David Coulthard

Closed cockpits..

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:47:25 0000

During my career it was not all that unusual to be hit by bits of flying debris; stones that were kicked up
by cars ahead and so on. It is an inherent weakness in the design of a Formula One car and a basic risk of open-cockpit racing.

Germany Preview

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:37:08 0000

Red Bull threw down the gauntlet at Silverstone to Brawn: Here's our latest upgrade, what can you deliver in response? Clearly, the performance increase we saw was due to aerodynamic load across the range of slow, medium and fast corners, with little effect on drag efficiency.
At the Nurburgring, the back straight is slightly longer than the Hangar Straight, so reasonable downforce and an efficient car will revel in that. In many respects it's a circuit that's closer to Istanbul than Silverstone, but we'll have to wait until Saturday to get a true picture of who has the edge. In tennis terminology, I'd say it's 'advantage Brawn' in the championship, but 'advantage Red Bull' on the track. Red Bull has added load and front-end performance, and that has unleashed lap time.

Silverstone Review

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:49:10 0000

The British Grand Prix, think Silverstone. Just like if you say 'grand prix in the South of France', you think Monaco. The Home of British Motorsport' is the first grand prix track I went to in 1990, and I've still got a strong recollection of that V12 Ferrari howling out of the morning mist on the run down to Stowe. There's a lot of emotion tied into the race for me, having won it in 1999 and 2000. It's my favourite record in some respects it'll take at least 990 or so years before someone else can win it spanning a millennium!

Bring on Silverstone

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 09:38:23 0000

Bring on Silverstone, that's all I can say. You could practically count the number of fans in Turkey last weekend on one hand - it was embarrassing. But what a contrast it's going to be at the British Grand Prix on Sunday week. The atmosphere will be absolutely electric; a sea of Brits, Union Jacks waving in the breeze, making a wall of noise to rival the roar of the V8 engines.

Turkey Preview

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 09:07:46 0000

After the tight confines of Monaco, Turkey is going to be very much a technical, Barcelona-style race weekend albeit the slow-speed sections are not as slow as they were in Spain. It¹s a nice, wide-open racetrack that, as a driver, allows you to get your elbows out again! I see this as Red Bull Racing¹s big opportunity to swing the balance back in its favour.

That's it. All bets are off.

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:49:08 0000

That's it. All bets are off. If Jenson Button is not world champion by the end of the summer then quite frankly I will be astonished. His victory on the streets of Monte Carlo on Sunday was another incredible chapter what is fast becoming one of the great sporting comebacks.

Barcelona thoughts..

Wed, 13 May 2009 09:21:58 0000

As someone who knows a thing or two about team orders, I would like to address the 'conspiracy theory' that arose in the aftermath of Sunday'sgrand prix, when a clearly frustrated Rubens Barrichello appeared to hint that he may have been sacrificed in order to help Jenson Button's title charge. Frankly I don't buy it for one second.

Barcelona Preview

Fri, 8 May 2009 09:29:23 0000

After the tasty hors d'oeuvres of the early season flyaways, it's time to begin devouring the main course of the European season at Barcelona this weekend. The Circuit de Catalunya is the main proving ground for Formula 1 teams, and it will be interesting to see how things have progressed since pre-season testing. Back then the big question was: 'is Brawn running underweight?' As I suggested to you at the time, and have since been proved correct, the answer
was 'no', and Jenson Button and the team arrive with healthy world championship leads in both categories.

WHO CAN BEAT BRAWN?....

It's Formula One's age-old question: man or machine?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:08:53 0000

It's Formula One's age-old question: man or machine? In the case of Jenson Button, it's a pertinent question. In 2008 Jenson could hardly buy a point with Honda (and believe me, they paid top dollar) as he was was labelled "washed up" at the tender age of 28. This year, he has won three out of four
grands prix and been praised to the rafters for his "smooth" driving style and maturity.

Bahrain preview

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:37:11 0000

NEW WORLD ORDER IS SET
It’s Brawn, Red Bull and Toyota who look like they’ll be sharing the majority of the podiums this year. For Red Bull, China wasn’t a lucky victory; it was based on true performance.
The dry qualifying in China, from the fuel-corrected times, shows that Brawn still has the fastest car and has a little bit in hand in terms of out-and-out pace. But, as we saw in Malaysia, when the rain comes down the Red Bull delivers.

The team also knows it has a new diffuser to come, so there should be a tangible performance gain there. Adrian Newey’s fingerprints are all over more than 100 grand prix wins, and I know his team is hard at work back at base.

The question that will now be being asked is: ‘how long to we spend on research and design before we put it into production?’ That lead-time, I would suggest, might not happen in time for the first European race, but possibly the second one, at Monaco.