Drivers: Jenson Button (Honda),
David Coulthard (Red Bull) and
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes).
Press conference.
Q:
David, give us the background to your decision to retire?
David Coulthard:
There is not one morning you wake up if you are looking for a date, but I have had a growing feeling that this year is the right time to make it my last year in
F1. I am enjoying very much the challenge and the racing even though I had a few incidents at the beginning of the year. The thought process was there before then. I am still competitive with the machinery I have got. After 15 years I am clearly not going to battle for a World Championship and am unlikely to win another grand prix unless something remarkable happens this year. I feel fulfilled in the role I have played at
Red Bull. I took that job a few years and I have helped the team grow and I have seen the team move forward and be taken seriously I believe in the paddock, not that they weren't taken seriously before. But people didn't know what to expect from Red Bull. I just think it is a good time. I will be 38 next year and nothing lasts forever. I have enjoyed my racing and now is the right time.
Q:
Has it been a difficult decision to make?
DC:
Not really, no. I have always had a fairly realistic view on the career of a sportsman, how long it may last and the opportunities that are there for you. I feel fulfilled in the opportunities I have had. I won't be looking back thinking if only, if only I had had a World Championship winning car. I did have a world championship winning car, I just didn't win it. But I won a number of grands prix and had a lot of fun along the way. As I just explained the journey I started with Red Bull will continue but not as a grand prix driver and that is something which I am entirely comfortable with and I am looking forward to the remaining races.
Q:
Do you think it will be difficult to keep up the motivation for the remaining races?
DC:
No. If I thought that I would be saying today that I would be stepping to one side. That is the other good thing about making the decision in that I have the motivation. I am enjoying the racing. I would hate to find myself in a situation where I wake up and think I do not want to go racing today. I am contracted to the season. I have seen it happen to other people I have been close to the sport who have been in that situation. It may be something that never happens, but I just don't want to find myself in that situation. After 15 seasons I think that's enough. The sport is in good hands with the other younger British drivers, so October in Brazil that will be it.
Q:
And do you have any plans or are you open to offers apart from Red Bull?
DC:
I will have a test development, consultant role with Red Bull Racing which will enable me to have an interest in F1 and the paddock. I will look at the other opportunities that might be there when the time is appropriate. For nice, emotional reasons I wanted to wait until
Silverstone to make the announcement and now that it's out, I can just get on with the racing. I hope we have a good weekend and that Red Bull can score some points. Maybe there can be a British winner and maybe we can all go home and think that was a good weekend for the sport.
