Coulthard on McLaren's problems and why Red Bull shouldn't quit F1

David Coulthard, simply DC to his fans, took 13 Grand Prix wins in a glittering Formula 1 career which included stints with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. He finished in the F1 world championship top three no less than five times in well over a decade in the top flight. But Formula One in recent times has changed a lot. Especially when you look at the way this season is shaping up. Mercedes – having made the adjustments well during the off-season – are out front, Ferrari and Williams in the battle to be best of the rest with Ferrari ahead of Williams. However, McLaren’s fall has been stunning. With Marussia not taking part, they qualified on the back row of the grid in Australia. In Malaysia they were ahead of only Marussia. Their last title came way back in 1998. [caption id=“attachment_2186577” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Coulthard, who was in India for the Red Bull F1 Showrun, spent a majority of his career at McLaren and even he has trouble believing how the mighty have fallen. AFP[/caption] Coulthard, who was in India for the Red Bull F1 Showrun, spent a majority of his career at McLaren and even he has trouble believing how the mighty have fallen. “It is a mystery when you consider the great facilities that McLaren have. The constructor’s championship is actually the most important to the team – financially – because of the bonuses associated with it. The driver’s championship is the most important to the sponsors because that is where all the imagery and the association with the individual is. So McLaren have won one driver’s title since then with Lewis Hamilton,” said Coulthard in an email interview to Firstpost. “And that is where it gets confusing… they have had strong drivers and great facilities but have hit rock bottom with their relationship with Honda but from here on they can only go forward and I am sure they will,” added the Scot. “But the reality of all these teams is people and the right people empowered to take them forward. If you can do that then you can have a winning Grand Prix team and if you can have a winning Grand Prix team, then with good driving you can have a world championship winning team.” Now, that may sound easy but it isn’t. Good teams are rare. “That sounds very simple but that is exactly what was applied at Red Bull when the team started in 2005. That is what we set about doing, putting the cogs in place to make the machine work and at the moment, McLaren are failing to do that. But it is certainly not due to lack of history or lack of driving talent and I guess they will be back at some point but it doesn’t look like they will be winning any Grand Prix’ this time.” They have been hit hardest by the development angle. Mercedes got it right as did Ferrari. McLaren clearly haven’t. So would it perhaps make sense to give everyone the same engines? Would it make things more competitive? “I think if you had everyone on the same engines, there would still be differences in performance. First of all, F1 is engineering at aircraft quality level and beyond. There are a lot of moving parts and tolerances. If you get them all perfect then you get a boost in horse power. If there is a slight variation then despite a very good power unit, you might still be down on horse power,” said Coulthard. “So there will always be a team that does a better job than the others. So it is not as simple as them all having the same engines. But I think… with the transition to the new engines, there has been a big variation between who got it right… Mercedes have got it right and clearly Ferrari have understood their issues of last year and made big steps this year. There have been problems for Renault but they will work on it and get on top of it. Right now, there is growing pains for all of the manufacturers,” he added. And finally, there is the now annual Red Bull threat to quit the sport. What does the F1 fan make of this threat? Is it real? “Red Bull have a contract – the Concorde agreement – which I believe runs till 2020. There is a mechanism to get out of the contract but you have to pay a significant amount of money to leave. And the amount of money involved, I believe, could make the team unsellable to a normal customer type setup. It is not impossible and certainly Red Bull have the funds to do so,” he said. “But I just do not see… first of all from an employment point of view they are looking at a lawsuit and understand that when Red Bull took over Minardi, they gave an undertaking to maintain the staff and grow the company and that is exactly what they have done. And I don’t believe that Red Bull would pay a large fine to the rights holders to leave a sport and then leave all of the staff high and dry. You would have all the negative publicity to go with it as well. It just doesn’t add up to me but never say never. And at the end of the day, when you are a wealthy individual, you can afford to make choices that suit you and not logic or anyone else.” Either which way, Formula One has always been interesting. This season is going to be no different.