New McLaren delayed again

The new McLaren MP4-18 will not debut before the Canadian Grand Prix in mid-June, according to team boss Ron Dennis, and perhaps even as late as the British Grand Prix in mid-July. Happy with the performance of the current interim MP4-17D, which has given the team two victories so far, McLaren is not in any rush to get the new car into competition.

"We will race it when we feel that it is as reliable as our existing car," said Dennis at Imola, of the 2003 chassis. "That does not mean to say that we are not going to run it soon or that it is not going to be quicker. We know it will be quicker but to finish first, first you have to finish."

"With the rules as they are currently, you have got to have reliability or else you are history. The cost of unreliability in practice is severe and so we don't actually know when we'll race the MP4-18. I'd say no sooner than Canada, no later than Silverstone."

David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen have won a victory apiece and Raikkonen has finished on the podium every race so far this season. The Finn heads the Driver's championship standings from his team-mate and McLaren the constructors, ahead of Ferrari.

Ferrari is due to introduce the F2003-GA at the next race, the Spanish GP, providing it is reliable in testing this week. The team intends to run consecutive race distances to test the constancy of the car.

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