Coulthard slips back slowly

An old hand is in need of a lift

Claims that Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix was boring are the least of David Coulthard's worries. After finishing sixth and suffering the ignominy of being lapped by Michael Schumacher's winning Ferrari, the Scotsman cannot be blamed for thinking of himself rather than an audience disenchanted by five of the first six cars finishing in exactly the same positions from which they had started.

The one exception was Jenson Button, the Renault driver coming from ninth on the grid to claim fifth place. Apart from the start, Button didn't actually overtake anyone on the track but a consistently fast drive throughout the 62 laps allowed the Englishman to get the jump on Coulthard and McLaren-Mercedes during the sequence of pit stops. The final straw for Coulthard must have been subsequent claims that Button is now the top British driver, the simplistic implication being that Coulthard is a spent force.

In terms of the championship. Button has more points thanks to driving impressively in the last three races and generally showing up his more experienced team-mate, Jarno Trulli. But, when it comes to assessing experience and all-round ability, Button has yet to come close to Coulthard's record of 11 grand prix wins. The fact that one of the victories was at Imola, a circuit where Coulthard usually excels, will have added to the frustration heaped upon a driver supposedly enjoying his best chance of winning the championship.

Some of Coulthard's troubles are behind him, in the sense that the Mercedes engine pushing him along is perceived to be less powerful than the Ferrari and BMW pace-setters. Mercedes deny any shortfall, in which case the chassis and Michelin tyres must be to blame. It is true that Coulthard was struggling for grip all weekend but whether that was a product of the tyres, or having to run less downforce on the car to compensate for a lack of power, is difficult to assess from the sidelines. Observers could merely examine the lap times and wonder why the car appeared to be slow on the uphill sections where grunt has no substitute.

The only certainty is that the cumulative effect was a dismal result for Coulthard, one which was made worse by a combination of Button's charge in the increasingly impressive Renault and the more personal slight of being outpaced by his McLaren team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen. The record so far shows the McLaren drivers to have out-qualified each other by an equal amount, a statistic that reflects more favourably on Raikkonen since this is only his second season of F1. It was particularly damaging to Coulthard when the Finn was 0.4 seconds quicker last weekend even though Coulthard's cause was not helped by the need for an engine change just before the start of qualifying.

The results of both qualifying and the race - when Raikkonen easily kept Coulthard at arm's length - did not stack up when you watched the pair circulate, Raikkonen's untidy and overly aggressive style contrasting markedly with Coulthard's more sharp and fluid method of attacking the corners. Yet the bare statistics are beginning to work against Coulthard, particularly as he has been in F1 for nine seasons, almost all of which have been with the benefit of competitive equipment supplied by Williams and McLaren.

Before this year, Coulthard had to cope with Mika Hakkinen's speed and de facto number-one status within McLaren. But now that Coulthard has the chance to establish his rightful position, McLaren, Mercedes and Michelin are letting him down with a woeful (by their standards) package.

As Button mania begins to gather strength after an enforced 12-month lay-off, it is easy to forget that Coulthard led the first race in Australia by seven seconds until the gearbox failed. A driver does not lose such speed and competence overnight but, if the struggle continues, Coulthard's future will look increasingly bleak.

Thirty-two next birthday, the man from Twynholm knows that his current contract with McLaren expires at the end of 2003. If his CV shows the absence of a championship, plus consistent defeat by a team-mate nine years his junior, then Coulthard's chances of employment with a winning team will be over.

The short-term outlook is not good for either Coulthard or the image of F1. Barcelona next weekend traditionally produces processional races because the cars are so closely matched thanks to incessant testing at the Spanish circuit. If the track temperatures are not higher than at Imola (to suit Michelin) then the only interest is likely to be the form of Rubens Barrichello as the Brazilian continues to adapt remarkably well to the latest Ferrari and make Schumacher work harder than before. Had Schumacher not pushed his car to the edge for a single, brilliant lap, then Barrichello would have been on pole and the story might have been altogether different. But Schumacher, as ever, rose to the occasion.

Coulthard has been under similar pressure all season, the difference being that Raikkonen is occasionally getting the upper hand and the McLaren drivers are now scrapping to stay ahead of Renault and Button rather than offering the anticipated challenge to Ferrari and Williams-BMW.

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