Coulthard backs Heidfeld reprimand

The Red Bull Racing driver was locked in a dice with his BMW rival when they nearly collided going through Turn Two. Coulthard was forced to take evasive action and drive off the circuit.

That incident earned Heidfeld a reprimand, a decision that Coulthard thinks will hopefully pave the way for a proper code-of-conduct now that F1 has a permanent chief steward.

"One of the things we've been asking for a number years in the GPDA: to have a steward that represents all the Grands Prix, to try and have some consistency," said Coulthard at Sepang on Thursday.

"If you remember two years ago, (Takuma) Sato took Ralf (Schumacher) off at turn two and for me it was quite clear that Sato was in the wrong. And because at that time everyone was going through the 'it's great to have a Japanese in a quick car' phase, they were all praising him for being a racer.

"But he effectively drove Ralf off the track and you couldn't do that in somewhere like Monaco, for instance, where you don't have the run-off.

"It's quite clearly a non-contact sport and if you look at what happened in Bahrain, Nick didn't touch with me, but I ran off the circuit because I could, to maintain my position. And the stewards felt he was in the wrong because he was not alongside me and therefore I had the line for the corner.

"So, what I'm saying is: same incident, a couple of years apart, and a different view. But I think what we're going to see now is that there's a permanent steward and we will see a lot more consistency.

"Clearly the stewards were a lot harder on Nick, potentially, than we would have seen in previous years, which is good if it's consistent from race to race, because we just need to know how far we can push it."

The FIA announced before Bahrain that they have appointed Tony Scott-Andrews to be the permanent chief stewards this year in a bid to bring more consistency to decisions.