Coulthard: It’s a long season and I haven’t given up shot at title

Kiwi Supercars driver Fabian Coulthard heads to this weekend’s round at Winton Raceway in rural Victoria a long way off the championship lead but vowing his title hopes are still alive.

The Shell V-Power Ford driver was expected to be one of the main championship protagonists this season but he has endured a horror start to the season. He holds ninth place in the championship standings and is a full round of championship points behind teammate Scott McLaughlin.

“This is probably the worst start to the year I have had,” Coulthard told Radio Sport. “It is a long season — you never give up, you keep fighting and I don’t think podiums are too far away.

“There are 300 points on offer at each event; we are 300 points behind the leader, which is Scotty at the moment so it is all still to play for.

“I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Coulthard’s run of poor results don’t come down to a lack of speed or even driver error. The majority of the issues he’s faced this year have been rogue one-off bits of bad luck. There were a couple of random mechanical failures, a technical breach and being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“You have your ups and downs. Up until this point I have had a pretty good run,” he said.

“I have just been a bit unlucky at times throughout this year.

“At the end of the day it is part of racing — you have to ride the highs and lows and hopefully I come out the other side sooner rather than later.

“We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have been fast enough but we just haven’t had the luck.

“I think the car has been fantastic — I don’t have much to show for it. Obviously results-wise I am unhappy but the speed has been there.”

This weekend’s round at Winton is a change for the teams from the previous two high-speed tracks. There are more slow-speed corners so cars will be set-up differently, which could see a change in who is at the front of the field.

Coulthard has had some strong results at the track recently.

“We were on the podium last year; we have won races here before. We need to work hard as a unit and hopefully come away with a result.”