McLAREN TESTS NEW CAR.(Competition)(MP4-19 )

Piloted by David Coulthard, the new-for-2004 Formula One McLaren was fastest at a three-day Michelin test at the Valencia circuit in Spain. Unveiled Nov. 25, the MP4-19 is an evolution of the MP4-18, which tested this past season but never raced.

"Although MP4-19 incorporates significant carryover from MP4-18 and the data from its development program,'' said Adrian Newey, McLaren technical director, "we've also had to take into consideration new technical regulations, and integrate the new FO-110Q engine into the package.''

"The MP4-18 was the biggest step forward in terms of change we'd ever taken,'' said managing director Martin Whitmarsh. "With the benefit of hindsight, there was too much technical risk in it, but anyone who saw it admired the engineering. Now we've taken what we believe were its strong features and incorporated those in the MP4-19.''

The other four Michelin teams used 2003 cars. Juan Pablo Montoya was second fastest in his Williams. Also testing were Ralf Schumacher and Marc Gene for Williams, Jarno Trulli and Franck Montagny for Renault, Mark Webber and Justin Wilson for Jaguar and Ryan Briscoe for Toyota.

The McLaren Group has dropped the TAG prefix from the names of all its companies, although Mansour Ojjeh's corporation remains a major shareholder. The F1 team, now known as McLaren Racing, has also formed two new companies, to be based at its Woking, U.K., headquarters: McLaren Applied Technologies will exploit consumer and customer applications for automotive technologies while McLaren Heritage will promote the company's racing history.

McLaren also confirmed Nicolas Tombazis has been recruited from Ferrari as its new chief engineer for aerodynamic development, and that Alexander Wurz will stay on as test driver.

Williams tests youngsters