Hill urges DC to 'be himself'

Hill, who was Coulthard's team-mate at Williams for part of 1994 and all of 1995, believes that the Scotsman needs to forget about how other people perceive him and to just knuckle down and do things entirely his way.

"He's got an opportunity to stick two fingers up to everything and just drive like he can," said Hill. "I don't know what the problem is with DC, but I think he just needs to get all those people who give him advice out of his head - although he's probably reading this and thinking here's another piece of advice I don't need!

"He really just needs to be himself and stop worrying about everything else."

Hill goes on to explains that he believes part of Coulthard's failure to ultimately succeed and win the championship with McLaren can be traced back to the fact that he was not assertive enough with former team boss Ron Dennis - especially when it came to pulling over for team-mate Mika Hakkinen at the 1997 European Grand Prix.

"If you're really dissecting DC's career, what he should have done is win in Jerez in 1997, and when Ron Dennis got on the phone and said, 'Can you move over for my boy Mika,' he should have said 'F*** you, you twat.' And you can print that."

Other drivers are less optimistic about Coulthard's ambitions at Red Bull Racing, however - especially former grand prix winner Eddie Irvine.

"Realistically, though, it's all over," explained Irvine. "There are too many young guys coming in who are better.

"I can see him doing a second year at Red Bull, because if they're going with another kid they're still going to need an experienced driver.

"He's only being hired because he's done 11 seasons of F1. He's not being hired because they think he's God's gift to racing drivers."