Ron Dennis Q&A

David Coulthard's win was the team's 11th at Monaco, but only the third of what has been a difficult season so far. After the race Ron Dennis led the celebrations at the McLaren motorhome; Adam Cooper caught up with the team boss as he prepared to tuck into a well-earned chicken sandwich.

Q: How would you describe this - a great day for David and a good day for the team?

"It goes without saying that the result is quite pleasing. We've got our frustrations because of the problems with Mika's car, but at the end of the day we finished with 11 points, and the difference in the constructors' is down to five. We've closed the gap to Michael, and that's all we have to do. It might well go the other way again, but if we keep plugging away at it, I'm sure that we have now and will continue to have a chance of winning both championships. And that's our objective."

Q: And David didn't put a foot wrong all day?

"David did a brilliant job."

Q: How frustrating was it to have both of them sitting behind the Jordans for the first half of the race?

"Very frustrating, but that is the nature of Monte Carlo. At the end of the day you know that you've got be disciplined, you know that there's no way that you're going to get past. They showed that discipline, but when both of them had clear tracks they were able to do very fast laps. David showed that we were every bit as fast as Schumacher, if not faster.

"That's important to us because we didn't have a great practice, it was difficult, and it was particularly pleasing to recover from that."

Q: In retrospect was choosing the harder tyres was a wrong decision? Did you think you would still have enough in hand in qualifying?

"The only reason the Jordans managed to outqualify us was that we didn't do a particularly good job of optimising the cars. Of course we had a huge traffic problem with Mika. In fact they both had traffic problems, but Mika more extensively than David, so it was typical Monaco, as is the result. To finish first, you first have to finish."

Q: Were you smiling quietly to yourself when Michael pulled over?

"Not really. You've always got to remember that it can happen to you. Just because it's happened to someone else doesn't mean it's not going to happen to you."

Q: A lot has been said about Schumacher's amazing reliability. Do you think he was due something like this?

"A couple of bad results for them, and we're going to be well and truly in there with a chance. In fact one more 'Did Not Finish' for him and a good result for us and we're there. In the first few races we were leading - people forget how strong we were in the first two races, and how easy it was to pass those points to Ferrari with our subsequent failures."

Q: What was Mika's problem?

"We had a telemetry transmitter break free. It sits on the underside of the monocoque, and it started interfering with the brake pedal, so he obviously wasn't too cheerful about that. Fortunately at least it became completely detached and we were able to cut it free and bring the pit stop forward. In the end he did a great job."

Q: And he didn't give up...

"I think he fell asleep a couple of times, but nothing serious, and at the end of the day he got a point."

Q: Did it remind you of Nurburgring last year, when everything seemed lost but he kept trying - and got the two points which won the World
Championship?

"Absolutely, absolutely."

Q: What was the result of removing that telemetry transponder?

"It cut it all off! But we coped. We went to Plan B. It's a little bit like flying blind, really, but it was OK."

Q: At the back of your mind you probably consider Sauber as the Ferrari 'B' team, so was it frustrating when he came up behind Mika Salo?

"Not really. I didn't see anyone overtaking competitively, because that's the nature of Monaco. But I still think it was an exciting race for everybody."

Q: What was the gearshift problem that slowed Mika at the end?

"We couldn't identify any problems because we didn't have any telemetry, but he clearly had a problem. At the end of the day he plugged away and still had a big enough gap to the next guy to take the point."