Dennis says his motivation is intact

Dennis had weighed up last winter the possibility of stepping aside as F1 team principal to focus on other responsibilities within the McLaren Group.

However, he eventually chose to recommit to another season - and claims that that decision has fired up his enthusiasm for the job again.

"Earlier this year, there were rumours that some people felt I should step down as team principal," Dennis said in an interview with The Daily Mail. "And, yes, the fact is that I did agonise over whether that would have been the correct thing to do.

"But there comes a time when you have to be true to your values and your beliefs. There was no one in the whole organisation telling me to do anything other than stay on. And, of course, in the end I did decide to stay on.

"And out of that decision came renewed motivation, shared by all my colleagues, to try our damnedest to make this season one of the very best seasons in McLaren's history. To turn a negative into a positive, in other words."

Dennis says that a structure had been put in place in the event of him choosing to step aside, with some of his previous tasks being delegated to other individuals.

"I don't regret any of the decisions I've taken," explained Dennis. "Besides, as is well known, I'd originally intended to step aside at the end of 2007, and had put everything in place to facilitate that.

"I'd agreed with my colleagues who were going to do what. Certain things that I used to take care of were delegated to others, and even though I didn't step aside they've remained delegated to those others throughout this season. So this year has been considerably easier for me than previous years in terms of hands-on workload, and that has allowed me to be more strategic, which I love."

He added: "Just to be clear I'm not leaving. If I decide to step aside, I'll step aside; I won't step away. I won't leave. I'm a shareholder of this organisation. My roots are in this organisation.

"If you cut me, I bleed McLaren. I feel very fit - last winter I embarked on a rigorous programme of working-out, and I still work-out regularly, and as a result I'm even fitter now than I was at the start of the year. And I love what I do."