McLaren has told David Coulthard to stop analysing the races and just drive to improve his performance this season. Will he manage this at Sunday’s French Grand Prix?
McLaren has told David Coulthard to stop analysing and just drive to improve his performance this season. The Scot has battled to adapt to the one-lap qualifying structure. Will he manage to improve at this weekend’s French Grand Prix?
Coulthard qualified in ninth position for the European Grand Prix at the weekend, while his team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen was on pole. Neither drivers finished the race, but Raikkonen is second in the driver’s standings, while Coulthard is in seventh place.
“I think we would like David to get his form together,” said McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh. “He is racing well, but there is generally a high standard of driving and you have got to qualify. It is all about driver confidence – how a driver qualifies is a mind game and he has got to get that fixed.
“David is a very analytical individual and sometimes that is a useful quality, but it may not be useful when you have got to put it on the line in one lap (during qualifying),” Whitmarsh said. “You have got to blank out the analysis of each corner and make sure you are fluid and instinctive in the way you do your qualifying lap.”
What are Coulthard’s chances at the French Grand Prix this weekend?