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Exclusive interview with David Coulthard

David Coulthard returned to the wheel of a Formula 1 car last weekend, thrilling fans in Assen. During a break in proceedings, GPUpdate.net sat down with the 13-time Grand Prix winner to discuss his time away from the top echelon, how he rates the current field and who he believes should take the Red Bull vacancy.

What do you miss most about racing, David?

I miss things that I can no longer see or touch. So I miss family members or things that are no longer within my grasp. But if I want to go racing, I can go racing. OK, I can’t race in Formula 1 unless I pay to do it because I’m 42 and I’m not going to be on the shopping list of the top teams. But if I really wanted to do it, I dare say I could go to Marussia with a few million euros and go racing! So I don’t miss anything about racing. I love racing; I raced since I was 11 years old, I didn’t race in 2009 at all and I had no problems. Life was good; I woke up, did the things I had to do and went to bed.

But what does racing give you? Racing gives you an adrenalin rush, it gives you a focus and it gives you that little tingle of nervousness. It’s a really good interaction between you and your engineer, between you and your mechanics. There is a whole team of people who all want you or your team-mate to do well. I guess more than the driving, it’s about the commerardary and being part of something that is more than just yourself. You see Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso or whoever on the podium, they get the trophy and the glory. But those guys are tight with their team, it’s a very intimate relationship. It’s one of absolute trust. It’s one that doesn’t really need, ‘please would you mind changing my wheel.’ It’s one of, ‘can you change the wheel?’ In a team, nobody is sensitive to the please and thank yous during the process, that comes before and it comes at the end. It’s just an environment of total focus; that is really, really cool to see because in the real world people are not that focused. You can phone a plumber who says, ‘business is difficult.’ Yet he’ll take a month off in the south of France in August. Well, if business is so difficult, work! I think motorsport generally brings out the best in people.

So you wouldn’t rule out a racing return in the future?

I wouldn’t say no, but it’s not something that I’m thinking about. Occasionally with my racing friends of a similar age, we think maybe we should do the 24 Hours of Daytona. I’ve raced in Formula 1, at Le Mans, at Macau and Zandvoort. So I’ve been very lucky in my career to have raced at all these iconic places. I’ve not done Bathurst, maybe that would a nice thing to do. But it might scare the life out of me, because at 42 and as a father, you have a different view on life than when you’re 32 and single.

You’re working for the BBC as a commentator now. Are there any similarities between your current position and being part of a Formula 1 team?

There are no similarities. Television is a public broadcasting corporation in the case of the BBC. It’s unionised and people won’t do certain things because it’s five o’clock. With motor racing, if you have a problem at midnight the mechanics will strip the car, rebuild it and finish at four. Then they’ll come back at six. It’s a different mentality.

Moving on to the current Formula 1 season; what do you make of it so far?

I think it’s been interesting. If you actually look at the quality of drivers out there; Sebastian, Mark, Fernando, Romain from time to time, Lewis, Nico or any of these guys – there’s a really high quality. If you look at variability of performance, it’s a little bit confusing for anyone to work out. Red Bull seem to have been the most consistent team over the last few years, Ferrari have been there or thereabouts, McLaren have been up and down, Lotus seem to be very consistent and with Mercedes there was a bit of controversy with the test, although they’ve got a very quick car. Both Nico and Lewis have won this year, so there’s no question that they can win again. They are getting stronger. If they’re finishing 1-2 at every race in the last nine races and Sebastian is finishing third – I’m not bright enough to work out the maths – I suspect he could still win the championship. But it’s unlikely that this will be the podium for the next nine races. We’ll see, it’s exciting isn’t it?

There has been a lot of speculation about Mark Webber’s replacement at Red Bull next season, with Kimi Räikkönen, Daniel Ricciardo and even Fernando Alonso being linked to the vacancy. Who would you like to see in the car alongside Vettel?

I’d like to see all three of them in the seat, as the combined talent would be amazing! One could do the throttle, one could do the brake and the other could do the steering (laughs). I think the Fernando story is unlikely but I do think it’s normal that all of these guys and their managers talk to all the teams. He wouldn’t be a manager if he’s not talking to the team that’s winning races. The name Ferrari is a wonderful name but winning Grands Prix and World Championships is more wonderful. I think Fernando has already shown that he’s a great driver, he’s won two World Championships with Renault. He clearly wants to win with Ferrari and Ferrari are consistently frontrunners, so you have to expect them to be strong at different points over Formula 1's history.

Kimi is a World Champion; he’s unbelievably consistent in his delivery of points and race results. So you cannot not look at him as a real contender to deliver what Red Bull really want, which is not winning the Drivers’ Championship but the Constructors’. Daniel is known well to Red Bull and is a lovely guy. He’d be very popular within the team. He isn’t really known to the public but that’s because he hasn’t been finishing on the podium and all of the things that really allow people to get to know someone. It would be a great validation of the Red Bull young driver programme to have another driver like Sebastian who came up through that scheme. I don’t know who it’s going to be. I know a little bit of what the process is; in time we’ll all find out.

Sebastian Vettel is obviously leading the championship at this stage, aiming for his fourth world title. What are your expectations for the second part of the season?

Historically, if you’re able to build a bit of a buffer in the first half of the season, even if somebody then comes forward in performance, normally you can hang in there and get the championship. If you look at Button when he won with Brawn, he won a lot of races in the first half of the season. He didn’t actually do anything in the second half of the season but he was able to hang in there and get the championship.

Mercedes are looking strong, there’s no question about it. And they have a quick car in qualifying, probably with certain advantages over the Red Bull. But Red Bull have a very consistent package. Sebastian is unquestionably a remarkable driver when you look at the amount of starts, the amount of success, the qualifying and racing and what have you. Obviously I don’t know this, but I would be surprised if he doesn’t win his fourth championship. But of course with nine races to go, there are a lot of points.

(fonte: GPUpdate.com)

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