David Coulthard
With great parental encouragement, an avid Coulthard was driving karts by the age of eight and was such a natural that it was inevitable that he would go racing seriously. His breakthrough came in 1989, with his move into Junior Formula Ford 1600 as he dominated both championships, before joining Paul Stewart Racing in 1990 to contest the British Vauxhall Lotus Challenge and GM Lotus Euroseries. He could possibly have won the former, but a broken leg sustained in an accident at Spa stymied the young Scot's chances, and he ended up a somewhat disappointed fourth overall.
Staying with PSR in 1991, Coulthard moved up to Formula Three, and waged a season-long battle with Rubens Barrichello. Despite winning five rounds – one more than the Brazilian – he had to be content with the runner-up spot. There was, however, the satisfaction of winning the prestigious European Marlboro Masters of F3 race at Zandvoort and he followed this up with a stunning drive to win the end-of-season race at Macau - proof indeed that David was truly a Formula 1 star in the making.
Perhaps expectations were too high as he took the step up to F3000 for 1992 and for a while the Scot struggled to find his feet, but by the end of the year he was on the podium and looking a good bet for honours in 1993 with a switch to the Pacific team. A first win was duly delivered at Enna, but his season tailed off somewhat thereafter. By this time however, David had had a number of outings as a test driver for the Williams-Renault team and he quickly impressed with his positive feedback. He was appointed the team's official test driver for 1994 and was contemplating a third year in F3000 at the season-opener at Silverstone when the dreadful news of Senna's death came from Imola. David overcame his shock to take second place in that race before stepping into the Grand Prix arena and, in the inevitable turmoil that followed, displayed remarkable maturity for one so inexperienced.
Relaxed and easy off track, he showed tremendous poise behind the wheel. Always aware of the need for him to back Damon Hill's title bid, David was the perfect team-mate and, given his performances, must have been disappointed to have to surrender his seat to Nigel Mansell for the last three races of the year. The uncertainty regarding his immediate future was clearly unsettling for Coulthard, who hedged his bets and signed a contract with McLaren for 1995. In the event a tribunal confirmed that he would remain at Williams, but his early-season form was decidedly patchy. He was constantly troubled by tonsillitis and it was only after surgery that his real ability became apparent. David would have won the British Grand Prix but for a stop-go penalty incurred through no fault of his own, but his dream of a Grand Prix win was finally realised with a truly dominant performance at Estoril. On the debit side, though, he tended to make a number of elementary mistakes that cost him dear, culminating in the embarrassment of sliding into the wall on the pit lane entry in Adelaide.
David was free to move to McLaren for 1996, but all his innate self-assurance was needed during a difficult first full season with the team. Uncomfortable with the handling of the car, he was often a tad slower than team mate Mika Häkkinen and, apart from being unlucky not to win in Monaco, generally delivered less than he promised. The 1997 season began in the best possible fashion with a win in Australia which signified that McLaren were back after three lean years, and it was generally a much more convincing campaign for the Scot, who was evenly matched with Häkkinen and, having scored another victory at Monza, stepped aside to allow his team-mate to win the season's finale at Jerez.
He did the same in the 1998 Australian Grand Prix after a pre-race agreement and, in some ways it proved to be his undoing. Häkkinen upped his game as the season progressed to mount his successful championship bid and David was left to play the subordinate role in the team. This pattern was to continue in 1999, with the oft-unfortunate Coulthard too rarely making the absolute most of his equipment. On his day he had the legs of everybody, and no one could catch him at Spa, Magny Cours or Sepang, but only the first of these races brought him the win he deserved.
Given the solid working relationship between its two drivers, McLaren again kept both Coulthard and Hakkinen for 2000. As previously, the Scot harboured hopes that this would be his year, and vowed to devote even more of his time in pursuit of the title, but was ultimately beaten by team-mate Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher, following a run of relatively poor finishes late in the year. The 2001 campaign brought forth much the same optimistic claims from the Coulthard camp, and the Scot, charged with much of the pre-season testing of the new MP4-16, remained confident that he could take the championship fight to Schumacher and Ferrari. Again, he got the better of team-mate Hakkinen in the early exchanges, finishing second to the world champion in Australia and then beating - and passing - him in a straight fight to win round three in Brazil.
Another win in Austria appeared to set Coulthard up for a shot at the title, before Monaco summed all that was wrong with his – and McLaren's – season. Having seen off both Schumacher and Häkkinen in a tense battle for pole in the Principality, the Scot was left thumping his steering wheel in frustration when his car encountered problems on the grid. Starting at the very back, he then caused uproar by claiming that unlapped backmarker Enrique Bernoldi should have moved over for him. Out of the top two until Belgium thereafter – while Schumacher took four wins – Coulthard's second spot came under threat from Barrichello, before the Scot finally consolidated his best ever finish in the title race.
Paired with a new team -mate for 2002 – in the shape of Finnish sensation Kimi Räikkönen – Coulthard was eager to take the challenge to Ferrari. It was not to be, though, and DC was forced initially to battle with the Renaults rather than Ferrari and Williams, before the team recovered by the season's end. Coulthard scored 41 points during the year, and despite feeling the pressure from his younger team-mate in qualifying, maintained the upper hand in the races – his best moment coming at the Monaco GP, when he took McLaren’s sole victory of 2002.
Coulthard remained at McLaren in 2003, but it was a bitterly disappointing season that, after starting on a high with victory, in Australia, saw him struggling with the new single-lap qualifying. All in all, DC would notch up 51 points – 40 less than his team-mate – and finish seventh in the drivers' championship. His best results post-Australia were a second in Germany and third in Japan, and what made it all the worse was that Räikkönen was battling for the championship.
DC's ninth and final season with McLaren, following the team's decision to replace him with Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005, wasn't particularly rosy either. The Scot was again outscored, and generally outperformed, by Räikkönen, ending the season with 21 points less than the Finn. The early part of the year was soured by the unreliable MP4-19, but DC failed to get as much from it as the Finn, a situation that continued with the reworked MP4-19B. Coulthard scored 24 points in total to end the year joint ninth in the drivers' standings. There were no wins and, worse still, no podiums.
Although DC's future at the highest level looked uncertain, he eventually secured a drive with new team Red Bull Racing to remain on the grid in 2005. Having signed a one-year deal, Coulthard made a storming debut in Melbourne to take fourth place. And his subsequent feisty performances in one of the less fancied machines garnered another five finishes in the points by mid-season. In doing so, he also become Britain's highest ever World Championship scorer eventually finishing the year on 499 points.
Coulthard’s efforts were rewarded with a new contract for an additional year and with Red Bull signing deal to run Ferrari engines things looked quite positive. However apart from a superb third place at his home circuit of Monaco, the car and engine package underperformed, leaving DC marking time and looking towards 2007 when an Adrian Newey designed car mated to a Renault engine came on-stream.
Perhaps more pertinent, was the signing of Mark Webber to partner DC at Red Bull. The relative performances of this experienced driver pairing were closely scrutinized during the 2007 season. Their cars generally failed to deliver on their promise, being oft beset by niggling problems, but the Scot emerged with a slightly bigger points haul in an inconclusive season all-round. With no thoughts of retirement at present, David looks to extend his illustrious career, with the aim of helping Red Bull to continue to become serious race-winning Grand Prix contenders.
