DC has sly dig at Red Bull team-mate

In his latest column for ITV, Red Bull’s David Coulthard squeezed in a couple of interesting comments about his team-mate Mark Webber. The Scot, who has yet to score a point and had been outshone by Webber all season, said:

“My team-mate Mark Webber told the media over the Istanbul weekend that he has opened talks with Red Bull to extend his contract.

“If I try to rationalise why Mark would say that, I can only presume it was either to stimulate talks with the team or to stimulate interest in the rest of the paddock, reminding people that he’s on the market.”

It makes sense for Coulthard to stir up gossip about Webber’s future. If the Aussie does move to another team, that would greatly increase DC’s chances of keeping his drive at Red Bull; if Webber stays, Coulthard may well be replaced by a younger, faster driver. Coulthard rounded off his comments about Webber by saying:

“When you think about it logically, you do your private negotiations in private and then when you’ve reached an agreement you make an announcement. You don’t normally say, ‘Er, I’m about to enter negotiations…’

“So I would conclude that it was a positioning tactic rather than anything else… As far as my own situation goes, I will keep my own counsel until I have a firm deal to announce.”

Very mischievous by Coulthard, who seems to think that keeping his own counsel is best done by spilling the beans in a column for ITV. It will be interesting to look at the body language between the pair in Monaco this weekend.