“The second start, Max didn’t do a good start. And he just threw the car like, if I crash, I crash. So I think maybe he’s passing a little but the limit. But that’s the way he is.
“The only thing is that I didn’t see him making any mistakes this season until qualifying in Jeddah. I’m not talking about the fight with Lewis, I’m just saying normal mistakes. I don’t know if he’s feeling a bit the pressure or not.”
“I think that Max and Lewis both have to do everything they can, and then see what the stewards decide,” says Coulthard. “Running it into Turn 1 and going wide, for me the fact that Lewis was beyond the white lines as well, then the stewards have to decide, was he forced wide, and therefore a penalty is applied? Or did he just go wide in trying to defend the place?
“Because let’s be honest, if that’s the case, you could when someone’s trying to overtake you, and you see they’re going wide, you could just drive off the circuit, and say you were driven off the circuit.
“Clearly when Max slowed down to let Lewis past, Lewis was confused, he hadn’t been given the information. And he almost followed him like a heat-seeking missile to the point he realised that he was slowing down even more. So in that case, it’s a question of a miscommunication.”
A collision of miscommunication, says Coulthard
Lars Baron/Getty Images
Coulthard thinks that there should perhaps be a tweak to the FIA comms system.
“A call went to Red Bull to tell them to give the place back,” says the Scot. “But then that information never got to [Mercedes sporting director] Ron Meadows quickly enough. And we had Michael Masi saying, ‘No, I told you.’ It’s quite remarkable that we’ve got that insight on TV.
“Clearly in that situation, the communication by radio doesn’t work. So what I would say is, for all the drivers if it’s a red flag, yellow flag, blue flag, the race director pushes a button.
