McLaren boss Ron Dennis was in highly talkative mood at a meet-the-press luncheon today (Friday).

Though much of the conversation remains strictly off the record, there was still enough to keep the assembled journalists scribbling away.

Looking ahead to the forthcoming season, he said; "Renault and ourselves seem reasonably competitive. Ferrari's interim car seems very good, but I've no idea of their competitiveness because of the tyres.

"It's going to be down to the tyres in the end," he warned.

McLaren CEO, Martin Whitmarsh, said that said though it has been (relatively) cold during pre-season testing, both drivers are optimistic, indeed he revealed that one of them had done a 'depth check' with "normally pessimistic members of staff" and they too seemed to be quite optimistic.

Dennis added that the Michelin tyres have been very consistent and that they get quicker as the fuel load drops, so he expects there to be good battles right to the end of races. However, he pointed out that no one has tested at the temperatures which will be found at the first three races, and that therefore people could be caught out.

On the subject of Friday testing, Dennis revealed that the team is aiming to get Pedro de la Rosa and Alexander Wurz driving like their regular race drivers in order to simulate what the cars are going to be doing.

He said that he doesn't expect the race cars to do more than five laps on Fridays, whereas the third car might do as many as 50 laps. Furthermore, he doesn't expect the top four teams to do more than 10 laps with their cars on Friday.

According to Dennis the teams voted to change qualifying, but then "we were torpedoed by the 107 per cent rule and when that arose, two teams voted against it."

However, he feels that "we could have the best motor racing of all this year. I think we could have some great racing. Engines are much closer and tyres are going to be important."

On the subject of engines, a weak point in the early part of 2004, it was revealed that there have been quite a few changes in the engine personnel, and that there has been a major change with regards the approach and philosophy.

Dennis also revealed that the 2.4 litre V8 has run already, though he failed to give further details.

When asked about his driver line-up, Ron allowed himself a wry smile. "They've both got something left," he said. "They are more smiley, they laugh at the same things, they are in good humour and we're fostering that. I'm thinking of re-introducing practical jokes."

The Englishman revealed that though there wasn't an issue between Raikkonen and former teammate David Coulthard, both men had very different senses of humour, whereas the Finn and his new Colombian teammate laugh at the same things.

"Montoya has lost six kilos," revealed Dennis. "He's fitter, his eyes are bright and he has a more focussed approach.

On the subject of the new qualifying format, which doesn't appear to be popular with anyone, Dennis admitted: "I'm a purist and it doesn't feel right. We're not able to prepare the cars for the race and I'm not comfortable with that. Not touching or preparing the cars is alien to me. Aggregate times don't feel right."