David Coulthard

Interesting facts

Coulthard got his break as Williams' test driver after Ayrton Senna was killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix: Frank Williams called him in for four days of testing at Jerez, and he made his race debut in Spain. He took his maiden win at Portugal in 1995 from pole - but when he tried to sign with McLaren mid-season, Williams exercised a contract option and F1's Contract Recognition Board forced him to stay. At McLaren (1996-2004), alongside Mika Häkkinen, he took 11 of his 13 career wins; at the 1998 Australian Grand Prix, under a pre-race team agreement, he sportingly let Häkkinen through after the Finn led into the first corner as agreed. At the rainy 1998 Belgian Grand Prix he collided with the lapped Schumacher, sparking an angry pit-lane confrontation - he admitted five years later that the crash had been his own mistake. In 2000 he survived a private jet crash near Lyon in which the pilots were killed, while he, his fiancee, and his bodyguard all survived. At Red Bull (2005-2008) he delivered the team's first podium at Monaco in 2006; he retired after 15 seasons with 13 wins and 62 podiums, no title, and became a respected BBC and Channel 4 commentator. David Coulthard raced in Formula 1 from 1994 to 2008, across 15 seasons as a British driver. He scored a total of 535 championship points over his career. His best season was 2001, when he finished 2nd in the championship with 65 points.