David Coulthard

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David & Karen

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DC positive despite third DNF

David Coulthard reflected upon the positives to have come from the Bahrain Grand Prix despite being forced to retire for the third successive race this season.

Having seen his race ended in Australia due to a collision with another car, he retired with a brake problem in Malaysia last week and trouble with the driveshaft ended his hopes again on Sunday.

But prior to leaving the race midway through with flames emanating from under his Red Bull car, Coulthard had been flying on the Sakhir circuit, climbing from 21st on the grid to as high as seventh.

He said: "I'm disappointed obviously to have another failure but we have to go and look at the positives, and we were quicker than Renault who are the current world champions.

"So as quickly as they have gone backwards we have gone forwards.

"Obviously we are still a long way from Ferrari, McLaren and BMW Sauber but I believe we are better than we were last year, and there are still good races to come.

"It is race three and our goal has got to be to try to be the fourth team by the time we get to the end of the European season."

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Coulthard upbeat despite failure

David Coulthard believes Red Bull's chances are improving

David Coulthard reflected upon the positives to have come from the Bahrain Grand Prix despite being forced to retire for the third successive race.

Prior to engine failure, Red Bull's Scottish driver had climbed from 21st on the grid to seventh place.

"I'm disappointed, obviously, to have another failure," he said.

"But we were quicker than Renault, who are the current world champions. So, as quickly as they have gone backwards, we have gone forwards."

Coulthard's race ended in Australia due to a collision with another car, he retired with a brake problem in Malaysia last week and trouble with the driveshaft ended his hopes again on Sunday.

Red Bull suffered double disappointment with the 36-year-old's team-mate, Mark Webber, also retiring with gearbox problems. We are in front of Toyota and Renault, who are two big manufacturers

David Coulthard

"Obviously we are still a long way from Ferrari, McLaren and BMW Sauber, but I believe we are better than we were last year and there are still good races to come," he said.

"It is race three and our goal has got to be to try to be the fourth team by the time we get to the end of the European season."

Red Bull have only been in existence for two years and Coulthard believes it will take time for them to develop the car enough to forge a place near the top of the grid.

"You just need to look at the history of Formula One and the teams that are winning are those that have been around for several years and have had the same people in place for that time," he said.

"We are a relatively young team still and we are in front of Toyota and Renault, who are two big manufacturers.

"We have to be realistic and, as painful as it is parking the car, I'd rather park the car having had a good race than what we had last year, which was just a slow car and not very good for anyone."

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Karen

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F1: Better To Be Fast and Fragile, Says Coulthard

David Coulthard says he was happier to retire a competitive car in Bahrain rather than plod around outside the points.

The Red Bull driver was one of the surprises of the Sakhir race. He charged through the field after gearbox problems put him near the back in qualifying, before ultimately succumbing to a driveshaft problem when destined for a top eight finish.

“We’ve got to be realistic,” he told SPEEDtv.com. “Painful as it is to park the car, I would rather park the car having had a good race, than have what we had last year, which was a slow car that wasn’t good for anyone.

“I’m happy to have had the opportunity to go racing. Obviously I’ve always felt that’s my strength, to race. I had the strategy and the car to use the braking, and I benefited a little bit from the safety car, because it bunched everyone up. Nevertheless, before the safety car I gained places at the start.”

Despite starting near the back DC bucked the usual strategy trend by taking a relatively light fuel load rather than running as long as possible. That helped him to overtake the midfield runners ahead.

“I think we got the fuel strategy just right, because more fuel would have made the car more nervous. The circuit is a very oversteery circuit, and with the wind as well, it was very unpredictable. But I just have enough to be able to slide it and bring it back, and that enabled me to get in a position to overtake.”

In the end Coulthard was stopped by a driveshaft failure, which might have been related to the transmission problem he had in qualifying.

“We kept the suspension, but we were allowed to change the gearbox. Maybe something was damaged, but whatever happened, at the end of the day, if it fails, it’s not good.”

Coulthard says he was pleased with the overall pace of the car: ‘I was disappointed to have another failure, but we have to look for the positives, and we were quicker than Renault, and they’re the current World Champions. As quickly as they’ve gone backwards, we’ve gone forwards.

“Obviously we’re still a long way from Ferrari and McLaren and BMW Sauber, but I believe we are better than last year, and there are still improvements to come. It’s race three, our goal has got to be trying to be the fourth team by the time we get into the middle of the season.

“You just need to look at the history of F1. The teams that are winning are those that have been around for several years, and they’ve had the same people in place for several years. We’re a relatively young team still, and at certain points we’re in front of Renault and Toyota, two big manufacturers.”

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Coulthard expects step forward in Spain

David Coulthard feels his Red Bull Racing team can be significantly more competitive at the Spanish Grand Prix following a productive test at Barcelona.

