McLaren driver David Coulthard has dismissed claims that Formula One was turned into a farce after Ferrari’s race fixing in Austria.
But the Scotsman said it was worrying that the attending crowd responded so negatively to the display.
‘I don't think what happened makes a mockery of the sport because that is its contractual business,’ said the 31-year-old, who was part of McLaren’s controversial finish in Melbourne 1998 when he let team-mate Mika Hakkinen through to win at the end of the race.
‘The fundamental question though is: “is this good for the sport?”.
‘Clearly by the crowd's reaction they made their opinion on that quite strongly. We are a public sport and without the support of the public then the sport will suddenly start going downhill.
‘You have got to take more pleasure out of winning a race straight. I have not had the success Michael (Schumacher) has had, but the wins I have had to work for have been the most pleasurable.
‘That's what we are here for. We want to have the battle, the struggle. We don't just want to turn up and someone give you the ten points. After a while it would just be boring.’
The 1998 result between Hakkinen and Coulthard caused ructions in the sport but not to the level of yesterday’s events. Coulthard however said he was honouring an agreement then and said Barrichello yesterday was doing the same.
‘I didn't get out and say I wasn't happy,’ he recalled. ‘I got out and explained what had happened.
‘Of course I wasn't happy, but that is the contract I had. Rubens is a grown man who signs a contract that obviously puts him in that situation and you can't argue with that.
‘Maybe the teams should have to declare their contracts to the public because I know people bet on Formula One. But the public has to understand the politics of the sport; there is a range of issues, but they have been there since Fangio's day.
‘Then someone would stop and get out of the car, and give Fangio his car to go and race. Nothing has fundamentally changed, but F1 has such a higher profile now.’
