DECEMBER 11, 1995

...and goes spectating in Spain

DAVID COULTHARD had his first runs for McLaren in Spain last week, running in a McLaren without Marlboro branding because he is still bound by a promotional contract with Rothmans until the end of the year.

DAVID COULTHARD had his first runs for McLaren in Spain last week, running in a McLaren without Marlboro branding because he is still bound by a promotional contract with Rothmans until the end of the year.

The session was largely for engine development work, and to allow Coulthard to get accustomed to the team and to find a good seating position. Alain Prost was at Jerez in his new technical role at McLaren, while David was being engineered by Steve Hallam - Mark Blundell's race engineer this year. Coulthard is, however, expected to work with fellow Williams refugee David Brown when he joins the team in the New Year.

Coulthard was suitably complimentary about the McLaren-Mercedes, saying he had been pleasantly surprised as to how well it handled.

The team now moves on to Barcelona for another week of testing, while a smaller secondary test team heads to Goodyear's test facility in Luxembourg to do some contact patch work for the U.S. tire company. This is somewhat ironic given that McLaren is the team which has been mentioned most in connection with a Michelin return to F1.