Coulthard goes for long-term option

David Coulthard believes it could be another season before he is in a position to mount a serious challenge for the world championship.

The 31-year-old Scot reckons this season could turn into a development year before McLaren-Mercedes take the fight to Ferrari in 2004.

Coulthard will launch his campaign in Melbourne on March 9 in a heavily modified version of last year’s car with the new car being introduced several races into the campaign.

“Our aim is to have a competitive car in 2003,” said Coulthard, whose victory in Monaco last year was one of only two by non-Ferrari drivers.

“Towards the end of the season the MP4-17 package was constantly improving and I’m sure we will take that momentum into 2003 with the MP4-17D and the MP4-18.

“But we are aware of the challenge and the reality that it will probably take another year to develop the package to a sufficient level. But the whole team will be working hard to try and make it happen sooner.”

The old McLaren car has been setting an encouraging speed in pre-season testing but Coulthard’s outfit face an immense task overturning the advantage reigning champion Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello enjoyed with Ferrari last year as they won 15 of the 17 races.

“None of us will really know what the season holds until qualifying in Melbourne, that’s the only time you can really be sure of your comparative performance,” added Coulthard, who finished fifth in the drivers’ championship last year after taking the runners-up spot in 2001.

“I won’t go to Melbourne thinking ‘This is it, this is my year’. I have a more focussed approach, concentrating on each individual race and trying to improve my performance on every outing.

“In 1997 when I won in Melbourne, I came away from the race thinking that it could be a good season for me. That proved not to be the case.

“Whether this turns out to be my year or not time will tell, I know I’ll continue to give 100% throughout the season along with the rest of the team and we are a team of proven winners.”

Coulthard, who made his grand prix debut with Williams in 1994 following the death of Ayrton Senna, insists his dream of adding his name to the roll-call of Scottish racers who have won the coveted drivers’ crown is still alive.

But Coulthard’s hopes will surely rest on whether design guru Adrian Newey can produce another world beater as he did with Williams in the early 1990s and with McLaren when Mika Hakkinen triumphed in 1998 and 1999.

“To have your name in lists alongside drivers of the calibre of Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark would be an honour,” said Twynholm-born Coulthard, whose tally of 12 career victories is the best of the current crop of drivers apart from five-time champ Schumacher – who has 64.

“It is quite difficult to put into words, but I suppose the simplest way to describe it is to imagine achieving a goal that you have had for so many years and worked so hard for, and the satisfaction and pride that must bring.”

The Monaco-based racer insists Ferrari’s period of dominance – Schumacher has won the last three drivers’ titles and the team have been constructors’ champions for the past four years – will not last indefinitely.

“As with any other sport, there are cycles in Formula One,” said Coulthard.

“When you look at the sport historically there are periods of dominance that tend to last for a couple of years, such as McLaren in the mid to late 80s and Williams in the early nineties.

“Ferrari are experiencing that right now, but McLaren-Mercedes and the rest of the field are all working hard to close the gap.”