Despite his victory in the season opening Australian Grand Prix, McLaren ace David Coulthard has warned that there is still much work to be done to overthrow the dominant Ferrari squad.
"Of course I am extremely pleased to have started the season with a victory, but people who are writing off Ferrari are making a big mistake. They are going to come out for the next race more fired up than they have been for years," said Coulthard.
The McLaren-Mercedes driver took his second Australian GP win around the Albert Park race course in Melbourne after spins and misfortune afflicted his main rivals. Amid jubilant scenes he was also quick to point out the Australian Grand Prix was only the first race of the season and much could change over the next seven months.
"I think some people need to get a grasp of reality. Yes, I won the Australian Grand Prix for the second time, and yes I lead the championship heading to the second round in Malaysia, but we've still got 15 grand prix left this year and any talk about the championship is nonsense," said the Scot."
Despite driving a calm and assured race, Coulthard was aware that his victory was more down to the misfortune of others rather than any sterling performance on his own part. However the Scot was quick to point out that the key is where you are come the end of racing on Sunday afternoon. "I know that I was in a positiong to take full advantage of the problems of guys like Michael, Juan, Kimi and Rubens...but the point is I was there when it mattered," he concluded.
Coulthard's McLaren came home first at the end of a thrilling first race of the season ahead of Williams' driver Juan-Pablo Montoya and team-mate Kimi Raikonnen. Raikonnen, whose race was spoiled by a drive through penalty looked good to win the race but being caught 1.1km/h over the pit lane speed limited wrecked his chances.
Ferrari had a race to forget after a promising start to the weekend saw the scarlet cars dominant in qualifying. From the front row of the grid, Schumacher and Barrichello showed the field a clean pair of heals in the opening laps but as their intermediate tyres started to deteriorate on the drying track Schumacher lost time to the chasing pack and Barrichello smacked the barriers.
The victory sees Coulthard leading the championship as the F1 circus heads to Malaysia. And after the thrills and spills of Melbourne, Coulthard is confident that Malaysia will be even better.
"..if you thought Sunday was action-packed, I have a feeling Malaysia will be even better."
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