McLaren in no rush to give new car race debut

MCLAREN will launch their new MP4-18 at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France tomorrow but they have already admitted it will not be given its race debut at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The British team lost their place at the head of the constructors’ standings after Italian rivals Ferrari finished first and third at the Austrian Grand Prix here Sunday to leapfrog them by one point. McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen ensured he retained the drivers’ championship lead, with a two-point advantage, by splitting the two Ferraris to finish second at the A1-Ring.

But McLaren team principal Ron Dennis admitted: “The whole team is looking forward to the first run of the MP4-18 next week.”

The team are desperate to introduce the new car after seeing their championship lead, which they had built up to 23 points after the third race of the season in Brazil, overhauled by a hat-trick of wins from Ferrari in the last three races. McLaren have been using a development of last year’s MP4-17 car since the start of the season but Ferrari, who started the year with their F2002 car, have leapt forward following the introduction of their new F2003-GA in Spain two weeks ago.

Despite Ferrari’s clear advantage and Finn Raikkonen’s hopeful calls for the new car to be introduced in Monaco after the Austrian race, McLaren insist it will not be rushed into service.

In the meantime Ferrari has warned against any knee-jerk reactions to the pit fire they encountered in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix and said refuelling should remain part of Formula One. Michael Schumacher’s car was briefly engulfed in flames when the German driver came in for his first pit-stop and Ferrari encountered problems with the fuel rig.

Jos Verstappen famously escaped with minor burns after his Benetton car was engulfed in a fireball at the 1994 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Ferrari’s technical director Ross Brawn was working with Verstappen’s team that day but believes the refuelling process is still safe.

“There’s this counter argument with racing cars with 220 litres of fuel on board that’s more dangerous as well and I don’t think it’s a clear cut argument,” Brawn said.

But Todt insisted Formula One must continue with refuelling and not renew calls for a ban.

“We should keep it as it is,” said Todt. “We have to understand what happened and improve in order not to have the problems again but refuelling is part of Formula One.

“If you had no kind of refuelling you would go into the race with almost 200 kilos of fuel in the car so it would raise other problems. The simple fact is motorsport is dangerous.”