Dennis Confident of McLaren Progress

McLaren chief Ron Dennis is confident his team will be able to catch up in the case their rivals perform better at the season opening Australian Grand Prix next week.

"We've got an extremely intensive development programme which will unfold during the course of the next few months which will, hopefully, provide us with added competitiveness," Dennis said. "If we can build on a strong performance in Australia, great.

"If we are somewhat behind in Australia it will certainly give us some confidence that we'll move ahead, because, we are constantly working hard in pushing performance."

The Woking-based team have been hindered by reliability problems during pre-season testing, and Finn driver Kimi Raikkonen was even doubtful he would be able to finish the Australian race.

"Melbourne is a track that I like but the result will depend on the car. If it gets to the finish then I think I can get a good result. At the moment it seems unlikely that we'll be able to finish the race," Raikkonen told Gazzetta dello Sport.

Dennis, however, said McLaren were pleased with their progress.

"The season is shaping up quite well. We've done a fair amount of testing which has not been without problems, but that's what testing is for," Dennis told his team's website. "Most of the time we've been pretty competitive, but, of course, you just don't know how strong your opposition is at this stage.

"However things have moved in the right direction and we are quietly comfortable with our progress."