Coulthard: New Car Likely to Race in Nurburgring

Scot David Coulthard has warned his McLaren-Mercedes team not to react to the hat-trick of wins from World Champions Ferrari by introducing their new car before it is fully ready.

The Woking-based team, who built up a 23-point Championship lead only to see it reduced and overhauled by Ferrari in the last three races, will test their new machine for the first time today, but Coulthard said the car should not be raced before the European Grand Prix on June 29.

"You can't rush the process," said Coulthard. "It won't race in Monaco, there is a possibility it could go to Canada but it's more likely going to be the Nurburgring. I think the new car is going to help close the performance gap to Ferrari a lot and we know we have to bring it in as soon as possible if we're going to keep charge of the Championship race.

"But we can only bring it when it is reliable and that will take time to prove."

Ferrari introduced their new F2003-GA car at the Spanish Grand Prix after taking their first victory of the year, and the last for the formerly dominant F2002, at the preceding race in San Marino.

The new car, which was launched in February, suffered several problems in testing as two mechanical failures occurred just before its planned debut in San Marino caused the team to postpone its introduction until the Barcelona event.

Coulthard believes the team can halt Ferrari's march even if the new car does not arrive for another month and he added: "We've extracted more from the MP4-17 out of the first five races than we maybe would have expected and that will help us until the new car arrives."