McLaren are well prepared, says Dennis

Although his Woking-based team failed to win a race this year, hopes are high that an improved car and engine package, plus the arrival of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, will help see the team return to the top step of the podium in 2007.

Speaking to reporters at a media event at the McLaren Technology Centre on Wednesday, Dennis said he was upbeat about how the work on the MP4-22 was going - although he drew short of setting firm targets for the year ahead.

The new chassis underwent its first crash test on Tuesday, and the team are aiming to have two cars ready for testing at the official launch in mid-January.

"I don't want to make any predictions," he said. "We have our own ways of measuring performance internally. We can't hide from our analytical processes and we feel we have prepared well.

"There are many goals that you have to achieve as you move towards the first GP. The monocoque went through its first crash test yesterday and normally you are rushing around struggling to put your first car together.

"When we have our launch in Valencia (in January) there will be two cars there and they will immediately start testing, Martin (Whitmarsh) has told me. It's his target, not mine.

"We are very comfortable and are extremely well financed for the next five to ten years. We have a great driver line-up, everything looks good from the maths we are doing, and the engine, we have never had the comfort we have had of where we are with that programme.

"But we don't know what the opposition is doing, and you can never underestimate that."

Dennis is clearly excited about the partnership of Alonso and Hamilton and has promised both drivers that they will suffer no distractions from their efforts to win races next season - even if it means restricting media access to the duo.

"If the rules of engagement are fair and balanced, we will bend over backwards to be cooperative and fulfil the media's wishes for both him and Lewis," said Dennis.

"But we have dug as deep as we can possibly dig within our own organisation and we are really, really, really going to try hard to win races in next year's world championship.

"And that means that, when it comes to the drivers, we are going to try and create the best environment for them to succeed.

"Some of the young drivers in F1, because they are young, because the teams that they drive for want to get all the benefit of having them, end up doing a lot of media work and that can be very distracting from the job.

"And the difficulty for Fernando is that he really wants to concentrate on the job at the weekend, with a fair and acceptable level of sponsor and media work in an agreed format.

"He most definitely wants to leave the circuit, go home and have, to the best of his ability, a normal life."