Newey: McLaren to Put Races Before Title

McLaren's decision to start 2003 with a modified version of their current Formula One car will make it hard for them to win the Championship, technical director Adrian Newey said today.

But he added that the team should be far more competitive later in the season when the new MP4-18 is introduced with a new Mercedes engine.

"It (the new car) will not be ready in time for the start of the season, or not soon enough to be sure we have had enough time to be happy with reliability," Newey told the BBC.

"So we have decided to take advantage of that when it comes to making decisions about the design of the new car.

"What this says is that we want to go about winning individual races," he added. "It means it will be extremely difficult to win the Championship, but let's try to get some points early in the season and then be absolutely competitive as soon as we can."

McLaren are third in this year's Championship and have won just one race, Monaco with Briton David Coulthard, in a season dominated by Ferrari. Newey said the new car would be introduced when the team were happy with reliability, probably at the fourth race of the season at Imola in Italy in April.

Ferrari, who have won 14 of 16 races this year, started 2002 with a much-modified version of their 2001 car and did not introduce the F2002 until the third round in Brazil due to reliability concerns.

The Italian team would probably have waited until Imola but took one F2002 to Brazil for Michael Schumacher after Williams chalked up a one-two finish in Malaysia.