Formula One news
'You trust your team' - Coulthard
08 April 2009David Coulthard has given his opinion on the raging situation between McLaren and governing body the FIA, after the team presented information contrasting events which took place in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
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World Champion Lewis Hamilton denied to stewards that he had yielded to the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, despite the McLaren slowing down to let the Italian past during the Grand Prix. The event took place under the second and final safety car of the race, moments after Trulli had run off the track, losing the third place in question as Hamilton went by.
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| David Coulthard |
"What the public has to try to understand is that, when you go into a stewards' meeting, you try and present yourself in the best possible light to get the result you want - not being penalised," Coulthard explained to the BBC, having spent nine years and clinching twelve of his thirteen victories with the team. "It is a part of the sport, whether people like it or not."
The incident has seen the suspension of Dave Ryan, a 35-year McLaren associate, which eventually led to his dismissal on Tuesday. "McLaren have clearly parked the blame on Dave Ryan," Coulthard continued. "Hamilton has escaped similar punishment because, as a driver, he says he acted under instruction from the team. My belief is that this would have been the case."
Coulthard, despite enjoying a number of successes with the silver arrows, admitted last year that communication barriers within the team could develop at times, leaving drivers in invidious positions on some occasions. "I've been in that situation many times and you trust your team," he explained. "You trust the integrity and safety of the car, so why would you not trust them when they give you a guideline on what to say?
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| McLaren sporting director Dave Ryan, now dismissed |
"My instinct about this whole situation is that you have to believe in people. I have had a long relationship with McLaren, and if I felt they were cut from a dishonourable cloth I would distance myself from them; can a leopard change its spots, do the modern demands of F1 mean McLaren have adopted a win-at-all-costs strategy? I can't answer those questions, but I do think that we have not heard the last of the latest scandal to hit Hamilton and his team."
With McLaren called upon by the FIA on Tuesday, the team will be required to attend a meeting to further discuss the matter with the governing body's World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in three weeks' time, on Wednesday 29 April.
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