David Coulthard

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David & Niki Lauda

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Coulthard storms to four points

David Coulthard stormed to fifth place in the Spanish Grand Prix after starting from ninth on the grid to claim four points for Red Bull Racing. The Scot overcame a gearbox problem in the closing laps to take the spoils. Mark Webber meanwhile retired early on.

"Towards the end of the race, I lost third gear and thought I was going to have to retire the car," Coulthard said. "I managed to drive using only fourth gear and above, which lost me time in the last sector, but I was still able to be quick in the first. We've made more progress than any other team since the beginning of the year and when you're aggressively attacking lap times, sometimes you have to put other areas of the car to one side. That's the growing pains we're going through at Red Bull Racing at present, but I think everyone agrees we'd rather have pace and show we're genuinely quick - and then work on reliability, than have a reliable car that only finishes tenth."

Webber commented, "Unfortunately reliability problems cost me a race finish today. At the moment, I think it's a recurrence of yesterday's hydraulic problem. We had planned to go for a long first stint because of my low grid position, but it doesn't matter what strategy you have if you don't get to the finish. There's not much more to say except for the obvious fact that it's disappointing. But, at least David's great result and finish in the points proves that the car has the pace to do well. It's a great boost for the whole team."

Team boss Christian Horner added, "David was exemplary today. He had good pace, a good start and a good strategy. Despite a problem that gave us all a bit of a scare in the last three laps, he found a way to drive round it by using all his experience. He was able to bring the car home in fifth position and get us onto the scoreboard. I'd like to acknowledge the huge effort made by the whole team. Everyone's been working hard over the last few weeks, but we still need to keep pushing. It's disappointing that we had a repetition of yesterday's transmission failure on Mark's car. He's had miserable luck all weekend, but I'm sure he'll bounce back in Monaco and we can head there optimistic, in full knowledge that we've made a good step forward in pace here this weekend."

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Coulthard promises more strong performances

David Coulthard promised more strong performances from Red Bull Racing as the season rolls on. The Scot drove a storming race in Spain to finish fifth despite losing third gear in the final five laps of the race.

"I felt that I should have been in front of the Renaults after qualifying and passed them at the start and got a good result which was where we should be," Coulthard said. "I thought I was going to have to park the car when I lost third gear because that's what happened in testing before, but I managed to work around it."

Coulthard was equally strong on track in the Bahrain race, but the car failed him. This time it held on, just.

"In Bahrain I felt entirely under control and when the car performs well under me and we'll build on that and I'm sure you can expect to see more performances like that from Red Bull during the rest of the season," he added.

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Paul Ricard - France

1 L. Hamilton McLaren Bridgestone 01:05.614 133

2 F. Massa Ferrari Bridgestone 01:05.755 107

3 R. Kubica BMW Bridgestone 01:06.185 140

4 D. Coulthard Red Bull Bridgestone 01:06.201 137

5 T. Sato Super Aguri Bridgestone 01:06.281 116

6 H. Kovalainen Renault Bridgestone 01:06.302 161

7 R. Barrichello Honda Bridgestone 01:06.516 103

8 A. Wurz Williams Bridgestone 01:06.576 106

9 R. Schumacher Toyota Bridgestone 01:06.598 111

10 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso Bridgestone 01:07.743 142

11 C. Albers Spyker F1 Bridgestone 01:07.946 66

12 A. Sutil Spyker F1 Bridgestone 01:08.134 67

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Coulthard predicts 'great summer'

David Coulthard believes his fifth place in Spain could be the start of a run of success for himself and Red Bull Racing.

The Scot was competitive all weekend in Barcelona, and closed in on Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica in the middle of the race, before nursing the car home in fifth after a late gearbox problem.

Coulthard said the result was particularly significant as Barcelona is traditionally a good indicator of which teams' chassis are most competitive.

"I'm really pleased with my first points of the year, and especially with the race pace we had," Coulthard wrote on his website blog.

"We are definitely moving forward and Barcelona always challenges an F1 car for handling."

The Red Bull racer is now particularly optimistic about the forthcoming Monaco Grand Prix.

He won in Monte Carlo in 2000 and 2002, and last year took RBR's first ever podium finish at the street venue.

"Can't wait for my 'home' Grand Prix in Monaco and there are many other favourite tracks coming up too," he wrote.

"If the car is reliable and fast, plus I'm feeling in good form, it could be a great summer."

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Coulthard: Red Bull to make big step forward in 2008

David Coulthard believes his team showed the first step in the right direction at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Scotsman scored four points with his finish in fifth position on Sunday. But the real step will come next season he said.

