How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay

David Coulthard strides into London’s Montcalm Hotel looking as sharp as ever. Black jacket,
shirt and jeans capped by an increasingly silvery head of hair, unconsciously the colour palette of West McLaren Mercedes, the team for which he scored 12 of his 13 grands prix career wins. As is always the case when on duty, the smile is ever-present.

He shows genuine interest in everyone around him, remembers people’s names, shakes hands firmly and, unlike many a driver, doesn’t glance at his watch every few minutes. Attending yet another corporate event, he seems happy to be there.

DC is as busy as ever. He may be known to many as a former grand prix driver but DC’s focus is on the present rather than the past: he’s president of the BRDC, non-executive chairman of W Series, co-commentator on Channel 4’s F1 coverage in the UK as well as a brand ambassador for Red Bull and seven other well-known companies. One of those is AMG Mercedes which says much about his ability to sustain harmony and balance in his business relationships.

One of his companies, Whisper Films, is among Europe’s fastest-growing media production organisations, now employing 200 full time staff. Another, Velocity Experiences, works with a range of clients across the motorsport industry.

With the British Grand Prix just a few days away he has plenty on his mind. In three days’ time he will stand alongside Czech entrepreneur Karel Komárek at Silverstone and announce the ‘More Then Equal’ initiative which, in partnership with Hintsa Performance, aims to develop a female F1 driver, creating a pathway for their development.

GP Racing: You are possibly one of the busiest ex-Formula 1 drivers around. What drives that when presumably you could be lying on a beach?

DC: I think it must come from the environment in which I was brought up. My parents worked together to build the family [transport] business. It wasn’t a job, it wasn’t a case of “I’m off to work and I’ll come back again at five thirty.” They continued to build that business at which point they handed it over to my brother who now has three children working in the company, and I got my career. So I think it’s just this makes sense to me; this is what I’ve always done.

GPR: What were the other influences from your family and your upbringing?

DC: I grew up in a family where my mum was the eldest of eight, my godfather is from Mauritius, and my mum’s youngest sister has learning disabilities. All our fundraising events as kids were for those with similar disabilities. So we were always surrounded by people that were overcoming adversity, dealing with race or some form of disability. My godparents have always fostered children. I would go and stay with
them, be surrounded by kids from all kinds of different backgrounds, some from an abusive background, others with learning difficulties. It means I come from a background of acceptance and openness.

Coulthard sits down with GP Racing for an extensive chat about his career and the future

Photo by: Alister Thorpe / GP Racing

GPR: Your sister Lynsay passed away suddenly in 2013. How did that family tragedy affect you? I note she still features on your Twitter profile.

DC: I got comments early on about “who’s in the ugly picture?” with our tongues out. Lynsay was very talented, we racedkarts together and I honestly believe she was quicker than me and, had she been given the opportunity, could have gone further. As it happened the family’s focus shifted towards me and I went on to do what I did…

GPR: So to what extent was losing her a trigger for the David Coulthard we see today?

DC: I’ve said this a few times about W Series – I really want to support women in motorsport. And of course, quite clearly, I’m not a woman. So therefore there’s less in it for me than womankind. I do it for reasons that absolutely cannot be questioned in terms of the memory of my sister, what she did, and what I lived through and what I think she missed out on.

"Michael [Schumacher] was probably the transitional driver that took the physical aspect further. There are images of Ayrton training but somehow in my mind Michael took it to another level" David Coulthard

GPR: Was that your major life-changing moment?

DC: Prior to Lynsay passing the step change for me in figuring out a bit more what this life is, was the plane crash at [age] 30. Two people lost their lives – the pilots – and they were not only pilots but sons, husbands, fathers. The fact that I survived and was able to walk out along with my girlfriend and trainer made me reflect that, in some ways, they lost their lives saving our lives – all of us could have been killed. That happened in 2000, the Tuesday before the Spanish GP, and I had to make a decision. It was a shocking event. I had to work out whether I wanted to fly again, whether I wanted to race. Also, that this isn’t a game, this is life. You’ve already made decisions that have affected your life but it could have been over at 30. Realising that I sat so close to death had an effect. Some people may find that surprising given that I am a racing driver and that my F1 racing career started following the death of my Williams team-mate Ayrton Senna on the same weekend that Roland Ratzenberger was lost.

GPR: How did your Formula 1 experiences come to shape your subsequent career?

DC: I went to [producer] Mark Wilkin after the first broadcast I did for the BBC and asked “When are we going to have a debrief?” He said he would speak to everyone individually. I was deflated because the debrief is the lifeblood of improvement. You can’t improve in the moment because it’s live, so you can’t say, “Stop! Reset, let’s do that again.”

