McLaren MP4-18

The McLaren MP4-18, sometimes written MP4/18, was a Formula One car that McLaren built with the intention of competing in the 2003 season. Adrian Newey, Mike Coughlan and Neil Oatley designed it as a radical new car that carried many ideas then still in their infancy, such as the blown diffuser that Red Bull later used on its RB6 and RB7. Cooling problems with the engine and gearbox left the car stillborn, and it never raced. McLaren instead used an evolution of its 2002 car, the MP4-17D, in the early 2003 races, and the lessons of the MP4-18 fed into the MP4-19 that followed.