Dennis plays down lack of pace

Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton's new McLaren needs to be faster but the team have time to get it up to speed, Ron Dennis said this week.

"It is certainly not as fast as we would like it to be," the McLaren chairman said before the opening of a F1 exhibition at London's Science Museum.

"But it's early days and we've still got quite a bit of testing to do and quite a bit of development to reflect through into our pace."

The first race is in Australia on March 29 and McLaren have only next week remaining before a season-long testing ban comes into force.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen was the slowest driver on track in testing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on Monday, more than 2.6 seconds behind BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, and only ninth of 11 on Tuesday.

The Mercedes-powered team had an indifferent few days before that in Jerez, with Briton Hamilton finishing seventh fastest last Wednesday and crashing on Thursday.

Some reports have suggested McLaren are wrestling with excessive rear tyre wear and the new-look rear wing, with the team using last year's version at some tests before the season gets under way.

"At this time of the year all our testing is centred around optimising the car for the race," said Dennis.

"But the inevitable publicity that surrounds test performance sees some of the less-experienced teams or some of the teams that are seeking money actually running their cars with the objective of doing one fast lap.

"Of course, one fast lap is very important when it comes to qualifying but it is relatively unimportant when it comes to the race. And the disciplined teams are working hard on a sustainable pace."

Dennis, who handed over as team boss to Martin Whitmarsh at the beginning of the month, said it was too early to say who was ahead of whom.

"The performance of McLaren and its competitors isn't really going to be known until probably two or three races into the season, even Australia isn't going to be a strong indicator.

"So, really it is three or four races before you can really determine who is competitive and who is going to be fighting for the world championship."

Behind schedule

In a separate interview with the BBC, Dennis said McLaren would be fighting for the championship but conceded they were behind schedule.

"We had a strategy for this year to leave it to the last possible moment to produce our aerodynamic package for the Australian Grand Prix," he said.

"That in itself gave us some production challenges and we have really only started to run the car with the Australian aero package.

"We ran the 2008 rear wing because it was more relevant in its performance to the wing that we are going to have in Australia. It doesn't mean you are lost or that you don't know what you are doing."