Feature: Take a Deep Breath, David

Relax, be instinctive. It may help you go faster.

That was more or less what Jackie Stewart, a past master of measured driving, told Antonio Pizzonia earlier in the year as the Brazilian Formula One rookie fought to keep his job at Jaguar.

Now it is the turn of David Coulthard, even if he is far more experienced and his position secure, to hear something similar from McLaren.

After a bright start, winning in Australia, the 32-year-old Scot is seventh overall and staring disbelievingly at what is shaping up to be his worst year since he joined McLaren 125 races ago in 1996.

An outsider, looking at the bald statistics, would have to conclude that he is being blown away by 23-year-old teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

The Finn has scored 26 more points, secured six podiums to Coulthard's one and had three front row starts to his teammate's lone appearance. But Coulthard would be justified in shaking his head and insisting that it isn't like that at all.

On pure race pace, he has nothing to be ashamed of. Nor has he in career terms. After all, with 13 victories he has won more races than many champions. With more luck, he could have won the first three races - thwarted instead by car failure and the weather.

Qualifying Problems

The obstacle is the new single lap qualifying format, particularly Saturday with cars running on race fuel loads, and it seems to be driving Coulthard mad.

While Raikkonen goes for broke, sometimes blowing it and starting from the back but just as often getting it spot on, Coulthard has struggled. The harder he tries, the worse it gets. Sometimes he is considerably faster in free practice with comparable fuel loads.

"How a driver qualifies is a mind game and he has got to get that fixed," McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh said after Coulthard qualified ninth and then crashed out of Sunday's European Grand Prix. "Once you have made an error then you carry that with you and the additional pressure into the next session.

"He has to recognise that he can do it, relax and drive instinctively without the analysis," he said. "David is a very analytical individual. Sometimes that is a useful quality, but it might not be when you have to put it on the line in one lap."

For anybody who has followed Coulthard's career over the years, Whitmarsh's comments strike a chord. Five years ago, Williams technical director Patrick Head pondered his team's failure to renew Coulthard's contract at the end of 1995.

"Frank and I realised that he was a great technical driver - very articulate, cool and calm - but we wondered whether that fire was there," he said.

Coulthard has shown he has it since then, notably at Magny-Cours in 2000 when he won after giving Michael Schumacher a one-fingered salute on the track.

More Aggressive

His return to France this weekend gives him another opportunity to show that spirit - particularly if team boss Ron Dennis is right about how he sees the rest of the season unfolding.

He was asked in Germany, ironically before a race in which Juan Pablo Montoya and Schumacher collided, whether the new scoring system had discouraged 'people having a go on the circuit' in favour of banking points.

Dennis pondered that, in the light of Ralf Schumacher's failure to get past his brother Michael in Canada.

"I was, probably along with most people watching that, a little surprised there wasn't more of a stab at trying to get past," he said. "But it's understandable. Maybe as we move towards the end of the season I think the racing style will change and it will become more aggressive and perhaps that's the best way to have Formula One."

Last Sunday, it was Ralf who roared past his brother at the start to win and laugh at his critics. Coulthard's title hopes are all but gone for another season but there are still plenty of wins to be had.

Perhaps Magny-Cours will provide his response.