David Coulthard had the worst possible race in Australia, where his McLaren's gearbox let him down, repeatedly throwing him over the grass and eventually seeing him retire from the race. To a large extent, this was a continuation of McLaren's 2001 reliability woes and certainly not what Coulthard deserves. Graham Holliday analyses Coulthard's current status in the team, and within the fight for yet another World Championship title

"It's difficult to find a positive on a day like today," David Coulthard said after being ignominiously dumped out of the season opening Australian Grand Prix by a faulty gearbox. Difficult to find positives for Coulthard, difficult to garner an awful lot of pointers for the season ahead. Ferrari are strong, no doubt; Michelin need to do better, yes; the leaping cats at Jaguar leapt back while Renault moved ahead, yes. Coulthard's luck improves, no.

"I am very frustrated because I recognise the importance of getting points early on in the season," said the Scot. "You see only (eight) cars finished, I think, and that's the time when you should be out there finishing as well." How right he is. His McLaren team cannot afford to have one of the best drivers on the grid and their prime hope for the World Drivers' Championship going round in circles with machinery that can't make the distance.

2001 was a nightmare for the McLaren team. Software glitches became a running joke; chief designer Adrian Newey was off to join Jaguar one day and back at McLaren the next; Mika Hakkinen very visibly lost interest in racing; and Coulthard, in the best form of his life, was severely let down by his team. Ron Dennis resolved to right things come Australia 2002 with the aim of bringing to the fore reliability after the shambolic display of 2001. Albert Park two weeks ago must have seemed all too familiar to David Coulthard.

Coulthard's teammate by comparison showed well. "It goes without saying that I'm happy with my first ever Formula One podium finish," said Kimi Raikkonen on finishing third in his first race for McLaren. In a race where the ability to dodge bits of car debris at the first corner put drivers in with a very strong chance of a points finish, it was actually Raikkonen who came off the worst of the two Mclarens, as he needed a replacement nose cone and a bit of car debris removed from under his seat. Coulthard, meanwhile, sailed past the mayhem and looked to be on course for a dominant race win before his car began coughing through the gears, repeatedly throwing him over the grass and eventually jamming in sixth and seventh gears.

Simply put, Coulthard cannot under any circumstances endure another season like 2001 if he is to be in with a shout for the Championship with McLaren. Even though he outqualified his new teammate by 0.715 of a second, if his car breaks and Raikkonen's doesn't, it won't be qualifying statistics that team owners and fans alike will remember in the future. If McLaren can't even give him the car to get home in, it'll be the car that will force his departure come Suzuka, not his ability. Coupled with this, it is unlikely that a young gun like Raikkonen will repeat his fellow Finn Hakkinen's dismal display in 2001. For Coulthard to really impress, he'll need to outpace his younger teammate in every department.

There was yet more fuel added to the fire for Coulthard with a few other interesting sideshows in Australia. The off season saw the development of a much touted rivalry between Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, and Albert Park didn't disappoint on that score. Exciting overtaking manoeuvres between the two were only rivalled by Mika Salo's late battle with Mark Webber in the Minardi in terms of spectator thrills. What was noticeable after the race was the warming relationship between Montoya and Schumacher senior.

At times last season, Montoya's youthful exuberance and inexperience rubbed the elder German up the wrong way. However, in Australia the seeds of a growing respect were sown. The pre-season promise looks set to be rewarded with some dynamic racing between the pair in 2002. With Montoya's rapid maturity it seems likely that should the Williams be more reliable than the McLaren, it is the Colombian who poses the major threat to the dominance of Ferrari. Coulthard has never had that kind of a relationship with Formula One's undisputed master and if McLaren don't raise their game he may never get the chance to experience it.

"We know exactly what we expect of both drivers," Ron Dennis said of Raikkonen and Coulthard as testing resumed at the beginning of the year. "We do anticipate maybe a little bit more damage on (Raikkonen's) car because we expect him to drive very hard. I think that's the price you pay, and that we are prepared to pay, to have the potential in the team that he represents."

Dennis is clearly willing to invest a lot in Raikkonen, probably more so than he is with Coulthard. He knows the Finn has time on his side. Coulthard does not have that luxury anymore. And with the Scotsman's appalling run of luck, it might yet be that Raikkonen is perceived to get the better of him when Coulthard's chips are down. However, there is hope on the horizon for Coulthard and McLaren.

Firstly, Coulthard's form before those uncontrollable 'offs' was right on the pace, and it was clear Coulthard has lost none of the grit he showed through 2001. If reliability can accompany him for the rest of the season, Raikkonen may be asked to pull his socks up to try and match the Scot sooner rather than later.

Then there's the tyre issue. As Coulthard quite rightly said in Australia, "This is a tyre war we are in." Michelin have promised to bring new rubber to the Sepang circuit in Malaysia this weekend, after being comprehensively outclassed by the only Bridgestone runner left after the chaotic first corner incident, the team in Scarlet. The new compounds and constructions could close the grid up more so than in Melbourne. "I think we will be more competitive in Malaysia," Coulthard went on to say. "It is going to be hotter and hopefully that should suit us, but we will have to wait and see." And if the intermittent monsoon-like conditions of Malaysia 2001 are repeated, driver cool could mean more than tyre selection, and Coulthard is nothing if not cool these days.

Montoya's form could well rattle teammate Ralf Schumacher as the season progresses, but the Colombian is sure to show his inexperience in Formula One more than once as the show goes on. It is unlikely that Coulthard will make the same mistake. Lastly, Ferrari have yet to deploy their new car. While the revamped old F2001 car looks more than a match for the rest of the field, the new car will eventually have to see the light of day. Test drivers Luciano Burti and Luca Badoer are no doubt pounding the F2002 round the tight turns of Fiorano and Mugello, but McLaren and Williams now know that their cars can make the distance (gearboxes withstanding). However, who's to say the new Ferrari will be as 'bulletproof' as the 2001 car? Only time will tell.

"The Championship is a long way," Coulthard said, as he left the Albert Park circuit. True enough, it's a long season. A season which promises more than the usual dose of intrigue, rivalry and competition. Will Bridgestone be up to scratch in the heat and humidity of Sepang? Will Renault continue their climb up the grid? Can McLaren nip unreliability in the bud and stop the rot for good this year? And will David Coulthard's run of bad luck finally come to an end? The Australian Grand Prix left commentators and spectators alike with a host of questions left unanswered. All being well, the events of the coming weekend will go some way in giving us all a much clearer picture of who's hot and who's not.