Tall order to catch Ferrari, says DC

Coulthard managed to score an opportunistic second place in Melbourne yesterday (Sunday) ahead of Ferrari number two Rubens Barrichello, but the Scotsman could do nothing to stop World Champion Michael Schumacher from taking a decisive victory.

The Silver Arrows of Coulthard and team mate Mika Hakkinen struggled to match the men from Maranello for pace all weekend. After monopolising the front row of the grid in qualifying, Ferrari would have gone on to open the season with a one-two finish had Barrichello not tripped up over a backmarker, allowing Coulthard past. DC says it could be more of the same at Sepang.

"In reality it's probably a tall order [to close the gap to Ferrari], said Coulthard. "It all depends on how well the Magny-Cours test goes [this week]. The fundamentals of the car are good, but we're just not in the right area, in the zone. So it's going to be a long hard fight. In the same way, we've been pretty quick here in the last couple of years in relation to Ferrari, and yet they've been quick in other circuits, that's probably going to be the situation.

"They're on the ball. There's no question that round this track they've been setting the pace and we've been catching up. We haven't got the most out of the car as yet. It's not an excuse, it's fact. We can look back to why we haven't got as much out of the car as we should have done, but in reality that doesn't help us for the future."

McLaren has traditionally been on the pace at the opening race - Hakkinen has taken pole at Melbourne for the last three years - with reliability being the Woking team's early-season Achilles' heel. This year, however, the outfit was troubled by qualifying only third and sixth, while Hakkinen was forced to retire from the race with suspected front suspension failure.

Coulthard is in no doubt that his MP4-16 will get better, but with the relentless improvements which need to be made to stay ahead of the game, development time will be key.

"The car will go quicker," said Coulthard. "Whether that's enough to overcome where they [Ferrari] are because naturally as quickly as we can develop, they can develop. It just depends whether they are up against a ceiling or not. In previous years we've been up against a ceiling and they've been able to move up closer. Time will tell whether there's a similar case this year."

Work to catch Ferrari begins on Wednesday, just three days after events in Australia. The McLaren test team will be in action at the Magny-Cours circuit in France in an attempt to claw back some of the Prancing Horse's early advantage.

For full David Coulthard Q&A, (Click Here).