McLaren Must Work Flat Out, Says Haug

Mercedes boss Norbert Haug said on Sunday that the McLaren team have a lot of hard work ahead of them after watching Ferrari claim victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Kimi Raikkonen retired for the second race in succession to extend a nightmare start to the season, while David Coulthard came home in sixth place as Michael Schumacher took victory for Ferrari. The result, coupled with the season opening Australian Grand Prix in which McLaren scored just one point, has left the team in fifth place in the Constructors' Championship 29 points behind Ferrari.

"It is hard to predict how long it will take, it will not be the short term and certainly not when you go from one overseas race to another. We need to work flat out," Haug said. "We need to improve everything. We made a step forward for this race but certainly not a big enough step to win. I think Kimi would have had a chance to finish fourth if he had finished.

"You want to prepare yourself and your team to be competitive in the work over the winter and we certainly did not achieve that so far. Having said that we are a team that has depth and possibilities to overcome problems."

Williams are in second place in the teams' standings on 17 points, while Renault and BAR-Honda are ahead of McLaren after scoring a podium apiece so far this season. Haug knows the reliability problems that have hampered Raikkonen, the runner-up to Schumacher in last year's title race, in the opening two races need to be cured if McLaren are to halt the slide.

"Having two strong Ferraris and then eight other cars that are very even means that the smallest mistake or problem puts you tenth or so in the start. That makes things very difficult," said Haug. "You cannot afford to have one weak part in the whole package and certainly cannot afford not to finish a race. We cannot improve in a fortnight, that's for sure, but we are heading in the right direction."