Coulthard Criticises Regulations

By Ian Lockwood
March 17 2006

David Coulthard was present at the Thursday FIA Press Conference that signalled the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend. DC used his time in front of the media to criticise some of the current regulations.

The 2 race per engine rule came in for the most criticism, although DC did squeeze in a little motivational jab at Ferrari in the process. David started by highlighting the fact that the engine ruling means there is little running for the fans to enjoy on Fridays - apart from the teams allowed a third car.

“Our restriction on engine mileage (in Bahrain) was that we had 11 laps available on Friday and 17 on Saturday before going into qualifying. It is a consequence of the regulations of having to use an engine for two race weekends and where Ferrari are with their reliability.

“Now, I accept that if they did a better job then we could run more miles, but what I am trying to highlight is that the regulations, as they stand, restrict track time."

“And the whole point of somebody coming to a grand prix weekend is to obviously see the cars out there and to give us the time to set up the cars.”

Coulthard also voiced his concern over the penalty of losing 10 grid positions if you have to change an engine, first pointing out that he had commented on this previously, rather than it being a knee-jerk reaction to his own enforced demotion this weekend.

“I have consistently said that (we should) take away this handicap formula as much as possible.

“This should be about the fastest cars, the guys who have done the best job during an individual grand prix weekend."

DC pointed pointed out that a 10 place penalty is more detrimental to a mid-field team than a front runner, and highlighted the current anomaly that rewards non-finishing racers over cars which just make it to the end of a race. 

“Clearly the penalty is not the same for the mid-grid runners as it is for the guys at the front.

“Naturally, they don’t suffer as badly and if I had stopped just before the chequered flag (in Bahrain), then obviously I wouldn’t have had a penalty here, which is one of the things they didn’t want cars and teams to do"

DC also said that he felt the new qualifying system was exciting but not yet 100%.

"I think there is a lot of excitement in this new one, it was really quite busy. I didn’t have time to practice the format before the first race, for various reliability issues, so it was quite a surprise how quickly the session unfolded. And then as Ralf mentioned, at the end of that first stint, when you are going out and there are 10 cars in front of you and you know the red light is going to come on, it is very difficult to get your lap so it does create an excitement and some cars will get knocked out from time to time because they didn’t get a clear track."

Commenting on the third session where drivers get "fuel credits" for completed laps he said “I think people will quickly become bored with watching cars run round doing 10 laps - Ok, it uses up mileage that they can’t use at the next race, but I don’t see how that adds to the show. For me qualifying should be about seeing the quickest car, driver, tyre, engine combination on that given day. I’d love to be able to come out of Monaco this year and to see the quickest lap that can be done and, as you have at the moment, pole position is slower than the guy who qualified 11th because 11th is low fuel and pole position is with 30 kilogrammes or whatever fuel they choose to run.

DC saved his most memorable comment, though, to answer a question about what it is like driving in the heat of Malaysia - "It’s like having to do some physical exercise in a sauna effectively and unless it was having sex I cannot imagine why anyone would want to do anything in a sauna."