David Coulthard insists he will hang up his Formula 1 helmet at the end of his 15th season in the top flight in Brazil this year with absolutely no regrets – admitting that whilst he has in the past had world championship-challenging cars at his disposal, he 'never quite delivered the ultimate result'.

The popular Scot has achieved 13 grand prix victories, 62 rostrum finishes and a staggering 533 points over the course of his 236 starts in the uppermost echelon, making him the most successful British driver of all time in terms of points scored, and fourth on the overall list.

Those statistics place him behind only multiple world champions Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna – men with 14 titles between them to their names, the one height Coulthard never quite managed to scale, coming closest in 2001 when he finished a distant runner-up to Schumacher in the final standings.

“I've had a long career and many good opportunities,” the 37-year-old told the Daily Telegraph. “I'll come out of this knowing I had world championship-winning cars.

“I'm not going to think, 'Damn, I never had that chance'. I did get that chance, but I never quite delivered the ultimate result'.”

As to his chances in what will be his last British Grand Prix this weekend – a race in which he pulled off back-to-back triumphs for McLaren-Mercedes in 1999 and 2000 – Coulthard admitted he had been frustrated to have missed the top ten shoot-out in qualifying at Silverstone by barely six hundredths of a second, but is nevertheless hopeful of producing a strong performance in what looks likely to be a heavily rain-affected race.

“It's disappointing to finish eleventh,” the Red Bull Racing star reflected. “If we'd done some more running in the morning, I think we'd have been in better shape, but we had a problem with an engine oil leak and so were using Q1 to get up-to-speed in the dry.

“Changing conditions are always a big factor around this track. On other tracks, a loss of running time wouldn't really be an issue, but this one is very open to the wind, so every day is different.

“The reality is that we had the pace to be in the top ten – we just didn't deliver it on the lap that counted. Looking to the positives, we're just outside the top ten so are able to fuel the car as we want, and the changing conditions may be a factor [in the race].”

“David was compromised by missing FP3 and not getting a run in the dry,” added the Milton Keynes-based outfit's team principal Christian Horner, “but he starts eleventh, which means we can pick his strategy.”