David Coulthard

David & Karen

Coulthard: No worries over Red Bull safety

David Coulthard has said he has complete faith in the design of his Red Bull Racing car, despite his two spectacular accidents so far this season.

Coulthard has seen the suspension on his car collapse twice this year - after a collision with Felipe Massa in Australia and after hitting a kerb in practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Those incidents prompted an FIA investigation into the strength of the suspension at Sepang last weekend, after which the car was given the all clear.

But despite the events, Coulthard has said he is not worried about the design of the RB4, and that he is not surprised the suspension broke after the impact with the kerb at Sepang.

"The suspension saw twice the normal loads it would see at the fastest corner," explained Coulthard about his accident in Malaysia. "Although it looked fairly spectacular and many were wondering why it fell to pieces, you never see those loads unless you hit something.

"Keep things within their design parameters and they'll operate normally. Take them outside and you tend to get catastrophic failures."

Although mechanical failures in cars are always likely to affect a driver's confidence in a car, Coulthard has said he has no doubts about the safety of his car.

"I've got no confidence problems. I think it's a racing driver thing: we're confident/competitive/stupid enough to think it will never happen to us.

"The Toyota (of Timo Glock) fell to pieces fairly spectacularly after it had its incident in Melbourne, so carbon does tend to disintegrate.

"Look at (Robert) Kubica's accident in Canada. It was remarkable he emerged without any serious injury but I remind you: his feet were hanging out the front of his car and had he had a secondary impact with the concrete wall he would probably have broken his ankles.

"I remember Johnny Herbert's accident back at Brands Hatch in 1988 – there's a large element of luck in any accident and there's no question the cars are considerably stronger than they were several years ago."

Coulthard's Red Bull sold for 210,000 Euros

27 March 2008

David Coulthard's Red Bull Racing car from last year's British Grand Prix was sold on eBay for 210,000 Euros for an auction in aid of the Wings for Life charity, a foundation which funds research into spine injuries.

The Red Bull car had the unique 'faces for charity' livery which the team ran during the British Grand Prix last year. Over 50,000 people donated money to charity in order to have their photos painted on the car.

The auction winner has chosen to remain anonymous.

David & Karen

Bahrain Grand Prix

1st Free Practice

1 F. Massa 1:32.233 20

2 K. Räikkönen 1:32.350 15

3 N. Rosberg 1:32.415 23

4 L. Hamilton 1:32.705 21

5 H. Kovalainen 1:32.868 20

6 K. Nakajima 1:33.121 24

7 R. Kubica 1:33.333 16

8 J. Trulli 1:33.539 27

9 D. Coulthard 1:33.788 20

10 F. Alonso Renault 1:33.815 19

11 T. Glock 1:33.929 28

12 M. Webber 1:33.950 20

13 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.981 24

14 N. Heidfeld 1:34.106 17

15 S. Bourdais 1:34.235 27

16 S. Vettel 1:34.321 32

17 G. Fisichella 1:34.892 20

18 J. Button 1:34.915 16

19 R. Barrichello 1:35.174 12

20 A. Sutil 1:35.429 22

21 A. Davidson 1:36.145 6

22 T. Sato 1:36.536 6

Bahrain Grand Prix

2nd Free Practice

1 F. Massa 1:31.420 30

2 K. Räikkönen 1:32.327 30

3 H. Kovalainen 1:32.752 30

4 L. Hamilton 1:32.847 26

5 R. Kubica 1:32.915 29

6 N. Rosberg 1:33.022 34

7 D. Coulthard 1:33.048 27

8 K. Nakajima 1:33.098 33

9 S. Bourdais 1:33.197 37

10 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.247 37

11 J. Button 1:33.710 33

12 F. Alonso 1:33.755 26

13 M. Webber 1:33.782 34

14 J. Trulli 1:33.822 38

15 T. Glock 1:33.856 30

16 R. Barrichello 1:33.966 35

17 N. Heidfeld 1:34.023 36

18 G. Fisichella 1:34.388 35

19 A. Sutil 1:34.405 34

20 S. Vettel 1:34.787 30

21 T. Sato 1:35.288 24

22 A. Davidson 1:35.712 25

Bahrain Grand Prix

3rd Free Practice

1 N. Rosberg 1:32.521 17

2 F. Massa 1:32.726 10

3 M. Webber 1:32.742 16

4 J. Trulli 1:32.901 18

5 D. Coulthard 1:32.918 14

6 K. Nakajima 1:33.020 16

7 R. Kubica 1:33.024 18

8 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.074 16

9 K. Räikkönen 1:33.237 10

10 H. Kovalainen 1:33.367 15

11 S. Bourdais 1:33.372 17

12 G. Fisichella 1:33.392 20

13 F. Alonso 1:33.445 13

14 R. Barrichello 1:33.551 18

15 T. Glock 1:33.595 20

16 J. Button 1:33.600 17

17 S. Vettel 1:33.651 14

18 L. Hamilton 1:33.659 14

19 A. Sutil 1:33.857 18

20 N. Heidfeld 1:34.074 16

21 A. Davidson 1:34.591 18

22 T. Sato 1:34.952 16

Bahrain Grand Prix

Qualifying

1 R. Kubica 1:33.096

2 F. Massa 1:33.123

3 L. Hamilton 1:33.292

4 K. Räikkönen 1:33.418

5 H. Kovalainen 1:33.488

6 N. Heidfeld 1:33.737

7 J. Trulli 1:33.994

8 N. Rosberg 1:34.015

9 J. Button 1:35.057

10 F. Alonso 1:35.115

11 M. Webber 1:32.371

12 R. Barrichello 1:32.508

13 T. Glock 1:32.528

14 N. Piquet jr. 1:32.790

15 S. Bourdais 1:32.915

16 K. Nakajima 1:32.943

17 D. Coulthard 1:33.433

18 G. Fisichella 1:33.501

19 S. Vettel 1:33.501

20 A. Sutil 1:33.845

21 A. Davidson 1:34.140

22 T. Sato 1:35.725

Bahrain Grand Prix

Race

1 F. Massa 1:31:06.970

2 K. Räikkönen + 3.339

3 R. Kubica + 4.998

4 N. Heidfeld + 8.409

5 H. Kovalainen + 26.789

6 J. Trulli + 41.314

7 M. Webber + 45.473

8 N. Rosberg + 55.889

9 T. Glock + 1:09.500

10 F. Alonso + 1:17.181

11 R. Barrichello + 1:17.862

12 G. Fisichella + 1 laps

13 L. Hamilton + 1 laps

14 K. Nakajima + 1 laps

15 S. Bourdais + 1 laps

16 A. Davidson + 1 laps

17 T. Sato + 1 laps

18 D. Coulthard + 1 laps

19 A. Sutil + 2 laps

Did not finish

20 N. Piquet jr. + 16 laps

21 J. Button + 37 laps

22 S. Vettel + 57 laps