David Coulthard made it very clear last season at Jerez that he was very unhappy with the team orders to let Mika Hakkinen win. He again stated this before the Australian race. He told Total Sport: "I was not happy about the last race in Jerez. I think you should win the race on the track and not manufacture the situation."

This seems to make the race fix, last Sunday, because of a pre-race deal, strange.