The Scot lifted his team's spirits on Friday after posting the fastest time of the week, which was also the track record since the layout was revised with a new chicane.

Red Bull, using Renault engines this season, are yet to score a point in 2007, with the Adrian Newey-designed RB3 having failed to live up to expectations so far.

Coulthard, however, reckons the team have taken a step forward ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

"We benefited quite a bit from the test," Coulthard told autosport.com after the final day of testing. "We really are playing catch-up to the other teams. We had a lot of parts to try really.

"I feel we can be more competitive in many aspects in Barcelona. Like I said before, it all sounds good, I set the quickest time but it would be nice to repeat the feat when the flag goes."

The team tested a new seamless shift gearbox during the week, although it is not yet decided if they will race it in Spain.

Coulthard's teammate Mark Webber had also proved quick at the Spanish track on Wednesday, when he posted the second quickest time.

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Coulthard sets final day pace in Barcelona

David Coulthard set the pace on the final day of testing this week at Barcelona, running in qualifying trim on a day that was severely disrupted by rain showers.

The Red Bull Racing driver put his lap in before torrential rain came at lunch time and finished 0.2s up on McLaren tester Pedro de la Rosa. The Spanish driver continued to evaluate McLaren's new front wing design which may debut at the Spanish Grand Prix next week.

Massa, who had topped the timesheets yesterday, ended the day in third ahead of Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella. Kubica was fifth and Ralf Schumacher sixth for Toyota.

The only other driver in action today was Christian Klien, driving the Honda featuring a peculiar looking set of elephant-ear-like wings on the car's nose. It didn't seem to do much for the struggling team's form - he ended bottom of the timesheets.

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Karen

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Coulthard has to take bull by the horns

David Coulthard arrives in Barcelona today with points to prove and gain. Armed with a new gearbox, front wing, barge boards and revised rear bodywork, Coulthard scents a dramatic improvement in the performance of his Red Bull, which has yet to trouble the scorers this season.

Not before time. The return to Europe after the traditional long-haul opening sequence offers teams an opportunity to regroup. It is also a time when Formula One's forward planners begin to peek over the horizon to 2008. Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz is already musing over personnel for next season, the point at which he expects his team to be punching real weight.

At 36, Coulthard is clearly in a delicate position. The surfer-dude beard and longer hair acquired since leaving McLaren three years ago have served him well and as long as the team remained in the developmental stage, the Scot's experience was a selling point. But with expectations creeping up and Mateschitz openly talking about the promotion of younger drivers, Coulthard's position looks vulnerable.

"In 2008 the cars will be very equal in our opinion, so it might make sense to have one veteran and one young driver in both teams," Mateschitz, who also shares ownership of Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso, said. "Both our young drivers [scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi] have to prove a lot. They are now in their second year and will have to deliver."

Liuzzi, a former F3000 champion, is the driver favoured to earn promotion from Toro Rosso. Since Coulthard's Red Bull team-mate, Mark Webber, is six years his junior and in his maiden season with the team, he is unlikely to be the one invited to stand aside.

Mateschitz added: "We never daydreamed of having a top name such as Michael Schumacher in the car in 2007. He would have had to cut back his salary by 90 per cent. I believe that you only get a star driver when you have a car capable of winning. First we have to prove that we have the means to build such a car. Then you can start to talk with top drivers. At the point where we were, Mark Webber was ideal for us."

And will almost certainly remain so. Not since last year's Monaco Grand Prix, when he graced the podium wearing Superman overalls and cape, has Coulthard been anywhere near the spotlight. Lewis Hamilton immediately assumed the Superman role on his debut for McLaren this season, reminding Coulthard how life used to be.

A morale-boosting test last week in Barcelona, where Adrian Newey's upgraded design yielded a track record on the reconfigured circuit, has at least left Coulthard optimistic about a sighting of Hamilton's coat-tails at Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

"We benefited quite a bit from the test," Coulthard said, "but I feel we can be more competitive. I set the quickest time [last week], but it would be nice to repeat the feat when the flag goes."

Coulthard's duel with Webber appeared on paper to be one of this season's more intriguing sideshows. In the opening races, with Red Bull still coming to terms with Renault engines and their assimilation into Newey's radical designs, both drivers had little with which to work. As ever in F1 these days, the blame for early disappointments was laid at the door of a wind tunnel not properly calibrated. Newey invested in the results yielded by the tunnel, which turned out to be off beam.

Now, with Newey's prototype shaping up, a new dynamic is threatened in Spain. Technical director Mark Smith said: "Our plans always included an extensive bodywork update to arrive in time for this race. The first three races threw up some reliability issues. The Barcelona test last week means that hopefully we have addressed those."

Further upgrades are proposed for Canada next month. Coulthard's challenge now is to make more of them than Webber...