McLaren had a disappointing season by their own exalted standards, slipping to third in the constructors’ championship and winning but a single race.

Yet 2002 was a long way from a disaster for them, despite the crushing domination of Ferrari, a team with which McLaren was doing battle for the title as recently as 2000.

One win, for David Coulthard at Monaco, is not what McLaren have come to expect – but it was one more than any other team managed against Ferrari’s superb F2002 car.

Only one other team managed to beat Ferrari in 2002, and Williams did it in Malaysia, while the Italian team were still racing their 2001 car.

For McLaren, though, that will be scant consolation – but it is not as if they did not know what they were in for from this season.

They headed into it knowing that they would almost certainly end it third overall behind Ferrari and Williams.

They were confident in the quality of their MP4-17 car, but well aware of major deficiencies in their Mercedes engine – and that is exactly how things turned out.

The Mercedes lagged a long way behind the engines of Ferrari and BMW, and the McLaren chassis could only do so much to bridge the gap.

Its inherent excellence, though, was seen to good effect on the odd occasion – Monaco, Magny-Cours and Spa being enough to prove that technical director Adrian Newey had not lost his touch.

Another bright point was the performance of Kimi Raikkonen.

The inexperienced Finn may not yet be at the same level as countryman Mika Hakkinen, the man he replaced.

But there were enough flashes of potential both to convince he may get there one day.