Coulthard: Red Bull Must Wing It

David Coulthard insists it will take time before Red Bull are capable of competing for places at the top of the grid as he prepares for the third race of the season in Bahrain this weekend.

The 36-year-old has failed to finish in both the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix so far, and is not expecting to fare much better on the Sakhir circuit on Sunday.

But he insists Red Bull, who have only been in existence for two years, need to be patient as they aim to develop into a team capable of challenging for championships in the future.

Coulthard told PA Sport: "Do I think there is an opportunity to move forward? Yes I do.

"We don't have electronic shift at the moment. So all of a sudden when that is introduced it will help us to move forward and suddenly you are getting into a competitive area.

"We just have to be patient, one race doesn't make a championship. The reality is we are not in a championship battle right now, we are in a battle to progress the team and we have got a significant part of the season to keep working on it.

"Unfortunately it is currently like an extension of testing. It's not the ideal way to go into racing but that is where we are. We have a completely new car and new engine.

"If you look at the teams that are winning at the moment they have had continuity for several years, we haven't had that and it will take time to build it."

With only seven days separating the GPs in Malaysia and Bahrain, Red Bull have not had time to make any improvements to the car.

And Coulthard is expecting another finish in the middle of the grid for the team this weekend.

He added: "We have no updates on the car so there is no reason to believe that we will be any quicker than we were in the last Grand Prix.

"At the Bahrain test we were right in the middle of the grid and that is probably where we will be this weekend.

"I think Bahrain people are very friendly we get a nice reception here. The first corner is a bit ugly but other than that everything else is reasonable.

"The dust on the track can be pretty bad and with the weather forecast being a bit iffy it could make it very interesting."

1st Free Practice

1 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.162

2 F. Massa Ferrari 1:33.679

3 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:34.110

4 F. Alonso McLaren 1:34.161

5 J. Trulli Toyota 1:34.896

6 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:35.076

7 R. Kubica BMW 1:35.248

8 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:35.292

9 N. Rosberg Williams 1:35.375

10 A. Wurz Williams 1:35.398

11 J. Button Honda 1:35.445

12 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:35.474

13 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:35.573

14 G. Fisichella Renault 1:35.697

15 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:35.726

16 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:35.856

17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:35.911

18 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:36.243

19 M. Webber Red Bull 1:36.483

20 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:36.513

21 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:37.084

22 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:38.258

2nd Free Practice

1 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.527

2 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:33.540

3 R. Kubica BMW 1:33.732

4 F. Massa Ferrari 1:33.772

5 F. Alonso McLaren 1:33.784

6 A. Wurz Williams 1:33.973

7 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:34.076

8 N. Rosberg Williams 1:34.189

9 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:34.359

10 J. Trulli Toyota 1:34.366

11 R. Barrichello Honda 1:34.391

12 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:34.585

13 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:34.595

14 M. Webber Red Bull 1:34.677

15 G. Fisichella Renault 1:34.796

16 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:35.001

17 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:35.268

18 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:35.427

19 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:35.582

20 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:35.687

21 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:35.835

22 J. Button Honda 1:36.079

Free practice

1 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:32.543

2 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:32.549

3 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:32.652

4 R. Kubica BMW 1:32.755

5 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:32.900

6 F. Massa Ferrari 1:32.950

7 F. Alonso McLaren 1:33.235

8 M. Webber Red Bull 1:33.399

9 G. Fisichella Renault 1:33.602

10 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:33.605

11 N. Rosberg Williams 1:33.614

12 A. Wurz Williams 1:33.658

13 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.700

14 J. Trulli Toyota 1:33.724

15 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:33.826

16 J. Button Honda 1:34.023

17 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:34.082

18 R. Barrichello Honda 1:34.397

19 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.791

20 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:35.144

21 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:35.395

22 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:35.436

Qualifying

1 F. Massa Ferrari 1:32.652

2 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:32.935

3 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.131

4 F. Alonso McLaren 1:33.192

5 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:33.404

6 R. Kubica BMW 1:33.710

7 G. Fisichella Renault 1:34.056

8 M. Webber Red Bull 1:34.106

9 J. Trulli Toyota 1:34.154

10 N. Rosberg Williams 1:34.399

11 A. Wurz Williams 1:32.915

12 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:32.935

13 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:33.082

14 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:33.294

15 R. Barrichello Honda 1:33.624

16 J. Button Honda 1:33.731

17 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:33.984

18 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.024

19 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.333

20 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:35.280

21 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:35.341

22 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:35.533

Webber gives Red Bull hope

Red Bull Racing endured a mixed result in Bahrain today with Mark Webber giving the team hope for tomorrow after he qualified eighth. A gearbox problem in the first session meant Coulthard qualified 21st.

"The car seemed to lose seventh gear at the end of my first qualifying run, at Turn 12," said Coulthard. "We thought it was a sensor failure so the team changed something and I went back out. However, it appeared that the car had lost fifth, sixth and seventh gear, which is not ideal when you're trying to qualify!"

Webber added, "I'd have liked to have done a little bit better at the end of the third qualifying session, but that's where we are. We'll see if we can get a point or two tomorrow in the race."

Team boss Christian Horner commented, "This is the third race and the third time Mark's made it into the top ten. He drove very well throughout qualifying, building up his pace and I think he extracted the maximum out of the car today. He's continued to impress us with his application and hopefully he can have a strong race tomorrow. David had appalling luck when his car suffered a gear failure on his first run, meaning he was unable to take any further part in qualifying. But, he's shown strong pace during the weekend so far, so hopefully we can help him with a good race strategy tomorrow."