Coulthard curious about Red Bull: 'Car would struggle'

David Coulthard, unlike Mercedes and Ferrari, believes the FIA gave the right punishment to Red Bull Racing. Whereas the teams were of the opinion that the Austrians had not been penalised severely enough, the former Formula 1 driver believes this is indeed the case.

Because of exceeding the budget cap, Red Bull faces a seven-million-dollar fine as well as reduced time in the wind tunnel. Coulthard is convinced Christian Horner's team is going to suffer greatly from the latter restriction.

"Formula One is an aerodynamic formula," he begins in conversation with Channel 4. "If you have a reduction in the amount of time that you can spend in the wind tunnel developing your package, of course, if you start with a great package, and you’re already quicker than the others, then that may not affect you as much."

"But if you look at the rate of development that teams have from the beginning of the season to the end, a car that wins the first Grand Prix undeveloped would struggle to make the top 10 come the end of the year. So that is actually, I think, quite a harsh penalty."

Advantage for Red Bull's competition

Coulthard therefore believes that Red Bull's competition should not complain and use this coming season to catch up considerably with the Austrian formation. Whether this will be enough to compete with Max Verstappen all year, however, remains to be seen.