200 for DC!
This weekend the Circuit de Catalunya will host the Spanish Grand Prix. This will be Grand Prix number 200 for David Coulthard. David Coulthard scored 500 points in his 199 races and took 13 wins and 12 pole positions.
David Coulthard “Two hundred Grands Prix is an achievement in itself, which I’m proud of, because you don’t do that number of races by accident, you do it by maintaining a certain level of performance. I reckon that 500 points from 200 grands prix is not a bad average. Of course, people will always talk about what might have been, but I can feel confident when I walk into the paddock knowing that there are only a few guys on the grid that have, or ever will, come close to achieving what I have.
“The start of my career was pretty difficult as it came about after Roland and Ayrton had died at the San Marino GP in Imola. Williams ran only one car in the following race, Monaco, as a mark of respect for Ayrton and then made me a Grand Prix driver at the Spanish GP in 1994, so my opportunity definitely came with mixed emotions.
“My first win came in my twenty-first GP in Portugal and I remember that the gist of what some of the British media wrote was, ‘at last he wins a race’. Seems they’ve always been impatient! I’m particularly proud of winning Monaco twice and Silverstone a couple of times.
“As for my best performance, that would be Magny Cours 2001. I had to overtake Rubens and Michael and I was stronger than my team-mate all weekend. Mika was a great benchmark for me because he was so fast. I had a real battle to pass Michael which resulted in me giving him ‘that hand signal’ and I’ve still got the photograph of the incident on top of the TV in my motorhome!
“Of my twelve pole positions, I am particularly proud of the one in Monaco in 2001.
“How has the sport changed since I started? I think the young drivers are better prepared for the sport these days. When I turned up for my first race Patrick Head just said ‘good luck’. That was my briefing. When I was a test driver you would turn up at 8.45, still asleep, get in the car, do lots of laps and by 5.30 you were back in the hotel. There were none of these hours of debriefing and studying telemetry that we do today.
“I guess that’s why people say it’s not as much fun as it was ‘in the old days’, but I wouldn’t swap it for anything else. It’s what I love to do and looking at the numbers, I guess it’s what I’m good at!”
DC in numbers:
200 Grands Prix, 13 wins, led 60 races, stood on 60 podiums, set 18 fastest race laps and taken 12 poles. 500 points – fourth in the all time points scorer list and best Brit.
