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Ron Dennis Q&A

Austria was a weekend of mixed emotions for Ron Dennis, with the loss of Ilmor boss Paul Morgan inevitably dominating his thoughts. After Mika Hakkinen dropped out right at the start of Sunday's race, David Coulthard saved the day by scoring his second win of the season, although he only gained four points on Michael Schumacher thanks to Ferrari's last corner place swap. Curiously, despite taking part in the podium celebrations, Ron himself didn't even realise that the controversial move had occurred and that Michael had finished second until told by journalists some 20 minutes after the race!



"Our whole approach is that we race to win. The reality is that we did very good warm-up times, we knew we had to go very long to stand any chance of winning. Of course there were things that happened that were out of our control, but we took full advantage of other people's misfortunes, but more importantly we outperformed Ferrari on strategy. We took the lead with strategy, and we won the race with strategy. That's pleasing, and it shouldn't in any way be seen to lessen a fantastic drive from David. It was a fantastic race."



"Yes, because there was a lot of pressure. We didn't quite have a perfect car, we didn't quite get it right in practice, and we didn't have it as perfect for the race as we'd like, and he had to work hard. He took the pressure, had a couple of small glitches in the race, but nothing to cause us anything other than a small intake of breath. But at the end of the day it was a good result."



"For many years I've had the view that their strategy is their strategy and our strategy is ours. I think it's for other people to judge the rights. I think it's always important to win. I want to win at everything in which I participate. But how you win is important. It's not win at all costs. If people sleep comfortably using those sorts of strategies at this time of the year, then by all means, that's their business and that's their values, but it's not ours, and never will be."



"I don't think it's a question of want to - it wouldn't happen in our team that way. There'll be a time when it will be appropriate for one driver to help the other, but we're not in that time yet. There's a long way to go."



"It's still early, there's a long way to go. Do not rule out three or four straight wins. These things happen."



"We just moved back to the basic parameters of the car that we had on Friday. The car has been very good throughout the weekend, expect Saturday. We made mistakes, and we admitted to it. It was a 35-minute practice with lots of dirt on the circuit, lots of traffic, which made it difficult to get clear laps. At the point at which we suddenly realised that we had pushed the car in the wrong direction, it was too late. We had to live with the decision."



"He's a long way behind, but there are a lot of points out there to get. It's just too early. The best way to contribute to the team's performance from both drivers is to win races."



"He's had the 'flu all week, so I don't know whether he's happy or relieved that he didn't have to race. It really went to his head, so he had a lot of nasal congestion. He didn't look great when he got into the car. So there was a plus and a minus to it, but as always he would have preferred to be out there."

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