Wurz happy with new McLaren's first run

Speaking to autosport.com after today's test, Wurz said his initial feelings about the car were encouraging but that it was impossible to judge the car's abilities.

"I felt good in the car today," he said. "It was very nice to be the one who drove the new car first. You could see that everyone was so excited in the team and that a lot of effort had gone into this. The big bosses had flown in from around the world - it was like a lot of kids that had a new toy to play with!"

The only interruption to his running was when a hydraulic alarm went off, but the team discovered that it was the sensor, rather than the system, which had malfunctioned.

"So far, I'm happy," he added. Today was all about system checks, to look at the consistency of the car. It has a seven-speed gearbox but I was only using six today and short shifting - I had a speed limit. We only did a few laps today, but we will build that up as the week progresses and maybe get to a level where we can look at the performance. We are not planning any race distances or anything like that.

"There is no way I can judge the car yet. We'll just have to wait and see until I am allowed to push the car. The 17D has shown that it is competitive enough, but at the same time everybody wants the new baby! We will only race it when we are happy with it."

Wurz is likely to test the car for the rest of this week, with Raikkonen and Coulthard getting their first runs in post-Monaco testing.