Drivers face great leap into the unknown Motor Sport Formula One

FORMULA ONE: For most Formula One drivers this morning's free practice sessions are a great leap into the unknown. The chance to see where their new cars are really at in comparison to their rivals, a chance to start imaging this season might bring untold rewards.

For most drivers. For David Coulthard, the future is mapped before he even turns a wheel in anger this year.

Coulthard enters this season in the unenviable position of knowing that come the final race of the 2004 season he will be on his way out of McLaren, the team that has been his home for nine seasons. As Juan Pablo Montoya counts down his days at Williams until he can become the second half of the most potent driver pairing on the grid - his team-mate being last year's championship runner-up Kimi Raikkonen - Coulthard is counting the days until he has to walk out the door.

It is an invidious position in which to start a championship, a motivation-sapping hammer blow that could leave the 32-year-old floundering.

But the Scot is determined not to venture down that road, but says he will make the most of his final year at Mercedes-powered McLaren by using the team as a shop window in which he can showcase his skills to other teams.

"I will give 100 per cent to McLaren this year to try to win races so that I can be on the grid in 2005 in the best possible seat available," he insisted. "There's no reason for me to throw my dummy out because this is a chance to seek pastures new.

"It's not as if I caught the missus cheating on me. I'm not married to McLaren and inevitably after nine years there will be a natural point to move on."

The question is: where to? Coulthard's top-line options appear few and far between. Nine seasons with McLaren have brought a best championship placing of second, in 2001.

Any gloss on that result though, would quickly be dulled by the knowledge it was achieved against a flagging Mika Hakkinen, a team-mate on the verge of retirement and against a champion, Michael Schumacher, who finished the year a country mile ahead of the Scot in the points standings.

And that has been Coulthard's problem; an inability to see off his team-mates. He was soundly beaten by Damon Hill in two years at Williams and regularly by Hakkinen in seven years at McLaren. While the Scot has been a most loyal and publicly useful servant for McLaren he has never beaten a team-mate and despite 13 grands prix wins, is regarded as anything but championship material.

Coulthard though begs to differ and has already identified his targets for next season.

"Toyota are a team that needs a winning driver and there's no question they are moving forward," said Coulthard. "I would also love to drive for Williams."

A return to Williams though looks a faint hope. The BMW-powered team needs someone to replace Montoya, but rumours are already insisting their main target is old boy Jenson Button, who raced for the team in 2000. But Ralf Schumacher's drive at Williams could also yet become available, as the German's rancorous contract negotiations with Frank Williams have stalled, except for the occasional salvo of vitriol being flung back and forth between the two via websites.

And if Schumacher does exit Williams his likely destination is Toyota, the team Coulthard really should be targeting.

But while the Japanese company may have once been a team in desperate need of an experience F1 driver to tell them how to launch themselves into the F1 fray, the team is now entering its third season in the sport and naivete and helplessness are no longer qualities on display at Toyota. As 37-year-old Olivier Panis heads towards the close of his contract at Toyota this year, the team can surely think about dispensing with the advice of veterans and instead can hire youthful hunger it can mould and teach. But even if Coulthard's targets look distant and unclear, there is no doubt he needs to finally prove he has what it takes.

And it will surely be hard for Coulthard to spend the eight month's of his slide toward the door at McLaren watching his young team-mate be relentlessly promoted as the sport's great white hope.

Kimi Raikkonen will climb into his McLaren MP4/19 this morning as the driver most heavily tipped to unseat Michael Schumacher.

Last year's runner-up, a feat he achieved despite being handicapped by a somewhat uncompetitive McLaren, Raikkonen is better-armed this year with an all new McLaren. And he is relishing the chance.

"There's only one way to go," said the Finn yesterday, "and that is to win the championship. That is the aim, just one aim. But it depends on the package and a bit of luck as well."

He might need that luck too. Rumours persist the McLaren's Mercedes engine lacks power against its rivals and the team has also been hit by reliability problems in winter testing which have caused concern.

"It's difficult to say after testing where we really are," he added. "But I guess we'll see this weekend." Like all of the 20 who'll line up on Sunday. While Coulthard's leaving of McLaren is written in stone, he still has the opportunity to prove the doubters wrong. For Raikkonen there are the twin mysteries of just how competitive he can be in the new McLaren and whether the tipsters have got it right. Throughout the paddock it is the same. Who has the right stuff, who has not. Today, the speculation begins to slow. By Sunday some things will be just a little clearer.