Japan: Driver & Team Views

By Ian Lockwood
October 8 2006

The mid season halting of development on the RB2 is really starting to show, with the Red Bull Drivers never looking like troubling the points paying positions at Suzuka. Instead battles with STR and Spyker were the order of the day.

DAVID COULTHARD, (Finish Position DNF, Start Position: 17th)

“I had to retire my car when it lost fourth gear. We were racing the Spyker team for much of the

race and it was clear we were quicker in some areas, but slower in others. After Tonio (Liuzzi)

spun, I got stuck behind Scot Speed’s car who was running a little slower than me, that held me

up a bit, but other than that I was just trying to run my race.”

ROBERT DOORNBOS, (Finish Position 13th, Start Position: 18th)

“It ended up being quite lonely on the race track this afternoon. I had a very poor start, I don’t

know why, I think maybe there was a problem with the clutch, which meant I couldn’t defend my

position as I pulled away. But, after that it was good to overtake the guys again and get the

positions back. I was behind Tonio (Liuzzi) and David (Coulthard) for quite a long while. Tonio

lost a little time, I don’t know why, and David unfortunately stopped so I was out on my own in

thirteenth towards the end of the race.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, “Starting from where we did on the grid it was always going to be a tough

race today, but both drivers showed reasonable pace. The strategy we adopted moved them

forward, although shortening the strategy to benefit from new tyres bought them out in a bit of

traffic, which wasn’t ideal. The pace of our cars looked more respectable today than it did

yesterday and, although it was disappointing to suffer a gearbox failure on David’s car, Robert

drove a sensible race.”