The car was driven by Briton David Coulthard and Finn Kimi Räikkönen, in their ninth and third seasons with the team respectively.

Launch control and fully-automatic gearboxes were also banned for 2004, meaning the driver had to start using the paddle-shifters, and find the effective bite point and release the clutch manually, again.

These electronic driver aids had been used by the team for the previous three seasons, since the 2001 Spanish Grand Prix.

The upgrade was finally justified when Räikkönen gave the team its only win of the season when he won the Belgian Grand Prix.

Renewed sponsors including Siemens, SAP and Schüco but most notably was Henkel, who owns Loctite replacing it.