David Coulthard Q&A

It was pretty underwhelming, really. You go out, you have one lap, and that's it. It was disappointing from a qualifying point of view not to feel that you were really able to work with the car, and work with the circuit to make improvements. Also you don't really know where you are relative to the others. Some people may have taken a tactical decision to position themselves for covering the weather situation tomorrow. I don't think the crowd understands that, because they were cheering every time a car went quicker. If we see a significantly different grid from what we've seen in the past, it's not a reflection of a single lap, it's probably strategy.



You don't think about that. For whatever fuel load you're running, you try to get the maximum you can out of the car. Unlike previous qualifying sessions that we had in the past, when you could build in that during the session, this time you do your first run, and that's it. It's your last run.



It's possible. If you consider what the track might be like tomorrow, the track temperature, weather conditions, and you don't necessarily want to be the last out. Strategy is obviously going to play a part. You won't even know really where we stand after qualifying tomorrow. It's going to be the race result, and then you're going to have to 'guestimate' back. The best car is going to be the one that wins, I guess.



It doesn't mean anything, because they could have run more fuel than we did, and they might actually be quicker than us. I don't think you should presume that because there's a rule that says you must run fuel tomorrow that everyone's run low fuel today. It doesn't give you your grid position. If you don't start tomorrow's session, you're still at the back anyway.



I'm disappointed. I expected to feel a little bit more excited about single lap qualifying, but I've got to say I think it's fairly lacking in atmosphere.



I think it's difficult for people to change things back, because you're admitting then that you might have made a mistake. I think it would be a brave move and a good move for it to be reviewed after this weekend, to see how it actually worked. Obviously it's the race that's going to dictate whether this works or not, because if there's going to be tighter racing, then the system works.



"There's no point in swimming against the tide. We have to use it, so let's get on with it."



I would, and I don't know if you could say for sure that it's better in every condition, every type of accident. The way it's tested by the FIA, it's better. But I don't believe they do a complete side impact, I don't believe they do the car rolling upside down, issues that happen in real racing.