Zoom Coulthard willing to hold the water – or is that Red Bull – bottles? A missed chance there David!

Jenson Button, David Coulthard and Lewis Hamilton take questions from the media ahead of the British Grand Prix weekend. It's a big weekend for Coulthard following his announcement he is to retire as the three Brits chew the fat at Silverstone...

Q: (Ian Stafford – The Mail on Sunday) The first question is: is this going to happen or not, guys? Come on! Yes or no?
LH: Well, me, I’m a competitor, so I’m for one to say yes, but I’ve got people behind me who may…

JB: What if I say £10,000 to the charity of your choice if you beat me? What do you think?

LH: Are you trying to steer me off this championship or what?

JB: It’s the only thing I can be competitive in at the moment. Think about it.

LH: Yeah, I will.

Q: (Tomas Richtr – TV Nova) Maybe a different kind of question: we are almost at the middle of the season, at the end of this race, yet we don’t know who will be the championship leader. Can we think that this year it is a much closer and better championship than it was last year? For all of you.
DC: I think he was asking if it is a better championship than last year. It’s certainly closer, I think, than last year, so I think that answers the question. There’s a lot more going on, it seems to be a lot more open which is good for the sport, good for all of you and good for the fans. I think it’s an exciting season so far.

LH: He’s just answered it really. It is a lot closer this year and it’s great to see that there are a lot more teams competing for the title, as compared to last year especially and it’s great for the fans, it’s great for us, it makes it tougher for everyone thus competing, but that’s what it’s all about.

JB: I don’t think there’s anything left to say. It’s been a very competitive start to the year which is great to see, and it’s also nice to see another team challenging for victory, obviously in Canada, so it’s good to have three teams fighting it out.

Q: (James Allen – ITV) David, there’s two ways of retiring, as far as I can see. There’s the one where the fire goes out and you don’t ever want to drive a car again and there’s the other one where there’s always that kind of lingering feeling that you wish you could jump in a car, like Nigel (Mansell) for example. Which camp do you think you’re in and might you do, as part of this Red Bull thing, might you do a sort of Michael Schumacher-type jump in the car from time to time and get a baseline and work on it like he does?