Dennis is reported to be ready to scrap this year's McLaren

F1 insiders have accused Dennis of focusing on the state-of-the-art new base to the team's detriment.

But he said: "I understand people might think that, but they are wrong. I have great confidence in our organisation but we can't get it right all the time.

"It's painful, but only a fool would say an organisation succeeds or fails because of one person."

Dennis' remarks come after McLaren driver David Coulthard said the team had been distracted by their move to the �300m base, which is more than a year behind schedule and way over budget.

"People can get lost within a vast organisation like McLaren-Mercedes," Coulthard told BBC Five Live.

"When analysing where performance has dropped off, I'm sure there will be some people drop out of the system."

In a company like McLaren-Mercedes when a situation is as serious as this, you can reasonably expect heads to roll Mansour Ojjeh McLaren shareholder

McLaren have had a disastrous start to the season, with Coulthard scoring only an eighth and a sixth place and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen's car breaking down in all three races.

The Guardian newspaper has claimed the team are ready to scrap their car, the MP4-19, and replace it with a new one, possibly in time for the Hungarian Grand Prix in August.

That would make it the second consecutive McLaren to be shelved, after the fiasco of last year's MP4-18, which was tested but never raced last year because it was over-complicated and unreliable.

This year's car has also been afflicted by poor reliability, but its pace is also not up to standard.

There has been speculation in F1 that McLaren's design team may be restructured as a result.

Mansour Ojjeh, whose TAG company owns 30% of McLaren, said after the Bahrain Grand Prix: "In a company like McLaren-Mercedes when a situation is as serious as this, you can reasonably expect heads to roll."

The Scot said McLaren's performance was "extremely disappointing", adding: "Not one member of the team that's really pulling their weight is not disappointed."

And Coulthard hinted that some people at McLaren may have lost their edge and ambition.

Asked if some team members were in the comfort zone, he said: "Inevitably over a long period of time people get into that area but if you're at the front line I don't think you can.

"Your performance is measured every second weekend and it's there for everyone to see. We need to do more."

Raikkonen has failed to finish any of this year's three races

He said the car's lack of performance was due to "a combination of design issues and that leads to drivers having a lack of confidence".

He added: "The balance of the car is not that bad. If the pace was there, I'd be reasonably happy with it.

"I've certainly had winning cars more difficult to drive than this one, but it just doesn't give the necessary speed in the corners and on the straights to give you the lap time. It's as simple as that.

"It's a combination of the entire package.

"One of the greatest strengths of the car is its ability to brake into the corners. Control systems are working very well. And it performs very strongly in that area relative to the competition.

"But leaving the corners, in the middle of the corners, positional ability is quite difficult, so that's where you lose the time."

Much of the criticism has focused on McLaren's Mercedes engine, which is down-on-power and unreliable compared to standard-setters Ferrari and BMW, which supplies Williams.

But Coulthard said it was wrong to single out the engine.

"At the end of the day it's not one element that allows a Grand Prix car to win, you've got tyres, engine, drivers and chassis and all four of those things have to work in harmony or else you won't perform," he said.