I had a conversation with [then BBC anchor] Jake Humphrey who said, “Yeah, television’s a bit like that.”
Sunil Patel was someone we got to know, he worked for the BBC, and a conversation started to build. I remember about a year later having a conversation at the Australian Grand Prix: “We’re going to go and produce Formula 1.” It seemed slightly pipe dreamy but my vision is that anything’s possible
if you put your mind to it. Seven years later we won the Channel 4 contract for F1.

Humphrey and Coulthard, along with Sunil Patel, set up successful TV company Whisper TV which now produces the Channel 4 F1 coverage

Photo by: Sutton Images

GPR: You are proud of Whisper’s record in terms of diversity and inclusion, including the number of disabled people who hold roles. How was that developed?

DC: That came as a result of the three of us – me, Jake and Sunil – coming together believing that television could be done better, running the business like a sports team. We have mainly female employees, a very diverse group of individuals who work for us and a high number of disabled people within the organisation.
That approach comes from my partners, Sunil of Indian heritage, Jake who has particularly strong values and me who respects everybody’s desire and needs. Also my own family experience concerning disability and inclusivity.

GPR: Your F1 career spanned 15 seasons, including those 13 wins and 62 podium finishes, yet you are renowned for understating your achievements. Why is that?

DC: When I was in karting I kept a notebook. I used to give myself a mark out of 10 and I never gave myself 10 out of 10 even when I won a British Championship round. I won all three heats, including the one where you have to start from the back, and the final. I was so in form at that particular time, and even then I didn’t give myself 10 out of 10 because there was something I felt I could do better. It’s just the way that
we were brought up.

GPR: So you were quite hard on yourself?

DC: No, it just means there is always room for improvement. I can’t ever imagine thinking “I’m the best” because even if you are a world champion several times over and you’ve pointed it [the car] in the right direction, you can’t do it without winning engineers and winning mechanics. One of the great things about this sport is that when a driver thanks a team, that’s genuine and sincere. The driver is the icing on the cake. My icing was that I didn’t quite have that last little element of speed.

GPR: Yet you spent nine seasons with McLaren, so you must have done something right?

DC: The reason why I stayed for the length of period I did was not because I was the best driver, but because I did try my best. I always turned up. Ron Dennis, one of the most difficult guys to please, didn’t keep me there and pay me millions out of charity. He did it because I was a kind of backbone to which they could add speed – you could add a Mika [Häkkinen], you could add a Kimi [Räikkönen], they tried it with [Juan Pablo] Montoya but it didn’t work out.

GPR: You’ve told me in the past that to compete against Mika you made sure you were fitter and also more prepared to work with the team’s sponsors. How did that strategy emerge?

DC: I think that’s part of being a student of whatever it is you are studying. You need to know the environment that you would like to own. You need to know how you go about acquiring that space. It’s like any business, isn’t it? If you rush in without knowing what you are doing you’re probably going to get burned. I think that’s why I have ended up doing so much that revolves around me because I know who I am dealing with! I know what I am capable of and what I am committed to doing.

GPR: Your career in Formula 1 spans eras. You were test driver and team-mate to Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell at Williams. How do you reflect on those times and talents?

DC: I think the Mansell era was definitely a transitional time for the sport. Those guys were the cream of the crop at that time. Michael [Schumacher] was probably the transitional driver that took the physical aspect further. There are images of Ayrton training but somehow in my mind Michael took it to another level. If you look at Mika or Kimi, from first-hand experience I don’t believe they were the athletes that Michael was. I certainly think that I was fitter and more committed to my personal training.

Coulthard believes Schumacher transformed what was required to be a successful F1 driver

Photo by: Motorsport Images

GPR: So the Mansells, Prosts and Sennas were talented but times were different in terms of the physical athleticism? What else has changed?

DC: Incredibly talented. Look, it’s never going to be proven, but if you took Fangio, Senna and Hamilton in peak condition at the same age, given the same training background, they would all be as quick as each other.

I think the modern era is full of talented, committed, spatially aware, media-aware, fan-aware, socially aware drivers. Some tend to be more engaged on the social media platforms, but what tends to happen over time is that you see a lot of young drivers come in, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, then certain things fade because they just can’t handle everything. I think that phenomenon during lockdown, where a lot of them were gaming on-line and publicly doing so, if that were to happen again in five years you won’t see the same people doing it because they’ll value their privacy. As you become more publicly recognised your privacy becomes an ever more important part of how you live.

