Fabian Coulthard : Drivers ready for nightmare in Clipsal 500

V8 Supercar Driver Fabian Coulthard. Photo / The Daily Post

Opinion

Racing in Adelaide can give you nightmares. The Clipsal 500 is a great event but it is also probably the toughest race of the year. For a start, the heat is unforgiving - it is always well into the 30s. If you double the outside air temperature, that is how it feels in the cockpit and we will lose four to five litres of fluid each day.

I remember last year seeing some drivers being put on saline IV drips as they tried to recover after the race and knew I wasn't far away from joining them.

Secondly, the format is unforgiving; after pounding through 78 laps and 250km yesterday, we have to back it up with another 250km today. The team is given 16 tyres per car for the weekend and usually there are not many spare.

Finally, the circuit has its own demanding aspects. It has a very busy lap - there are no particularly long straights and so you get no time to rest or relax. Being a street circuit, with high concrete walls, there is also no margin for error; one small mistake and your race is over, as slamming into solid concrete at over 300km/h tends to be pretty unforgiving. It is truly about the survival of the fittest.

It is always interesting being a Kiwi in this series. There is plenty of banter and the usual 'us versus them' mentality but I think generally, with steward inquiries and race decisions and the like, we are treated fairly. I know in rugby league, in particular, there are always accusations of favouritism and bias towards Australian players and teams - but it is not something I have noticed in our sport.

It isn't easy to make it over here as a New Zealander and it always takes a while to win the locals' respect. But we have had plenty of success in the past, which I think makes the path easier now. You have to be super-competitive to get to this level and we all feel privileged that we have been able to turn our hobby into a job.

I have been heartened the last few weeks by the response from all the Aussies about the terrible events in Christchurch, with everyone you run into around the base, pits and tracks passing on their thoughts and best wishes. I hope the gesture this weekend - with all the cars running a tribute to Christchurch in their rear panel windows - helps viewers all around the world to remember Christchurch.

Walkinshaw Racing has a staff of 125 people at our base in Melbourne and this weekend we have a team of 45 looking after our three cars. As a driver, it seems like quite a responsibility and you don't want to let anyone down.

It is an iconic team; they have shown faith in me and now it is up to me to deliver. Round One in Abu Dhabi was promising, though we gambled on our fuel strategy and got it wrong by one lap - but our eventual seventh place finish was a positive start to 2011.

Last year in Adelaide I finished seventh on the Saturday before slumping to 17th on the Sunday so I knew where I needed to improve.