By Parminio
March 30 2004

How much worse can it get for McLaren? Not much. With BAR's strong showing in Malaysia, it doens't look good. Even Jaguar have shown better pace, and look to be getting stronger. McLaren's season has started off not only poorly, but there seems to be little relief in sight. Although the car, thanks to a new front wing and a few aero tweaks, seemed a lot more stable in Malaysia it seems that there are basic suspension geometry problems that make the car roll. Add to this the Mercedes engine not being quite up to snuff, and the mechanical failures suffered by Kimi Raikkonen at both races, and things just look bleak for the team.

McLaren however are supposed to be introducing a few more improvements for Bahrain that should help the car and the team score some points. With David Coulthard scoring the teams only points so far by limping the car to 2 top 8 finishes, McLaren are already in a huge hole in the race for the Constructors Title and a near no win scenario for a Drivers Title.

McLaren fans are desperately looking for some ray of sunshine from some sector of the teams performance. Over the first two races, the only light has been David's performance. Oddly, it is David's last year with the team.

Bahrain may not be the make or break race of the season, but it is deffinately an important race. If McLaren don't start scoring points soon, the team may wind up in it's worse finishing possition in over a decade.