Lantana

The McLaren MP4-17 was the car with which the McLaren team competed in the 2002 and 2003 Formula One World Championships. The chassis was designed by Adrian Newey, Mike Coughlan, Neil Oatley and Peter Prodromou with Mario Illien designing the bespoke Ilmor engine. The car was driven by Briton David Coulthard and Finn Kimi Räikkönen in both seasons.

2002

The team did not perform as well as expected in 2002, in a season dominated by Ferrari, and due to the unreliability of the car; they eventually finished third in the Constructors' Championship with 65 points and one victory (in Monaco).

2003

Using a development version of the car, the MP4-17D, the 2003 season started very promisingly with wins at the first two grands prix of the year, one each for Coulthard and Räikkönen. However, rival teams soon caught up as McLaren was sidetracked by the development of the McLaren MP4-18, a radical new design, which due to reliability problems, never raced in anger. As a result, the team gradually fell slightly further back as the season progressed, allowing rivals, developing their cars more efficiently, to catch up. However, despite this setback, Räikkönen consistently finished in the points and challenged Michael Schumacher for the championship all the way up to the last race, eventually losing the title by only 2 points. The team again finished third in the Constructors' Championship, and having 142 points, just two points behind Williams F1.

McLaren used 'West' logos in both seasons except at the French and British Grands Prix.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position, results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Points	WCC
2002	MP4-17	Mercedes FO110M 3.0 V10	M		AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	GBR	FRA	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN	65	3rd
				David Coulthard	Ret	Ret	3	6	3	6	1	2	Ret	10	3	5	5	4	7	3	Ret
				Kimi Räikkönen	3	Ret	12†	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	4	3	Ret	2	Ret	4	Ret	Ret	Ret	3
2003	MP4-17D	Mercedes FO110M 3.0 V10 Mercedes FO110P 3.0 V10	M		AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	ITA	USA	JPN		142	3rd
				David Coulthard	1	Ret	4	5	Ret	5	7	Ret	15†	5	5	2	5	Ret	Ret	3
				Kimi Räikkönen	3	1	2	2	Ret	2	2	6	Ret	4	3	Ret	2	4	2	2

References