Planet-F1

Coulthard unperturbed by crashes

Wednesday 26th March 2008

The two spectacular crashed David Coulthard suffered in Australia and Malaysia have left no mental scars on the Scot.

Coulthard collided with Ferrari's Felipe Massa in Melbourne and his car disintegrated when he hit a kerb during practice session at the Sepang circuit.

He was only given the all clear to race in Malaysia after an investigation into the strength of the suspension on his car.

Coulthard though played down any concerns over the safety of his Red Bull 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," he was quoted by Autosport.

"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."

"The suspension saw twice the normal loads it would see at the fastest corner," he said about the 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."