McLaren under pressure as Williams take initiative

McLaren, the perennial championship challengers, are under pressure to stop rivals Williams and Ferrari turning this year's Formula One world championship into a two-team contest.

With just four points from the two season-opening races, the strain is showing on team chief Ron Dennis and established senior driver David Coulthard.

Briton Coulthard and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, his new Finnish team mate, were unable to finish Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix won by German Ralf Schumacher ahead of his Williams team mate Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya. Both were forced into retirement with engine failures.

"I'm disappointed with this result because I believe both Kimi and myself could have secured a couple of good finishes," Coulthard told a news conference on Sunday night. "But, for me, all of a sudden the engine went on to nine cylinders.

"I didn't know exactly what caused the problem, but the team decided it was safer to retire. It was a difficult weekend, but we have to stay focused," Coulthard added.

"I know we have a package which is capable of winning races, but we just need a bit of reliability. In my mind, I am taking my helmet and I am smashing it around the garage," he said.

"It is just so frustrating when the results don't come, especially early in the season when you realise the importance of scoring early on.

"I benefited from that last year and it really does give you a platform on which you can build the year. Obviously it then disappeared from us later in the season, but nonetheless I am two races down with no points from the season and I still haven't completed more than 15 racing laps at a proper pace.

"So I feel very frustrated and it is obviously double disappointment for the team with Kimi having an engine failure as well," Coulthard said.

With Williams on top of the championship for the first time since 1997 with 22 points and Ferrari second on 14, McLaren look already to be in danger of chasing for third place.

But Dennis took heart from the fact new-boy Raikkonen was proving a more-than capable replacement for Mika Hakkinen and said he would push Coulthard all the way this season.

"I think the thing that has come through and in which he even surpasses Mika is that he is so incredibly cool," Dennis said of the young Finn.

"He doesn't get fazed by anything. He knows what the car is doing. As you would expect, he is still on a learning curve, but I think that he may find it easier here than in a lot of other teams.

"We have got a good database and, of course, the best help he can get in having someone with the speed and maturity of David in the other car. David has certainly got someone giving him a lot of pressure and I don't think that is a bad thing."