Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has not ruled out the possibility of McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clashing at a future Grand Prix, ahead of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Piastri enters this weekend 13 points ahead in the Drivers’ title, with Norris taking three out of his team-mate’s advantage last time out at Imola.
Last year, the team’s position on its drivers going head-to-head was made clear, with the now-infamous ‘Papaya rules’ instruction being issued at the Italian Grand Prix.
The instruction informed both men that they could race, but with no threat of both cars colliding.
Now the Brit and the Aussie are going for the title, Coulthard exclusively told Motorsport Week aboard the Corinthian Sports yacht that whilst McLaren supremos Zak Brown and Andrea Stella will do everything in their power to prevent it, the chance of glory might see them compete without scruple.
“I don’t doubt that Zak and Andrea and all of the clever, intelligent people that aren’t in the cockpit, will want to do everything that you would want to do if you were in a senior position there, but in the end, racing drivers are racing drivers, and it’s a selfish industry where your team-mate’s success is your failure,” Coulthard said.
“So ‘this isn’t show friends’, as Jerry Maguire said, ‘it’s show business’. So Oscar’s learned from last year, where he was on average a bit slower in qualifying than Lando, he’s come back, he’s improved.
“He’s got a very experienced Mark Webber in his corner, which can help guide him and fast-track some of his learnings, and if this was an eight-race World Championship, or a seven-race World Championship, he’s won it.
“It’s a long season, of course, and a few things will happen between now and the end of the year, but he’s put himself in a great position.
“Who knows who will come out as the victor at the end of it, but this race is not going to decide the World Championship. It can certainly lose you a chunk of points if you overstep it, so it’s a long season, but I do think this is a race that drivers want to win because of the history and all of that good stuff.”
Qualifying prep the key to Monaco success
Coulthard also gave an insight into the way that a racing driver would, or should, prepare for the Monaco race.
A two-time winner of the event – in 2000 and 2002 – Coulthard knows exactly what it takes to nail a Grand Prix weekend around the famed principality.
“I always used to really focus on qualifying,” he said, “so first Friday practice where there’s a temptation in classic Grand Prix to do long runs and feel the car and all that sort of stuff, and you might do a performance run at the end of practice.
“I wanted to accelerate the point at which I got to a lap time, because between the first run, if you’re running a lot of fuel, you could be seven, eight seconds slower than you’re going to be in qualifying.
“Qualifying, you’ve got one lap to get it right, so the quicker you could get everything aligned to your vision of what’s happening and you know, corners and all that sort of thing, then I just think it better prepares you.”
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