Red Bull poised to ditch DC earlier than planned?

Vicious whispers in the paddock suggest that David Coulthard may not see out his final season in F1. The rumour goes that DC will compete in the Italian GP at Monza in a couple of weeks’ time, then step aside to let Sebastian Vettel take up his seat in the senior Red Bull outfit - something that was set to happen at the end of the 2008 campaign.

The rumour came about in the wake of Toro Rosso’s confirmation today that Sebastien Buemi and Takuma Sato will test for STR at Jerez later this month, with the quicker driver replacing Vettel in 2009. Some F1 insiders think Toro Rosso also intends to give Buemi and Sato a real trial in the last four grands prix of the year. That would leave DC out in the cold.

Will this happen? Read our verdict below:

Hmmm, this is surely a case of someone putting two and two together to make any number but four. Sure, this season Coulthard has driven like a man who can’t even get his square head around the mirror-signal-manouevre mnemonic, but Red Bull may as well keep him until the end of the year. And anyway, Vettel is going along nicely for Toro Rosso, so there’s absolutely no need to give him an early promotion to Red Bull.

And for the record, we predict Buemi will get the vacant Toro Rosso seat in 2009, alongside Seb Bourdais.

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