DC: tyres key to beating Williams

Williams has a season's more experience of racing on the French rubber, but the Monaco GP winner is confident that McLaren can make the tyres work in its favour.

"Each week we're testing and developing the tyres to try and see if we can get something better for the next weekend," said Coulthard. "It's something that Michelin can offer that Bridgestone can't, because they produce the tyres in Europe. Unfortunately we didn't find anything extra in Jerez, so the tyres we'll use this weekend are something we've experienced before, but that isn't such a bad thing.

"Ferrari and Williams have shown they have a performance advantage, but as we've shown recently we can get results in races."

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug echoed Coulthard's sentiments. "We need to get more understanding of the way the car and tyres work together. We don't have a bad car and we do not have bad tyres and we are obviously looking to gain experience to bring it all together."