London, Nov 19: Mclaren will confirm the full 2005 driver line-up at a later date but the teams 2004 championship challenge will be led by David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen.

Last month Mclaren boss Ron Dennis denied reports he was prepared to pay a 25 million dollar indemnity to Williams-BMW counterpart Frank Williams to secure the Colombian's services before his contract expired.
"We want to win races and world championships, and in order to do so we have to plan for the future whilst applying every effort in the short term," Dennis said in a statement.
"The opportunity to sign a talent like Juan Pablo was too good to miss, and there is already a considerable amount of anticipation within our team about 2005.
"Juan Pablo has achieved a considerable amount of success in his career and we are certain that he will add to this with team Mclaren Mercedes. We are certainly looking forward to seeing what he can do in one of our cars and I believe that it’s a prospect that can’t fail to excite Formula One fans around the world. However until that happens we will be focusing all efforts on our 2004 championship challenge," Dennis said.


Bureau Report