Valencia, Nov 26: McLaren finished third overall this year in the constructor's championship while Finland's Kimi Raikkonen was runner-up to Ferrari's six times champion Michael Schumacher. The team will give the new car a three day shakedown in Valencia before testing in Barcelona and Jerez with Coulthard, Raikkonen, Austrian Alexander Wurz and Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa in the first two weeks of December. The 2004 season starts in Melbourne in March.
Norbert Haug, Director of Mercedes Motorsport said the team hoped to gain a significant advantage by getting their 2004 car onto the test track before their rivals. "We have our next years car ready now and we hope to get the benefit out of that. We have intensive testing ahead of us in Valencia, in Barcelona and in Jerez, the three Spanish circuits. This will all happen before Christmas so is an intensive period of testing in front of system.scripts.system.scripts.us," he said.

Bureau Report