McLaren MP4-16 launch: It's us versus Ferrari

Ferrari pipped the Woking-based team to the drivers' and constructors' titles last season. But McLaren has struck back with a 'clean sheet of paper' design in the new MP4-16, while engine-supplier Mercedes has brought out an evolution of its successful V10 engine - the F0 11 0K - that is rumoured to run at close to 20,000rpm.

Speaking at the launch of the MP4-16 at Valencia, Dennis said: "I think if you succeed in anything - and their [Ferrari] performance is no exception - it gives you confidence. And I think that confidence is probably going to make them better. It's an emotion, and it's something that we've experienced a lot, but we know that at the end of the day our performance is in our own hands. We just have to see how quick ultimately the cars are."

But despite targeting Ferrari as the main opposition, Dennis believes the impending tyre war between Bridgestone and newcomers Michelin will bring in other contenders. Bridgestone includes both Ferrari and Michelin in its ranks, while the French company's trump card would appear to be an increasingly potent Williams-BMW team.

"The competition for us is still clearly Ferrari," said Dennis, "but I don't think you can discount anyone, especially when you bring into play the fact that the tyres are going to vary from circuit to circuit.

"Sometimes Bridgestone will maintain its advanteg and sometimes Michelin is going to be better. That's the nature of a tyre war.

"But the championship is going to be long and hard-fought," he added, "and I don't think it's going to be decided until well towards the end of the season. Our competition's reliability is going to play as important a part as our own. You work hard to get reliability and so far, so good."

McLaren ran the new MP4-16 behind closed doors at Valencia for the two days prior to today's (Wednesday's) launch, but Dennis took a low-key line on what had been achieved so far.

"At the moment the car is reasonably quick," he said. "We're doing all our work on control tyres to maintain a baseline tyre performance, and taking that into account the performance is not bad at all."

Dennis also stressed that the times produced by McLaren in the remainder of winter testing would not necessarily reflect the ultimate performance of its new car.

"There's no question that there will be times coming out from the test here and the remaining tests that will take place before the first GP," he said, "but we aren't here to have faster lap times than our competition. That becomes important in [the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in] Melbourne. And what you have to do when you develop a car is you've got to try to maintain a stable base on which to evaluate everything, which means using a conservative tyre choice and appropriate fuel loads.

"I have no idea what will unfold between now and the first GP," he added. "Whether we are slightly quicker or slightly slower is almost going to be immaterial. It won't mean anything because you don't know the condition in which a competitor is when he is testing.

"What I would say is that the shortcomings that existed in some of our competitors in the past are just not there anymore. People now know what you have to do and how you have to concentrate through the winter. The former era of winter World Championships has tended to go out of the window with the principle teams."

McLaren will continue testing at Valencia after today's launch, and look set to be joined at the Spanish circuit by Jordan-Honda on Saturday and Sauber-Petronas and Jaguar on Monday.