McLaren Stay Confident after Saturday Setbacks

McLaren believe they are ahead of Williams in the race to take on Ferrari despite a poor showing in Australian Formula One Grand Prix qualifying today.

Briton David Coulthard will start 11th on Sunday while Finland's Kimi Raikkonen was 15th in the new single-lap qualifying format after running wide into the dirt and damaging his left rear tyre.

"I have to say I did a pretty poor job. I ran off the circuit in the first corner and that really set the trend for the rest of the lap," said Coulthard. "I did a pretty average job for the rest of that lap."

While the drivers set a subdued tone at a meeting with reporters, McLaren boss Ron Dennis saw room for optimism after a qualifying muddied by new regulations with cars running on different fuel levels.

"We're pretty comfortable that we know where we are and I think we sit between the Williams and the Ferraris in competitiveness at the moment, that's our belief," he said.

McLaren were third overall last year, behind Williams.

They have started the season with a revised version of last year's car while they wait for a new one to be ready later in the year that they hope will narrow the gap with champions Ferrari dramatically.

"We're not going to be as competitive as we want to be until we have the new car, we knew that all along," said Dennis. "The most important thing is to have something not just two or three 10ths or even half a second quicker. It's got to be much quicker.

"Hopefully we will emerge out of the first three races with points - and a reasonable amount of points."

Floor Damage

Dennis said that Raikkonen had damaged the floor of his car, which would have to be replaced along with the left hand rear suspension once the racer emerged from the closed 'parc ferme' conditions on Sunday morning.

The new regulations prohibit working on cars overnight between qualifying and the race but make exceptions for bona fide crash damage.

"All of the changes should be possible under the interpretation of the rules and they'll take place after eight o'clock tomorrow morning and shouldn't take more than an hour or so to do," said Dennis.

The team boss, who has been a strong critic of the regulation changes designed to liven up the sport in the face of flagging television ratings and to cut costs, repeated his opposition to the ban on refuelling before the race.

He also said that some of his rivals who had benefited from a shaken-up grid on Saturday would have the smile wiped off their faces later in the year.

"All the team principals are fiercely competitive individuals and there are some sat in abnormal grid positions that are feeling quite comfortable about life at the moment," said Dennis.

"I'm not too sure that they will feel that way as the worm turns over the course of the next few races. It can sound like sour grapes but I don't think qualifying has the same relevance if you are fully aware that there could be different fuel conditions.

"I think that the one lap qualifying could be vastly improved if we knew everyone was driving the cars to their full potential."