Looking back at the progression the Red Bull F1 team showed in Spain Coulthard tol Autosport.com: ""It was good. It was not just that we got the points, but more so that we clearly demonstrated our performances are improving. It showed that we are now on the right track. We are moving forward and get confidence from that because inevitably people had started to have doubts.

"It is down to the hard work by a whole group of us, led by Adrian. Given time I knew we could achieve it. But the real step, I believe, will come when we go into the next year. Then, we will have the continuity of the engine, the design team and all the data that we did not have this year."

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Q & A with David Coulthard

Conducted and provided by the Red Bull press office.

Q: Finally your streak of bad luck has been broken and you're back on the world championship points table! How did you celebrate your fifth place in Barcelona?

David Coulthard: It really felt good to see points next to my name on the official championship classification sheet and it shows we're moving in the right direction. There were no post-race celebrations, as we were testing the following week at Paul Ricard. I'll save the celebrations for when I next step up on the podium!

Q: In the last two races the RB3 seemed to perform much better than at the beginning of the season, even if there wasn't a positive racing result in Bahrain. How did the latest aerodynamic changes influence the RB3's performance in Barcelona?

DC: Like all the teams, we came to Spain with a new aerodynamic package that we'd tested the week before. Even before the first race of the season, we knew what we had to do in terms of the aero performance, so Adrian and his crew had been working on it for quite a while. It was definitely a big improvement on what we had before, and Spain is the type of track where aero counts for a lot, partly because of the very long straight. As I said, an improvement, but there's still a lot more to do.

Q: In your opinion, what potential does Red Bull Racing have compared to direct competitors like BMW, Williams, Toyota, Honda or Renault?

DC: With the exception of BMW, we've been consistently quicker than the other teams in your list. At the moment we have a quick car with good potential but we need to work on reliability. It's impossible to gauge the potential of other teams without knowing exactly where they're at in terms of developing their package. However progress tends to be incremental once the season is underway, so I'm confident that we can continue to improve and work our way up the grid.

Q: What are your goals for the next race, the GP in Monte Carlo?

DC: Repeating last year's performance would be a great achievement, I love the track, I've had pole and won there twice. We've tested the Monaco aero and mechanical set up at Paul Ricard and it proved to be reliable, so my goal is to do exactly as I did each time I finished on the podium.

Q: Please describe the circuit through the streets of Monaco from the Formula One cockpit.

DC: There are so many different characteristics: The first corner is always very slippery, the rush through Casino Square is fantastic as you brush the barriers on the run down to the hairpins. The tunnel is possibly the most exciting part of the track, as it's just so fast and you go from daylight to dark and back to daylight and as you come out, braking for the chicane is really tricky. It can be extremely bumpy as it's a street circuit, but having such a slow average speed you don't suffer the effect of any high g-force on your neck or upper body. As I said before, the difference between this and a 'normal' circuit is that you really get no time for a breather as you would going down the long straight in Spain for example. So it's very tiring, but at the same time fantastically rewarding to drive well.

Q: In the last two years RBR in Monaco was promoting the films Superman Returns and Star Wars. What 'Hollywood connection' is planned for this year?

DC: As far as I know, there's no Hollywood connection this year, but we'll be promoting a special event that will allow the fans to get closer to the team and raise money for a charity at the same time. But I can't say any more about that at the moment.

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Coulthard wants to stay at Red Bull

David Coulthard has his sights firmly set on a contract extension with Red Bull Racing for 2008, after rubbishing any suggestions he is planning to retire at the end of this year.

At 36 years old, Coulthard is the oldest driver in Formula One - and has faced the inevitable questions in recent weeks about whether it was time for him to hang up his helmet.

But amid rumours that he has already opened contract talks with the team about next year, Coulthard has said he sees no reason not to continue in F1 next year.

And his motivation to get a new deal with Red Bull has only increased now that the team are starting to make big steps forward with the pace of their car.

"Of course I want to stay," Coulthard told autosport.com. "I have been doing the hard part of the work here (to improve the car), so why would I then want to step to one side? There is no benefit to that.

"I want to continue and there are some good people here. We have started to see the progress and we will be developing everything through the course of the year. That is what we have to do to move into that one second window of Ferrari and McLaren."

Coulthard's current deal with Red Bull runs out at the end of this year, and there have been rumours that Scuderia Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi could be moved up for 2008 as teammate to Mark Webber.

But despite that possibility, Coulthard has said he is relaxed about the situation – with serious talks about his future unlikely to start until the summer.

"For me, my position is quite clear," he said. "In terms of other people I don't know when they want to make their decisions or make an announcement."

When asked about some rumours circulating at the Paul Ricard test last week that he had even agreed a new deal, Coulthard said: "Contractual issues are always confidential so there is nothing more I can say until such time when Red Bull feels it appropriate."

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