Paired with a new team-mate for 2002 - in the shape of Finnish sensation
Kimi Raikkonen - Coulthard was eager to take the challenge to
Ferrari. It was not to be though and DC was forced initially to battle with the
Renault's, rather than Ferrari and
Williams, before the team recovered by the season 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 his (and the team's) sole victory of 2002.
Coulthard remained at McLaren in 2003 however it was a bitterly disappointing season, which although started on a high with a win in Australia, witnessed 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 result post-Australia, a second in Germany and a third in Japan. What made it all the worse, was that his team-mate, Raikkonen was battling for the championship, and all this in just his third year in
F1.
DC's ninth and final season with
McLaren, following their decision to replace him with
Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005, wasn't particularly rosy either.
The Scot was again outscored and generally outperformed by Raikkonen, ending the season with 21 points less than the Finn. Granted in the early part of the year the MP4-19 wasn't very good, however even then he failed to get as much from it as Kimi, a situation that continued with the MP4-19B. Coulthard scored 24 points in total, to end the year, joint ninth in the drivers' standings. There was no wins though, and worse still, no podiums. His best result a fourth place finish at the German GP, hardly anything to boast about.
