New McLaren fails crash test.

McLaren's revolutionary new car, the MP4-18, might not make its race debut until the Italian Grand Prix, round 14 of 16, in September, after the car failed one of the FIA's crash tests.

A McLaren spokesperson, told British newspaper The Sun: "We failed the crash test but we have learned from the result.

"We are confident the chassis will pass the next one. We are pushing its design to the limit which is a natural step to take during development.

"It is imperative we do not jeopardise our campaign by introducing a car which has not been developed sufficiently to achieve the required level of reliability. We will only introduce the new car once we are confident it will enhance our championship programme."

This latest set-back, following two crashes while testing the car in Jerez last week and in Barcelona prior to the Canadian GP, is seriously bad news for the Woking based squad, who had hoped to have the car ready for this weekend's European Grand Prix.

The British GP has been mentioned more recently as a likely debut date, but it now appears even this may be overly optimistic, something that will not help Kimi Raikkonen beat Michael Schumacher to this year's title, the Finn, having lost the lead in championship, following the Montreal event two weeks ago.

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren's managing director, when asked what date the car would race, told The Guardian: "We will make our final decision when we are satisfied it is capable of reliably delivering better performance than our current car."

MP4-18 to debut in Australia 2004 - place your bets here!