David Coulthard MBE | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Coulthard in 2022 | |||||||||||
Born | Twynholm, Scotland | 27 March 1971||||||||||
Spouse | Karen Minier | ||||||||||
Formula One World Championship career | |||||||||||
Nationality | ![]() | ||||||||||
Active years | 1994–2008 | ||||||||||
Teams | Williams, McLaren, Red Bull | ||||||||||
Entries | 247 (246 starts) | ||||||||||
Championships | 0 | ||||||||||
Wins | 13 | ||||||||||
Podiums | 62 | ||||||||||
Career points | 535 | ||||||||||
Pole positions | 12 | ||||||||||
Fastest laps | 18 | ||||||||||
First entry | 1994 Spanish Grand Prix | ||||||||||
First win | 1995 Portuguese Grand Prix | ||||||||||
Last win | 2003 Australian Grand Prix | ||||||||||
Last entry | 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix | ||||||||||
|
David Marshall Coulthard MBE (born 27 March 1971) is a British retired racing driver from Scotland, later turned presenter, commentator and journalist. Nicknamed "DC", he competed in 15 seasons of Formula One between 1994 and 2008, taking 13 Grand Prix victories and 62 podium finishes. He was runner-up in the 2001 championship, driving for McLaren.
Coulthard began karting at the age of eleven and achieved early success before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the Formula 3000 series. He first drove in Formula One with Williams in the 1994 season succeeding the late Ayrton Senna. The following year he won his first Grand Prix in Portugal, and then for the 1996 season he moved to McLaren. After winning two races in the 1997 season, he finished 3rd in the World Drivers' Championship in the 1998 season.
He won five races during 1999 and 2000 before finishing second in the Drivers' Championship to Michael Schumacher in 2001. Two more victories followed between 2002 and 2003 before he left McLaren at the end of 2004. He moved to Red Bull in 2005 and secured their first podium a year later. Coulthard retired from Formula One racing at the end of 2008.
After retiring from Formula One, Coulthard continued working with Red Bull as a consultant and joined the BBC as a commentator and pundit for their coverage of Formula One. He returned to active motorsports in 2010 joining Mücke Motorsport in DTM and retired at the end of 2012. Coulthard has also participated in the Race of Champions, finishing runner-up in the Drivers' Cup in 2008, and winning the competition in 2014 and 2018. Since 2016 he has worked as a commentator and analyst for Channel 4 after they took over the BBC's terrestrial television rights. In 2022, he joined the Nordic streaming service Viaplay. There he appears during Formula One race weekends as a reporter and expert commentator alongside Mika Häkkinen and Tom Kristensen.
In 2019, he was elected president of the British Racing Drivers' Club (owner of Silverstone Circuit).[1]