[big Ron] Dennis Keeps His Chin Up

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Dennis keeps his chin up

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Ron Dennis insists McLaren can look back on the 2005 season with pride despite being beaten to both world championships.

McLaren have enjoyed the fastest car for most of the season but a combination of reliability problems and bad luck has prevented them overhauling the advantage Renault established early on.

That bad luck struck again in the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday when a loose drain cover shattered their hopes of the constructors' championship.

Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya were piling the pressure on to Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella when the Colombian ran over a drain cover, terminally damaging his car.

Fernando Alonso went on to win the race from Raikkonen and secure the constructors' title for Renault, adding that to his drivers' crown.

Dennis said: "It was a manhole cover that screwed us up."

"It's just so unfortunate when you think about it - three cars nose to tail and a sequence of cars closely following them and we get it. That's life."

"That of course saw not only our car damaged but also the deployment of the safety car which gave Alonso the opportunity to refuel and not be punished for a light fuel load. But you don't win or lose championships on one event."

McLaren end the season with 10 wins to Renault's eight but without a world championship to their name.

Dennis confesses to finding their predicament frustrating but is determined to look to the positives from the season.

"I think it's 19 podiums and 10 race wins," he said.

"It's hardly a disaster. We said to the team they can't go away from this season feeling we have massively failed.

"The vision statement for the McLaren racing team is 'compete and win every grand prix'. It doesn't say win world championships.

"We have won 10 races. We recognise the importance of the drivers' and constructors' world championship but we can't go away from here feeling we have failed miserably.

"We are not going out of this paddock with our chins on the floor. We are hardly dismal failures. You can say 'is the motor racing god against us?' But that's life."

Dennis feels the dominance of McLaren and Renault this season has worked against his team, who were left chasing a huge deficit after struggling in the opening races.

The only grand prix not won by one of the two teams came at Indianapolis when they were part of a 14-car pull-out and Dennis believes the lack of any close challengers made McLaren's task even harder.

He added: "There were only two competitive teams this year. Even if one was slightly less competitive than the other, no-one has been able to take points away from them.

"The normal ability to pick off perhaps a weak Renault or McLaren just hasn't existed."