F1 veteran fighting for final drive preferred test role to joining unfancied team

David Coulthard has revealed he had so little faith in Jaguar’s Formula 1 programme that he would have preferred a testing role at another team rather than driving for the Ford-owned outfit in 2005.

Coulthard was considering his options to continue his racing career into 2005, having been told that McLaren wouldn’t renew his contract after a bruising ‘04 season.

One of the possibilities on the table was Jaguar, which was seeking a replacement for the Williams-bound Mark Webber.

The British manufacturer had been competing in F1 since 2000, but apart from two podiums achieved by Eddie Irvine, the team’s results had been nothing to write home about.

However, it wasn’t Jaguar’s performance on track that put Coulthard off, but the corporate management structure imposed by Ford that meant the decision-making process was too slow and inefficient for a racing team.

“Martin Brundle and I had a meeting in my office here in Monaco with Mark Gillan, who was head of engineering at the time,” said Coulthard.

“I think Martin had met with Tony Purnell, who was the team principal at that time. I remember having sat in my apartment with Martin and we did on an A4 piece of paper the pros and cons of Jaguar. Cons: [long list], 'get me another piece of A4'. Pros: [I am] still a Formula 1 driver. 

“I just didn't believe in the programme. It's not about singling out two individuals, a team is 100 hundreds of people. The ownership structure in America with Ford [was complicated]. They [the team members] had to communicate, go there, do presentations and come back to the team.”

Ron Dennis factor cited by David Coulthard

Coulthard said it would have been near-impossible to adjust to the way Jaguar operated after almost a decade at McLaren, where team boss Ron Dennis empowered his engineers and made quick-fire decisions.

“I'm used to Ron Dennis going *bam, bam*, 'let's do this' [and] everybody does that. 'That doesn't work, no problem we tried, let's do this',” Coulthard said.

“[Dennis] just made decisions. He trusted his engineers and he wasn't a designer but he was the leader of the team.

“He sorted the funding, he brought the team together, he made decisions and actioned his decisions very quickly. And that way of working was instilled in all of the senior people. They were empowered to make decisions.

“Own it and if it works, ‘well done’. If it doesn't work, explain why you decided that rather than what were the other options. ‘Excellent, we made a decision, we found that didn't work. Let's now think of what another option could be’.

“With Jaguar I didn't feel they were going to be more than just another racing team with which I can be a racing driver, be a Formula 1 driver. 

“So I decided that I wouldn't race for them. I would rather stop, be a test driver somewhere. And to that end, I reached out to Jean Todt, Flavio Briatore, Patrick Head and Frank Williams and spoke to them all about the possibility of being a test driver in 2005 rather than racing to find proof that I still had potential - the overused word - to prove that I was still hungry.”

Ultimately, Jaguar was taken over by Red Bull and ended up driving for the rebranded Milton Keynes-based team in 2005.

However, there was another twist in that story, with Coulthard nearly walking away from the team after just a single installation lap in testing.

It was only an unexpected meeting with Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz that convinced him to sign the contract and race for the team from 2005 until his retirement in 2008.