Dennis promises to fight reliability bugs

McLaren has suffered eight mechanical faults this season, compared to world champions Ferrari's three, and lag the Italian outfit by 72 points in the constructors' battle heading into the last race of the year in Japan. But Dennis says there will be a whole shift of emphasis over the close season to solve the reliability issues that have hamstrung drivers David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen in 2001.

"As a Grand Prix team you are always trying to do better," Dennis says in this week's Autosport. "You have to look at the structures that give birth to a car or an engine. As F1 has grown, some of these structures have not grown with it.

"We've had a shortfall in reliability and performance this year," he conceded. "We took the opportunity of looking at the whole thing in more detail and not just fire-fighting. We've gone way beyond just the engineering issues and looked at the relationship between Ilmor, Mercedes and McLaren and we intend to be one.

"We will explain more in the future when it is an appropriate time. But has this season has been a catalyst for change for us? Yes."