McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh has revealed that the MP4-19B could make its race debut in three week's time at the French Grand Prix.
Thus far, the MP4-19B has only had one test, at Silverstone with Kimi Raikkonen at the wheel. The first signs indicate that the test went well, and Raikkonen commented that the car feels better than its predecessor and has more pace.
However, before giving the 'new' car its F1 'baptism', the Woking outfit wants to run it at another test, Jerez, which follows next week's US GP at Indianapolis.
"Silverstone was a three-day test and I think from one test you have got to be cautious," said Whitmarsh, "but Kimi drove it, and he was very comfortable with it.
"We are pleased that it is a step forward," he continued. "However, whether it is enough remains to be seen, we have got to bring it to the race track as soon as we can. It is very tempting and I suppose encouraging that I have received all sorts of pressure from the drivers and from my chairman, to have it here or in Indianapolis. I think that is a good sign because, obviously, if I wasn't under that pressure then we would probably all be a bit disappointed. The reality is, in Formula One you have to work in a very careful and consistent manner.
"We have an important test in Jerez after Indianapolis, where we will have two 19Bs. We have only got two tests before the summer break and we have got to make sure that rather than knee-jerk into bringing a car to the circuit before it is properly developed, that we do the right amount of work on the test track. At the moment, we are going to do that and we are hoping that Jerez will be a successful test, which we believe it will be. If it is, we will bring it to the French Grand Prix, but as I say at the moment the reality is we will be driven by the data, we will be driven by the information we get when we perform those tests."
Early signs indicate that the only real difference between the MP4-19B and its predecessor is in the car's aerodynamics. Essentially the chassis is the same, as are most other parts on the car. Only the 'add on' on the outside of the car are said to be different. With this in mind, and looking at the performance of the MP4-19, Whitmarsh was asked if the engine would be different in any way.
"With 19B there is a slightly different engine which does give us a small performance improvement," he revealed, "and that is independent of the underlying developments we saw throughout the year.
"After last weekend, we've had quite a lot of introspection and concentration on the issue of durability and reliability but we intend, in Magny Cours, to have a small incremental improvement in performance and then at Hockenheim we anticipate another step forward in performance, so we have two steps of performance from the engine during the course of the year. There are several changes to the fundamental block of the engine, one of which is reliability-driven and the other is introduced with the 19B and gives us a small performance increment. But in terms of the chassis, they won't fundamentally change balance."
Asked if the 'new' engine might appear before the 19B, Whitmarsh replied: "We would have had it in the test but we backed off to an older specification of engine in the light of our experience at the Nürburgring."
Finally, when asked about the problem at the Nurburgring, the Englishman answered: "It was a piston problem, as I think we said or certainly suspected at the time.
"Further analysis has demonstrated that all of the pistons that failed came from two batches of material so we think we know why we had the problem. We had a slightly different design of piston at the event so inevitably, when you have piston failures and you have just changed the design then you focus on the design issue but, I think in fairness and in the light of the analysis that we have done, we have now tracked it down to two batches of material. In the meanwhile, of course, we had to build the engines so we have reverted our pistons back in specification for this race because we had to build those engines before we could conclude the material analysis."
