How can one of the top teams in F1 at the time produce a car that was never able to race? Glenn Freeman is joined by Edd Straw and ex-McLaren F1 mechanic Marc Priestley to discuss the McLaren MP4-18, which was supposed to race in 2003 but never made it to a grand prix. Why was McLaren launching the car late? Why did that launch date keep getting pushed back? What role did the success of the interim MP4-17D have on McLaren's plans? What fundamental problems did Adrian Newey discover with his radical design? How did McLaren's handling of the project set the wheels in motion for Newey to leave the team? Was McLaren right not to risk the car while Kimi Raikkonen was fighting for a championship? Could Raikkonen have beaten Michael Schumacher to the title if more effort had gone into the MP4-17D? And last but not least, did this famous unraced car in fact end up racing after all??
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