Why David Coulthard believes F1’s April break is a lifeline for Aston Martin and Cadillac

March 27, 2026

David Coulthard has claimed that the April break formed by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix will give some of the struggling Formula 1 teams the “chance to breathe”.

Now that the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix are no longer going ahead in April, there will be a five-week break between the Japanese and Miami Grands Prix.

“If we look at those that have been struggling in Formula 1, particularly Aston Martin, for instance, Williams with a car that’s a bit overweight and Cadillac as a newbie coming, this actually will give them a chance to breathe, understand how the operations of their grand prix have worked in the first couple of races,” Coulthard explained during the Up To Speed podcast.

“We’ll have Japan next as well, and then I think it will be a shot in the arm for those teams.”

The former Red Bull driver branded the all-female support series F1 Academy and the fans as the “losers” from the cancelled races.

“The losers clearly are, as you say, F1 Academy, the fans, the supporters as a whole,” he added. “But we understand the reasons, but for those that will gain, hopefully it will mean we have a much stronger field as a whole when we regroup again in Miami.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images

Co-host Naomi Schiff added: “It’s time for the drivers to head back to base. The teams as well. As we said, it’s been quite a lot of back-to-back events with testing and then Australia, China, Japan.

“I think this will be an opportunity for the teams to get back and download all the learnings they’ve had. Of course, the teams are not just those who are on site, but there’s obviously a big number, the majority of the team members who are always back at base, constantly working with telemetry, etc.

“But I think it’ll be nice for them to have this opportunity to have five weeks to fully understand, and those few teams like the McLarens, even the Red Bulls, who are on the back foot, may take this as a real opportunity to close that gap a little bit.”