David Coulthard Q&A

"With the problems we had with the MP4-18, it meant that the MP4-19 was on track in December. The benefit of that is that you start evaluating the car and find any problems that you might have with it early on. It also gave us a chance to really work on the one engine rule to establish the extra performance that the engine needs to do during the weekend. The end result of all of that winter testing is that all of us are a little bit nervous going into the race weekend. You can see that most of the runners didn't do that many laps."



"I think we were a little bit uncertain in terms of how quick we are relative to the others. We wanted to get here and find out how the pace is. Day One has shown us not to be significantly different to where we were in the winter testing relative to the other Michelin runners. Obviously Ferrari are able to run a very fast pace, and if they keep that up for the weekend they'll be lapping the field..."



"Today was to establish what tyre we're going to run, because that's our only chance. That's pretty much all the goal for Friday. Obviously there's an element of trying to get yourself up to speed, and establish where the track is, and shaking off the cobwebs."



"No, just concentrating on the important part, which is tomorrow."



"With the tyre situation we know that we can bolt on a new set of tyres and sometimes find over a second. Maybe the Bridgestone is working very well in these conditions today, but maybe it won't be like that all weekend. I'd be surprised if they maintain that advantage through the whole year."



"I wish that we could do much more running. If we didn't have the one engine rule then obviously we'd be out there rattling round, and obviously getting experience of the track. Now it really stands for tyre evaluation and picking your tyres for Saturday."