Coulthard: It will take time for Zak and Gil to turn it around

Coulthard, now a pundit, was drafted by Williams to take over the entry of Ayrton Senna who was killed during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. The Scot spent 1994 and 1995 with the Grove outfit before being signed by McLaren where he stayed nine years.

At the time McLaren had overcome a dip in fortunes, but with Mercedes power, they were on track to being mighty once again.

In 1998, with Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen in the team, McLaren won the constructors title and the Finn winning his first of two back-to-back titles. These days McLaren can only dream of such a scenario.

Ron Dennis is no longer at the helm, instead ace marketing man Zak Brown runs the Formula 1 team with Gil de Ferran his lieutenant after Eric Boullier was given the boot earlier this year.

Coulthard was asked in an interview with MN to give his thoughts on his former team, "It is confusing that they are going through such a difficult time."

"It always comes down to people: the people with the power to design and build the car, have either not had the resources at their disposal, or they’ve misused those resources, and therefore they are accountable."

“Ron Dennis used to say to me: I don’t design the car, I don’t build the car and I don’t drive the car, so all of those elements are not my responsibility. Which is a fair comment."

"His responsibility was the vision for the company, getting sponsors on board, giving the engineers the resources they need to come up with a good car. I think Zak and Gil, someone with a great racing mind, they will turn it around. But it will take time," predicted the Scot, a 13 times grand prix winner.

Which brings us to a cryptic but perhaps prophetic F1 nursery rhyme:

Zak and Gil went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water [tough times at Woking]
Zak fell down [ate too many breakfasts]
And broke his crown [out of action]
And Gil came tumbling after [tripped on Eric's welcome mat]
Up Gil got
And home did trot [Zak recovering?]
As fast as he could caper
And went to bed [who is running things at Woking???]
And plastered his head
With vinegar and brown paper [like replacing Honda with Renault and going backwards]
When Gil came in how he did grin [why would he grin?]
To see Zak's paper plaster
Mother [Ron Dennis?] vexed
Did whip Gil next
For causing Zak's disaster