has already secured the world title, leaving McLaren to chase constructors’ championship glory in the remaining two races, in Japan and China.

Mercedes boss Haug refuses to blame misfortune for Raikkonen’s string of reliability problems and accepted responsibility.

He said: “We never speak about bad luck, we are just not good enough. We are trying to push forward and we have made good steps but it is not 100%.

“Nobody has changed engines as much as us, but we are also in the limelight and it always hits Kimi's car.

“We have been quite dominant sometimes but on the other side we need to improve. I have to apologise to the guys but we are fully committed to it and nobody is leaning back and thinking we are almost there.”

McLaren lead the constructors’ standings by two points from Renault heading into tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix.