Valencia, Nov 26: McLaren completed the 2003 season with a development of last year's car after the MP4-18 that had been due for introduction mid-season suffered repeated crash test failures and reliability problems. The car has an all new V10 to conform to 2004 regulations intended to cut costs by limiting teams to one engine per car per race weekend. McLaren said in a statement that the new unit was more compact than the 2003 engine. McLaren, who also announced that they had signed aerodynamicist Nicholas Tombazis from world champions Ferrari, are the first of the 10 Formula One teams to run their 2004 challenger. Jaguar, Toyota, Renault and Sauber have all announced January launches for their new cars with the remainder yet to finalise dates.

Bureau Report