Consistency driving Coulthard’s assault
FABIAN Coulthard believes his DJR Team Penske’s new and improved Falcon can prove their Clipsal 500 success was no flash in the pan.
Coulthard left Adelaide only behind defending champ Shane van Gisbergen in the standings after placings of second and fifth. Teammate Scott McLaughlin also took a second place, having threatened for victory on the Sunday.
DJR Team Penske showed promise at the season-opening street circuit last year with pole positions to both Coulthard and then No.17 driver Scott Pye but plummeted down the order in race trim.
It set the tone for a mixed year for the Gold Coast squad but Coulthard is upbeat about their 2017 prospects leading into the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne this weekend.
“(The car) is a lot different to what I had last year,” he told the Bulletin.
“It’s nice, it is everything I had been searching for. We still need to fine-tune it and make everything better but it is definitely in the direction that I want to head in.
“That car (last year was) probably not really capable of taking it to Triple Eight so we needed to branch out, get some fresh ideas, which the boys have done a fantastic job with in the off-season and worked very, very hard.”
He pointed to a long scrap with James Courtney in Adelaide as evidence of their step forward: “We had a good battle with James for 55 or so laps and last year our package wouldn’t have been able to do that.’’
Consistency is the key word for Coulthard if he and the team want to live up to expectations of challenging Triple Eight’s powerhouse three-car fleet of Holdens.
“The first box that we want to tick is to have a consistent car that we can contend with at every event. The competition is too good not to be doing that,” he said.
There are no points on offer from the four Supercars races at the Grand Prix but results at the glamour event have been indicative of what’s to come in recent seasons.
Triple Eight dominated the weekend last season, twice locking out the podium, while Prodrive Racing Australia were similarly unstoppable two years ago when Mark Winterbottom went on to win the championship.
Coulthard was quick at Albert Park last year and has a history of success there: he has won in Supercars with Brad Jones Racing and even scored victory in Formula Ford way back in 2002.
The 34-year-old Kiwi wants the event to become part of the official Supercars championship in future.
“We have some good, close door-handle-to-door-handle racing and the fans love it,” he said.