Dennis - Lewis will fight back

Hamilton: disaster

If you're a competitive person, you're hard on yourself.

Ron Dennis
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McLaren-Mercedes boss Ron Dennis reckons that the "fighter" lurking within Lewis Hamilton will enable him to put his Bahrain Grand Prix blues firmly in the past and concentrate on the season ahead.

The 23-year-old labelled his weekend in the Middle East "a disaster" after making two glaring errors in the race.

Firstly, Hamilton failed to operate his car's anti-stall mechanism properly at the start, before subsequently driving into the back of Fernando Alonso's Renault after the first error had dropped him down the field.

Hamilton also suffered a huge shunt during Friday practice - his car being wrecked after it slammed sideways into a tyre wall at the Sakhir circuit at over 100 mph.

The net result for Hamilton was a lowly 13th-place finish - his lowest in 20 F1 starts - and the loss of the Drivers' Championship lead to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

But, with the next race on the calendar, the Spanish Grand Prix, not being held until April 27th, Dennis believes his protege's competitive mentality will enable him to take stock and bounce back.

"If you're a competitive person, you're hard on yourself," Dennis said.

"I've said many times I don't think I'm the exception to the rule in this team: we're not great losers.

"We're fighters, and when you don't think you've done a particularly good job, you go away and all you want is for the next race to come because you know if nothing else changes, you're going to be more competitive.

"It's the nature of this sport, it's so full of ups and downs. It is an emotional rollercoaster of grands prix, and it has never been any different."

Cool

Dennis also said that the cool temperament Hamilton normally possesses - sadly lacking at the weekend - will be to the fore as he assesses what went wrong over the coming days.

He continued: "What happens is you rationalise everything for a couple of days, go through a mental dip and then you come back.

"The only thing you look at as you go into the last weekends is the points standings, and they're all so close at this stage it's almost immaterial.

"When it's so close, you don't suddenly start panicking - you concentrate on starting the weekend and working though it and doing a really good job."

After the season's opening three 'flyaway' races, attention now switches to Europe and Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, where Dennis has long claimed his team will come on strong.

McLaren will need to do just that, with the performance of both Ferrari - who scored a one-two in Bahrain - and BMW Sauber - who now lead the Constructors' Championship - overshadowing their own at the weekend.

However, Dennis hinted his belief that the latter outfit might not be able to mount a consistent challenge as the season progresses.

"We respect all competitors and they (BMW) are doing a better job than they've done at any other time in their involvement in F1," he added.

"But when we get to Europe, this is where the R&D (research and development) and speed of manufacture start to make a difference.

"We'll be very strong, and so I'm not at all unduly worried about the future. It will be a fight right through the season."