Motorsport: Smooth new start for Coulthard

Fabian Coultard (inset) has had some good starts since changing to Brad Jones Racing. Photos / Scott Wensley, The Daily Post

One of the three V8 Supercars racers, Fabian Coulthard, has joined yet another race team in his relatively short career. Through no fault of his own, the amiable New Zealander was shown the door at Walkinshaw Racing when Russell Ingall turned up with a bucketload of Super Cheap Auto money.

The sad thing is that it had nothing to do with talent. Coulthard had done nothing wrong, other than not having a bottomless pit of money to cart around and offer the Walkinshaw team.

He could have stayed for the remaining year as an endurance co-driver but the man's a racer and wants to race regularly. With just a couple of weeks left until the start of the 2012 season, Brad Jones Racing, and in particular Lockwood, stepped in and Coulthard signed on the dotted line.

He's now a teammate of Jason Bright at the Holden outfit and is "very happy with the decision".

Despite being in a new team and driving a different car, Coulthard had a better time at the opening round of the 2012 championship than he or the team expected.

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His relationship with BJR goes back many years, and he's looking forward to spending more time at the factory and getting to know the mechanics and engineers. Driven had a chat with Coulthard at the opening round of the V8 series, and he thought things might just pan out.

Driven: Congratulations on getting a fulltime gig in the V8 Supercars. You must be feeling pretty good now?

FC: It's been a whirlwind process, but now I can start thinking about the future. I've got a lot of unfinished business. I want to win races and, teaming up with Brighty, I think we'll make a pretty strong combination and bounce ideas off each other.

Coming from Walkinshaw Racing to BJR, I've been asked to compare the two. Every team does things their own little way, I guess. The way Walkinshaw did things was great and BJR do things very well also.

You seem to have settled into the new team, which is all good, but it does seem just when you seem to be getting settled you end up in another team.

It seems that way and I've been on the move every two years. It would be nice to find a home that I can stay at.

I am pretty happy with the way things have gone so far here at BJR and we're already ahead of schedule. We seem to be gelling well and I'll be starting the Clipsal 500 from somewhere near the front. [Coulthard made the top-10 shootout for the first time in a long while].

We all know you're quick but in the past there have been various factors that thwarted a good finish. It must be nice that it's all going well at opening round of the series in a new team?

I've always said the easiest time to pass cars is in qualifying. The championship is so competitive that you blink an eye during a race and you've gone from fifth to 15th.

Are you hoping this will be the team you can establish yourself, get settled and build on your talent?

The big thing is to try to have continuity. Even over two years with a team you can, and do, build up some continuity. It would be nice to spend some [time] with a team and build up a bond and get those results. We know how competitive the championship is, and you need that bond with the team and engineers so that everyone knows what the driver likes.

I now have a fair amount of experience in V8 Supercars that I hope can speed the learning process up and get the results we all want.
How different is the car you're driving now to last year's model?

It's older. The car is originally a Walkinshaw car but BJR have put their spin on it. It does react differently from what I've had in the past and is probably what I've been looking for in the past. And that's a positive. We're getting a car that's more to my liking but the others have stepped their game up as well. We're where we should be but we can improve.

* Coulthard had one of his better starts to a championship series with a sixth on Saturday and a ninth on Sunday for a pair of top-10 finishes to lie seventh on the table heading to the next round in Tasmania, March 30-April 1.