Coulthard: I cannot believe BAR's decisions

Cheerful DC
By Phil Huff (16/05/2003)
May 16 2003

David Coulthard's some way down the grid after the first qualifying session, but he's not worried. Teams try different tactics, and the McLaren tacticians go a different route from the Lucky Strike BAR Honda team.

Asked about his thoughts on teams tactics, Coulthard immediately picked out BAR for comment. "A lot of the teams are trying different things," said the Scot. "In Barcelona, BAR would have had to stop on lap 11 if it hadn't been for the Safety Car. Lap 11! That's incredible - purely a glory run."

"That's partly got to be to put the car up there for sponsors, partly to put a bit of pressure on Jacques; bang his salary down for next year. I cannot believe that the team made that decision based on pure strategy - the quickest way to get their car to the end of the grand prix. Those are the facts."

On the low fuel runs at Austria today both BAR drivers finished ahead of both McLaren's, Villeneuve managing to go round the twisty Spielberg circuit nearly three tenths quicker than Coulthard.