07/03/2005
NEWS STORY
When the new qualifying format was revealed, David Coulthard was one of the first to admit scepticism.
Following the first round of the 2005 Formula One World Championship, the Scot admits that he feels his initial scepticism is justified.
"It totally benefited us," admitted Coulthard, according to Reuters. "But it's not really what we're here to see. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you just want to see a race whatever happens. But it was kind of farcical."
Coulthard's criticism is welcome, particularly as he benefited under the new format, when rain, halfway through the Saturday session made Sunday's session virtually redundant.
"I just feel strongly about the quali thing," he continued. "We shouldn't make it too much of a handicap sport. It's like getting Chelsea to drop a couple of men from a few matches just because they're winning too much. It's not fair."
The Scot felt sympathy for Sauber's Felipe Massa, who was on his out lap when the heavens opened: "Poor guy," said the Red Bull driver. Slick tyres, rain. And that's his qualifying. All the work and effort, his career, the team and the sponsors... all of that goes up in smoke because he gets rain. There is so much more at stake than just a sporting spectacle. There's people's livelihoods."
Being a race driver, one of the twenty men that actually takes part in the Formula One World Championship, Coulthard's opinion is worthless and unwanted, not when we have rule makers of the current calibre who are taking the sport to a new level of mediocrity.
Nonetheless, the Scot gave his suggestion for qualifying, strangely it's a concept not totally alien to some of the suggestions on countless message boards and forums.
"This whole one lap thing spaced out over an hour is the problem," he said. "It should be one hour, four laps and you've got to do a lap in every 15 minutes, with all the cars out there.
"I went to a MotoGP last year and in the last five minutes you were on edge because it was great, everyone's out there jockeying for position. I don't even think I got excited this morning going out to qualify."