DC hard on new qualifying system

By John Sharpe
March 8 2005

Shortly after a brilliant fourth and seventh place finish by the Red Bull Racing team at the Australian Grand Prix, Lead Driver David Coulthard voiced some strong opinions regarding Formula One’s new qualifying system.

“It totally benefited us, the qualy system,” DC quoted in Reuters.

Midway through Saturdays first of two days of aggregate qualifying, rain began to pound the Albert Park Circuit. Drivers that were on the track or those yet to take to the circuit had a difficult time setting a fast lap.
For the drivers caught out in the rain on Saturday, those disappointing times meant that there Sunday final qualifying lap would be especially difficult as they would have to make up a tremendous amount of time. Though some improved slightly, it would be but a small consolation for the rest.

However, RBR managed to beat the changing weather conditions with both drivers setting good flying laps on Saturday. Even though DC had major over steer and balancing issues, he was able to come back on Sunday and secure fifth on the grid with Christian Klien taking sixth. That accompanied with a blistering start enabled David to run second for most of the race.

Despite the fact that the new system played into DC’s favor over the Grand Prix weekend, DC went on to say:

“I just feel strongly about the qualy thing that we shouldn’t make it too much of a handicap sport.”

“It’s like getting Chelsea to drop a couple of men from a few matches just because they’re winning too much. It’s not fair.”