"Lewis has had his challenging moments in what’s a very difficult environment. He has been part of a transition, a recognition that this sport is not just for white 20 or 30-year-old guys. That it’s open to all. So he’s been part of that and he’s had all that scrutiny and grown into discovering who he is" David Coulthard

GPR: You get to work and engage with today’s top drivers. Max, Charles and Lewis, as just three examples, are each outstanding drivers yet quite different personalities. How do you find them?

DC: I see them both at the track and also at events away from it. Charles’s mother was my hairdresser in Monaco and actually I had an evening with her and Arthur, Charles’s brother, in Montréal this year. Lewis is more of a disconnect from a purely social point of view because he lives a very different life to me, but I’ve known him and his journey up through Formula 1. Max I see socially in Monaco, along with his father Jos and his manager as they’re of a similar age to me. The fact that they are all different nationalities and personalities is just part of the world I operate in, and that’s completely normal. I always appreciate them giving time, not just to me, but observing them give time in a way which is not distant, aloof or arrogant. I really admire people that can be successful whilst remaining grounded.

GPR: What about Lewis specifically, a seven-times world champion and playing a key role in the transformation of Formula 1’s appeal to new audiences?

DC: Lewis has had his challenging moments in what’s a very difficult environment. He has been part of a transition, a recognition that this sport is not just for white 20 or 30-year-old guys. That it’s open to all. So he’s been part of that and he’s had all that scrutiny and grown into discovering who he is – because Lewis Hamilton the world champion is a different individual than Lewis the young karting champion growing up in Stevenage. People say you don’t change but I’ve lived through that, as a test driver being told what to do to then turning up as a race driver in Barcelona and the same people asking me if I don’t mind doing something. What’s changed is their perception of me – I’m no longer a test driver, I’m a grand prix driver. There’s an element of “Wow, there’s the driver” and I, even today, am “Oh, there’s the race driver” because we like to have sports icons and sports stars. They move us in a way.

The Scot sees F1's leading stars, including Verstappen and Hamilton, with totally different personalities as a completely normal occurrence

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

GPR: So you still get a degree of excitement, if that’s the right word, when meeting another F1 driver?

DC: If I see Charles or Max I am not going to disturb them if they are walking by in the paddock, I’m not going to jump out. But if we connect I will of course say hello to them. Why is that? I am respecting what they do and understanding what the challenge is. But of course if I see a driver come into a room, everyone gets excited and there’s an element of that in myself. I think that’s just acknowledging that the weekend is built around the drivers. They are the stars.

GPR: You finished your F1 racing career at Red Bull and probably know Dietrich Mateschitz, Helmut Marko, Christian Horner and Adrian Newey as well as anyone. How do they sustain the team’s performance year after year?

DC: I think it’s top down, bottom up. Top down in that Dietrich doesn’t interfere at all. He’s got a voice and he can be very strong if he doesn’t like something. But once he’s agreed, that’s what’s happening. That allows Christian to get on with the day-to-day operational side. They’ve got a good core of hardworking people who understand their places. Look at Adrian Newey – he’s a very humble individual when you consider his success.

GPR: What’s the future for Red Bull? Christian and Adrian have been there since 2005, Dietrich and Helmut are in their late 70s, so is change likely?

DC: They’ve invested long-term, now with power units too, and a number of people have been headhunted and then had whole departments come with them. So there’s a transition, people looking for change, looking for opportunity and I think that signals a long-term commitment to Formula 1. There is no reason why that can’t be led by Christian for future years and decades. Helmut will inevitably, at a certain point, not be able or willing to travel in the same way that he does, but right now the system is working and it will continue to play to the strengths of two things.

One, an absolute understanding of motor racing because motor racing is not just another high-end engineering business. Two, people respond to true leadership, which is taking the pain when things are painful, and getting the sleeves rolled up when things are difficult.

GPR: Is Christian a good leader?

DC: I believe he is. He gets it, he’s a racer. The most important judgement on the CEO or the managing director or the team principal is “Is the team performing?” By that I mean on-track performance. So that’s the first criteria upon which you judge. And you’ve got to judge that, over the last decade, the two most successful leaders have been Toto Wolff and Christian Horner. You can start to get into subjective stuff but results matter.

GPR: You once told me that you have one big role left in you. Is that still the case?

DC: The big thing remains within motorsport. This is where my life’s work has been. This is where the tears of frustration and failure and the tears of joy and happiness, and every point in between, have been formed. I have had the opportunity to work with incredibly successful, creative, hard-working people and that’s a wonderful place to exist. At this point I am very much focused on managing what I have right now, but I know me, I’ll come out the other side of that. I’ll have stability and structure in a way that enables me to then start getting itchy feet and focusing on what’s the next thing.

Coulthard is aiming for one more big role in F1

Photo by: Alister Thorpe / GP Racing