MP4-18's Race Debut May Be Delayed to Silverstone

McLaren boss Ron Dennis said today that the debut of the new MP4-18 car could be delayed until the British Grand Prix, the eleventh round of the 2003 season.

"There's two decision points," said Dennis speaking to reporters at the Canadian Grand Prix. "One is [Championship] points-related, so, you know, how aggressive we have to be as regards our efforts to win the World Championship, running the existing cars who are very reliable and competitive most of the time, and therefore whilst it's a performance step to come out with the new car, reliability being so critical to points accumulation that erring towards the caution route of introducing the car later.

"But a massive swing in the points might generate a more aggressive introduction of the car. One other element is the fact that the back-to-back races would put us under quite a bit of pressure with the new car, so again that will be taken into consideration.

"So I'd say the latest introduction would be Silverstone, but earlier introduction is not out of the question."

McLaren have raced an updated version of their old MP4-17 in the first eight races of the season, scoring two wins in Australia and Malaysia.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen held onto the lead of the Championship until today's Canadian Grand Prix, where World Champion Michael Schumacher moved to the top of the standings three points ahead of the McLaren driver.

Dennis, speaking before the start of the race, said the result in today's race were not going to influence the decision to introduce the car before it's fully reliable.

"Today alone won't trigger that decision - it will also be as a result of the Jerez test - we're testing with two cars through this coming week - we're pretty comfortable that we've removed all the issues that inevitably come out of a new car - which did come out of the car in the first two tests," said Dennis.

"We'll have a good reliable test and then we'll decide at the end of next week."