David Coulthard Q&A

"It was obviously a flat out race - there was no question that we were all pushing. But I was staying close enough to make it a realistic chance of gaining some places. I almost got Michael at the start."



"To be honest I didn't even realise. So when the team came on and said 'You've got a penalty,' it really came as a surprise to me. But I have to just acknowledge that I obviously flicked off the button too early."



"Naturally it's deflating to see the gap increasing, but because I didn't sit there looking at the points gap when it was four points, I don't notice so much that it's grown. You either win or you lose. So I lose the championship... It can be by 60 points. It doesn't matter if you've lost - I don't want to be, 'Oh, it's only a couple of points.' You either do a job which is capable and deserving of it, or you don't. At the moment we're not, so we need to improve."



"I'm not someone who keeps looking at previous years. I just try to get the best out of each weekend. The easiest way to win is to have the best car and to be performing. Unfortunately when that was the situation here, Mika had a natural momentum that I found difficult to deal with, and that affected the way I was driving the car. If we were in that situation now I believe the performance I would achieve would be better. But it doesn't really matter what I think. That was then and this is now, and we can only do what we can do. If nothing else, as long as I know I'm giving 100 percent, I'll take the positive out of it."



"Again, I can't do anything about it. Electronic development is not my speciality. You need to rely on the people around you, and occasionally in our quest to try and make things better, we miss things and make mistakes. We're only human and it's a human driven sport, despite all the technology that's involved. I'm not any harder on the people that made mistakes than I need to be, because we all can make mistakes. If someone's not prepared to take a risk then you don't arrive at this point in the championship - you'd be one of the other teams that can't afford to take a risk."



"I feel that I'm driving well, but I still feel that I can do more. That's obviously what the goal is, to push more and try and get more out of the weekend."



"I think it's very difficult to know for sure what Mika's excuse is because I'm not sitting inside his body, but I certainly feel that I'm driving better, and I still feel that as I said earlier the potential to improve is there, as the results build. I'm gaining confidence with each season I have in F1, and I have more knowledge of what to try do to get the most out of the car, and help give direction to the team during a Grand Prix weekend. Certainly I'm the only one in the car, so I'm the only one who could possibly know what's happening. I think that is showing in the way I'm driving."



"I think he's had an unreliable start to the season, and the dent in the confidence that you get from that, and the momentum you lose, has an effect. But I don't think he's lost the ability to drive as quickly as he always has done, and still has the potential to win this race as much as any of us."



"No, because pressure is something I believe that comes when you feel you're losing control. I don't think that any of us feel we are losing control. We might not be entirely happy with our performance in the last race and some of the mistakes we've made as a team, but we understand why those things have happened, and as disappointed as you can be, it doesn't do you any good to dwell on those. You learn from them and you push forward."