McLaren-Mercedes
McLaren CEO Ron Dennis has emphasised that his outfit must return to the top step of the podium in 2014.
McLaren has not won a race since Jenson Button's victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2012 but Dennis insists that his squad can win races later this season.
"I think we could win races in the later part of the season," he told the Official F1 website. "I want to see a linear progression because we must end the season winning. This has to be our objective. We can’t win today. The fact is that F1 is less cyclical as a sport. We used to have a very clear winter closure - now it’s continuous. So if we don’t have the luxury of some regulation changes, we have to be competitive as soon as possible this year- and we will be!"
Dennis also believes that he has unfinished work with McLaren and says watching their slump in 2013 - in which the team struggled to fifth place in the championship - was 'painful'.
"It was a very personal decision," he said of his return. "I can understand people interpret my decision in different ways, but I suppose the real turning point was when, after two months of being in a non-executive position, I realised all the things that my friends were doing: playing golf, fishing, sailing - all these things which I was able to do - I realised that the thing that I wanted to do more than anything else was work. I very much enjoy work, I very much enjoy Formula One - but I also feel I have unfinished business in the overall strategy for the future of the group.
"It was, of course, painful," he said when asked of witnessing McLaren's form.
"If you pass executive responsibilities, the only way you can judge the outcome is if it is one hundred percent, otherwise you can accuse yourself of influencing the decisions. In the end I felt that the right thing to do was to change direction - to refocus the team and remove from the team anything that was not contributing to a focused effort. There were too many in the team that were distracted by other activities."
