David Coulthard: biography

David Coulthard sometimes known as DC is a former Formula One racing driver from Scotland. He now co-presents the F1 coverage for the BBC alongside Jake Humphries and former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan.

Beginnings

Born in Dumfries on 27 March 1971, David started his driving career in carting. In 1989 he graduated from that to Formula Ford and he won his first ever Young Driver of the Year award. In 1990, he suffered a broken leg but still managed to come back the next year to win three Formula Three races. In 1992, he raced in the Formula 3000 series generally used as the next step before driving in Formula One. He finished 9th in his first year but managed to improve that in 1993 to third. The following year (1994) David took the next step into Formula one and never looked back.

Career

In 1994 David was working for the Williams team as a tester when the untimely death of Ayrton Senna at Imola meant he was promoted to the race team alongside Damon Hill for the Spanish Grand Prix. He spent most of the season driving the 2nd car for the team only stepping aside for ex-champion Nigel Mansell 4 times through the remainder of the season. He drove for Williams for one more season which saw him win his first race in Portugal and won 5 pole positions throughout the season. After two years with Williams he moved onto race for McLaren where he spent
8 years of his career culminating in him managing his best world championship title finish of 2nd overall in 2001. He eventually saw out his career with the Red Bull team now the home of the current World Champion Sebastien Vettel. He eventually retired from Formula One racing in 2008 although he continued to test drive for Red Bull for a further 2 years after that.

Achievements

Throughout his Formula one career he managed a total of 13 wins, 62 podium finishes and 12 Pole Positions. He is also currently the 8th highest scoring driver of all time with a career total of 535 points. Since leaving Formula one he hasn't totally left behind the world of driving as he currently presents the Formula One coverage for the BBC and has recently been seen in the Race of Champions and also competing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters in 2010 where he finished 16th.