McLaren to keep evolving

Never content with one new car, McLaren intends to keep working on the new MP4-19 through the season until by the end it will be an evolved 'B' version of the current vehicle. Last year's MP4-18 never made it into competition and Kimi Raikkonen and ...

Never content with one new car, McLaren intends to keep working on the new MP4-19 through the season until by the end it will be an evolved 'B' version of the current vehicle. Last year's MP4-18 never made it into competition and Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard raced all season in the B version of 2002's MP4-17.

Kimi Raikkonen.

Photo by DaimlerChrysler.

The new 19 was on the test track in November last year and team boss Ron Dennis has plans for ongoing changes. "The car that finishes the season will not be a 19 -- it will be a 19B," he said, according to Autosport.

"It will be significantly different from the car we have in the first grand prix. We have got a very ambitious programme through the year that will see the car evolve into a car that we will call a 'B'."

The car has broken lap records in winter testing but the most recent session in Barcelona this week has seen it near the bottom of the times. Raikkonen and Coulthard have been on duty, along with team test drivers Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa.

New cars from BAR, Renault and Williams have been setting the pace at the Circuit de Catalunya, although Ferrari has so far been keeping its F2004 in solitary confinement at Fiorano and Imola.