Ron Dennis has blamed BMW for McLaren's failure to win Sunday's
Australian Grand Prix.
McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton began the race
second and fourth on the grid, with both drivers opting to start on
hard compound tyres.
However, BMW's Nick Heidfeld, who was sandwiched between the two
McLarens, decided to go with soft compound Bridgestones, which
offer better grip when new. The German also had a lighter fuel load
than the McLarens.
Both these factors allowed for the BMW driver to get ahead of both
McLarens at the start of the race and to stay ahead until he needed
to come in for his pit-stop.
And it's these tactics from BMW that Dennis says are the reasons
for McLaren failing to beat Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to the
checkered flag.
"Our race was seriously compromised by the Heidfeld strategy, which
we just didn't understand," the McLaren team boss.
"It smacked of showboating in the opening part of the race.
"We were boxed in and lost contact with Kimi, after which we had to
take a realistic approach as we weren't going to close that
gap."
Sheesh, get over it, Ron. Kimi was half a second faster in
qualifying and his fastest lap was more than a second faster than
Fred's. The only showboating around is Ron's parade of excuses.
