Coulthard in it to win it
‘Everybody is beatable’: Kiwi lines up McLaughlin
FORD driver Fabian Coulthard says he is ready to fight teammate Scott McLaughlin for the Supercars championship this year as he hunts a breakthrough title, declaring “everybody is beatable”.
Gold Coast-based Coulthard is enjoying his best season in Supercars, sitting second in the championship behind defending titleholder McLaughlin (142 points adrift) as the pair aims to continue DJR Team Penske’s commanding 2019 at Winton this weekend.
The 36-year-old (pictured) has claimed two wins and another four second-place finishes so far in a season of Mustang dominance.
Coulthard’s best finish in the championship so far was third in 2017, but he said he was confident he had the form and car to challenge the series’ bright young star.
“We’ll give it a good go,’’ he said.
“Everybody is beatable. Scott had a dream run last year and it would be nice if he could share that and give me a crack this year.
“We have got goals as a team that we want to achieve, a Bathurst win would be nice and if you could do the championship as well that would be the icing on the cake.
“I always say we will evaluate our championship after the enduro cup, those three races where there is lots of points on offer.”
Coulthard heads to Winton as a winner at the event last year. But it was one of just three podiums for the New Zealander in a more challenging season when he finished ninth in the championship.
“Last year we really struggled with just the way that the car was set up, but this year has been a vast improvement,’’ Coulthard said. “I looked at some stats before and I’m 400 points better off than what I was at this point last year.”
After their dominant start to the season, the Ford teams were made to make aerodynamic changes to the Mustangs in the name of technical parity ahead of the last round at Perth. This came on the back of the already enforced centre of gravity changes.
But it didn’t stop Coulthard and McLaughlin claiming back-to-back wins last round.
Coulthard said he had not noticed any significant change while driving the car, adding the results showed the team was just on “top of our game”.