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Former McLaren team principal believes that the outfit has produced cars that are completive enough to win the world championship despite the complaints of its two drivers about the pace in qualifying.
Red Bull has usurped ten of the possible eleven pole positions this season but due to numerous issues has only managed to convert five of them into wins. The MP4-25 has started a grand prix from the front only once this year, but has achieved four victories in all.
"For some of our competitors, having the edge in qualifying is to the detriment of their reliability, and also, they don't have great team strategy," Dennis explained to Autosport.
The former boss elucidated that with the knowledge of the cars being heavier this year with the refuelling ban added with the resultant tyre degradation, it was in the squad’s best interest to develop a car that can perform over the grand prix distance. “If you do that, it's to the detriment of being able to get the best out of the tyre in a qualifying condition,” he clarified.
"No question, we don't have an optimised car for qualifying. But we do have a very good race car. And in the end we've won races and we're leading both world championships, and both of our drivers are first and second,” he mentioned.
"So I find it slightly infuriating, and I've voiced my opinion, when my guys get out of the cars and say, 'I wish I was on the front row' and build in the media the perception that we're giving them cars that are less capable of winning races - I do point out to them, 'Well, I still think you won four races between the two of you. Aren't you leading the world championships?' It's the nature of drivers," he pointed out.
"The fact is we aren't the fastest car in qualifying, but our development of our racing cars is relentless," he added.
The Woking-based outfit started the season with the revolutionary F-duct system, a development which the other teams have now caught up with. The outfit has now moved on to successfully running the blown diffusers and would be looking to include the flexible front wing to their armoury. “Our pace of development is so fast that sometimes we get ahead of ourselves like at Silverstone, but that's the price you pay for rapid development,” the 63-year-old said.
McLaren lead both the constructors’ and the drivers’ championship with teammates Lewis Hamilton leading from Jenson Button in the charts.
"Anyone betting against us, it's a hard bet. But there's a long way to go yet. But I'd rather have the points buffer we've got than not have it.
"There's no question, our car is particularly good in certain types of circuits. In Canada, we were dominant. I didn't hear people saying then we were unhappy with our cars. Our cars are more competitive than they look in qualifying," he concluded