Coulthard Laments Lack of Action on Fridays

David Coulthard laments the loss of action on the Friday of a Grand Prix weekend following the rule changes this season, and the Scot criticises the governing body for sacrificing safety in some cases.

The FIA introduced changes for the 2004 season, which include a one engine per weekend rule as well as a new qualifying schedule that will be held on Saturday only. McLaren's Coulthard believes these two changes will effectively reduce the track activity on Fridays and will render the first day of the Grand Prix weekend uninteresting.

"The FIA tries to make F1 more interesting by grouping everything," Coulthard told Gazzetta dello Sport. "But the old system, with qualifying on Fridays too, was more exciting. Now nobody will be interested in Fridays anymore, a shame."

Speaking of the one engine per weekend rule, which will see the drivers running with the same engine for the entire weekend, Coulthard added: "This will lead us to do less laps than we'd like on Fridays," although the Scot also stated this rule will benefit rivals Ferrari.

"The changes of the last few years, since tied with reliability, give an advantage to Ferrari: three days with the same engine is good news for them," he said.

Coulthard was, however, critical of the FIA in regards to the changes of the rear wing specification in the regulations. The rear wing will have one less element and Coulthard said the impact could be unsafe for drivers.

"You can feel that the car isn't pushed so much to the ground," Coulthard described the difference. "It's a change I can't understand, because we get to the end of the straight faster, and an accident could be more dangerous."