McLaren admits new car 'fast but unreliable'.

McLaren International MD Martin Whitmarsh found himself cornered during Friday's FIA press conference when the inevitable question of the new MP4-18 came up.

The car had been tipped - at the second attempt - to debut at the British Grand Prix, but may not now appear until Monza in September. The question of the car's delayed entrance and its apparent list of problems was put to Whitmarsh, who attempted to answer briefly as he admitted that the car had speed, but also some problems.

"Obviously, it is not a one-line answer," he explained, "

"During the course of last year, we obviously assessed our performance and contrasted it with that of Ferrari, and it was clear to us at that time that we had to make a big performance increment if we were going to get back on pace. Therefore, we decided to embark on a strategy which saw us develop a very advanced car and an advanced engine. However, when you do that, you introduce a degree of technical risk.

"We have developed a car, the MP4-18, which we have had a range of troubles during its birth. I think we have demonstrated to ourselves at least, and to others, that it is a relatively quick car - and there is no doubt that it will be a quick car. But we have got to ensure that we have got a race-worthy and reliable package. Until we have MP4-18 in that condition, then we wouldn't be introducing it at a race circuit. The truth is, at the moment, we have a quick car, but not one that has sufficient reliability to allow us to have the confidence to bring it to a race meeting and be confident we will score more points than we will do with an MP4-17D that has continued to benefit from the MP4-18 development programme.

"We also realised that there was more potential in the MP4-17 that we were racing last year, and I think we have demonstrated our ability to develop that vehicle. We have continued to enhance it and it has remained, we think, reasonably competitive this year."

Asked whether there was one thing that was wrong with the new car, Whitmarsh admitted that there were a number of niggling problems delaying its entry.

"MP4-18 is a totally new car," he said, "It has got a smaller number of carry-over parts than any of our cars that we have had before and, consequently, there are a whole range of issues that we have got to develop and enhance and make sure we have them race-worthy. All of them have been relatively minor and niggling, but we have had 15 days of testing and, together with Mercedes, we have taken a decision that, until we are confident about its race reliability, we wouldn't bring it to a racetrack."