In the latest Friday favourite, alex_wurz talks about his fondness for the McLarenF1 MP4-17D. Feature:
Alex Wurz logged thousands of miles driving the 2003 McLaren MP4-17D in his role as the team’s test driver in the days before tight restrictions were imposed.
Wurz, who had joined McLaren as a tester for the 2001 season after losing his seat at Benetton, had a hefty shunt aboard the MP4-18 at Jerez and says it was “the exact opposite” of what made the 17D so special. “The 17D was a car which was the extension of myself,” he says. “Regardless which circuit and regardless which conditions, it always did what the brain wanted it to.
A weaker than expected start to the season from Ferrari maestro Michael Schumacher meant that Raikkonen headed the points when the circus descended on Montreal for round seven. Whitmarsh would later admit that work on the flawed MP4-18 in the opening third of the season had detracted from the MP4-17D’s ongoing development, which needed to pick up if Raikkonen’s championship challenge against Schumacher and Montoya was to be sustained.
This tallies with Wurz’s recollection: “They ran out of spare parts for the engines of the 17D,” he says.
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