Coulthard: Next Year Is My Year
David Coulthard has set his sights on the 1999 world championship crown - and expects his team-mate to help him win it.
Coulthard, often required to play back-up to team-mate Mika Hakkinen this year, believes that the investment he has made in both the Finn and their McLaren team should be paid back next season. Hakkinen's first words to the Scot after clinching the 1998 title were to tell him that 1999 would be his turn, leaving Coulthard to wait for a similar commitment from McLaren.
David Coulthard has set his sights on the 1999 world championship crown - and expects his team-mate to help him win it.
Coulthard, often required to play back-up to team-mate Mika Hakkinen this year, believes that the investment he has made in both the Finn and their McLaren team should be paid back next season. Hakkinen's first words to the Scot after clinching the 1998 title were to tell him that 1999 would be his turn, leaving Coulthard to wait for a similar commitment from McLaren.
(Mika has had every opportunity, and not just with the car,) Coulthard claimed in an interview with London's Evening Standard newspaper, (The support from the team and the team principal gave him the best crack at the championship, and he made the most of it and won the championship. I'm just asking for the same opportunity.)
(I have invested in Mika and I have invested in the team, beyond what would be a normal contractual situation,) he continued, (Next year I will find out if that investment is going to be returned. If it isn't, then that would probably be the downslope of the relationship [between me and the team].)
