Hakkinen hopes to prove McLaren's worth in Spain

The MP4-14, the brainchild of design genius Adrian Newey, is the pacesetter of the paddock on the faster circuits and should dominate this weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix.

But it has proved a puzzlingly nervous thoroughbred on the limit of its performance according to the world champion.

The car's unpredictability cost him victory in Imola, resulted in a puzzling lack of competitiveness in the Monaco race and a slow corner spin in Melbourne.

'This car is quite a nervous car to drive but if it is too much on the limit it is nearly impossible to be consistent,' said Hakkinen.

'Melbourne was an indication of what was to come.'

'Look at me last year, I didn't go off too often but this year there has been practice in Melbourne and the off in Imola. Its unusual and I feel very uncomfortable with that. I don't like to do off.

'I'm talking about situations when going off is a surprise. You think you are doing every correctly and you still lose the back end.'

The Finn was not critical of his team or the car as they head into this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix as clear favourites with Michael Schumacher openly admitting he expects to come off second best.

The fear for Hakkinen's rivals is just how much more competitive McLaren could be if they tap into the full potential of the MP4-14 by mastering the set-up and eradicate the unreliability problems.

'Its very difficult to get the car right,' admitted the Finn. 'We have lost a lot of time in testing due to various problems and that is the time when you are trying to develop the car to make it quicker.'

Reliability has sometimes been the price for pushing the boundaries of car design. David Coulthard has finished just once in four starts.

'The car is more complicated than last year's,' said Hakkinen.

'The car is designed differently which makes things more fragile. Everything is new, everything is redesigned and everything is more complicated so it takes people more time to understand things and make them reliable. It's a negative thing in a test and a race.

'Then again it's not something I am too worried about. Reliability is something you just have to work hard and trust the team, which I do. You cannot go into each Grand Prix wondering 'what is going to break this time?' '

He heads into the fifth race of the season with just one win despite having started every race from pole - and sitting third in the championship with 14 points to Schumacher's 26.

"I am not shocked Michael has a 12 point lead. That's happened in two races and it could be different in two more races. I know how quickly things can change in Formula One."