Melbourne, Feb 24: David Coulthard is likely to be embarking on his last season with the Mercedes-powered team after they signed Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya from Williams for 2005. Coulthard is Britain's top driver, with 13 race wins, and starts his ninth season with McLaren on March 7. The Scot struggled in the new single lap qualifying last season, despite winning the opening race in Australia, and finished the year seventh overall. Although there have been problems in testing, McLaren team boss Ron Dennis said he is comfortable with their progress. "The 2004 season is shaping up quite well I think we've done quite a bit of testing - not without problems but that's what testing's for. Most of the time we've been pretty competitive but of course you don't know how strong the opposition is at this stage, but let's say it's just going in the right direction and we are quietly comfortable with our progress, and I quite deliberately don't use 'confident' or 'optimistic' because this is Formula One and all you can do is your best and I think it's going well," said Dennis.

Bureau Report