McLaren to persevere with MP4-17D.

Suggestions that the radical McLaren-Mercedes MP4-18 will never race took another step towards reality last night, when it was confirmed that the Woking team will press its current MP4-17D into action at the final three races of the year in order to help Kimi Raikkonen's championship chances.

Ferrari's recent run of misfortune and poor results has allowed the Finn, and Williams-BMW's Juan Montoya, to close to within two points of leader Michael Schumacher, and McLaren has apparently admitted that it is unwilling to risk its newest model in the thick of the championship fight. The MP4-18 has proven unreliable in testing, and has also narrowly failed the mandatory FIA crash test on three occasions, further delaying its potential debut.

According to Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, McLaren will not take the MP4-18 to next week's Monza group test, although test driver Pedro de la Rosa will run it privately in Spain, leaving Raikkonen and team-mate David Coulthard to concentrate on honing the older model for the next round of the world championship, which takes place at the Italian venue on 14 September.

Team boss Ron Dennis admitted recently that he wished the team had christened the extensively reworked MP4-17D as the MP4-18 in order to prevent the ongoing inquisition about when - or whether - the new car would make its first competitive appearance, and claimed that the 17D was only a shadow of the car it replaced at the beginning of 2003.

Despite having described as 'ageing', Dennis insists that the current model is so far removed from its predecessor that it could have been classified as a new car, and its development has been ongoing throughout the season, leaving the team confident that further new parts destined for Monza could keep it in contention with Schumacher and Montoya over the final three races of the campaign.