McLaren to update MP4-17 for 2003

Ferrari ran an updated F2001 for the first three races of this year, winning twice. Now team boss Ron Dennis is planning a similar strategy for the start of 2003.

"We have a very clear plan of how we're going to run through next season," he said. "We hear the rumours that we'll use this year's car. That's not correct. We will use what is defined as the 17D. That is, a significantly modified version of what we're running, and that also applies to the derivation of the engine.

"Why? Because we know there's more to come from what we've got. And we know that if we go down that path, as demonstrated by Ferrari - it's not a question of copying Ferrari - we should at least have a greater potential for reliability in those first three races.

"We will give our engineers - and there are significantly more engineers on both sides of the fence [McLaren and Mercedes] - greater involvement. It makes a lot of sense to have as much manoeuvring time to find what we need, which is a quantum step. Incremental steps are not going to end the Ferrari domination. We have to take significant steps, and that means time."

As well as incorporating recent large strides from Mercedes, the updated car will have a heavily revised gearbox and rear end.