Oliver WhiteDavid Coulthard’s Brazilian Grand Prix came to an early end when the Scot tangled with Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima as the field went through the first corner on the first lap of the race. It appeared as though Rosberg just caught Coulthard, sending the Red Bull driver into spin. Unfortunately, Nakajima was on the inside and Coulthard clouted the second Williams. Although both Williams continued, Coulthard was unable to return to the track as his car was damaged.
Coulthard has competed in 246 races, making 245 starts in 14 years, has managed 12 pole positions, 13 wins and 535 points, making him the highest points scorers among the British competitors. Coulthard said that had been able to finish the race, he would have performed some donuts, despite the risk of being fined by the FIA. Alas, the Scot’s race came to an early end. We should however see and hear David next season as he is supposedly going to be involved in the BBC broadcasting team.
If I had qualified a bit higher up the grid away from the maybe it would have helped. But no, I took a cautious approach into Turn One, left plenty of room for the car on the inside and then unfortunately Rosberg hit me in Turn Two and spun me around. Then Nakajima and I finished off our crashing love affair, and he took off my front corner.
I felt good in the warm-up laps going to the grid, I had no problem driving in the wet. I wanted to get to the chequered flag and I was going to do some doughnuts for the crowd. But it didn’t work out.
I still can’t complain, I’ve had a good career and thank you to everyone who supported me over the years. David Coulthard.
Farewell Coulthard, hope to see you next year.
It’s not going to be the same without him next year – he’s been the main focus of my F1-watching life!
A sad day 🙁
I was gutted when I saw him spin. Poor DC, he deserved a better last race than that.
It sums up his luck this year. Kept his nose clean in the first corner and Nico hits him from behind into the path of Kaz.
He may never have been champion but he has had a great career and unlike some more successful drivers he has never been less than a complete credit to the sport and any of the teams he has represented.
I hope some of the younger drivers have the good sense to watch how he conducts himself or at least they have someone point it out to them. To be fair the curren young drivers seem to behave a lot better than we should expect given the behaviour of some of the drivers that they grew up watching.
I’ve followed 12 years of DC’s career. I was a huge Ayrton Senna fan until his untimely death. After a three year period of mourning I tuned back in to F1 and after the first three races of the 1997 season it was clear that DC was the caliber driver I could be a fan of. Fast, smart and always a true gentleman he never displayed the arrogance of other drivers on the grid. Thanks for 12 great years of racing DC and a lot of great F1 memories.
Congrats to DC on a very successful career- hopefully he will enjoy retirement while still stickign around the sport quite a bit.
Being a new fan, my only question is what exactly is DC holding in the photo at the top of this article- is it some sort of souviner trophy given to drivers when they retire from the sport?
Hehe, I’ve never seen a driver get one of these before, so I think it’s a one-off. It’s a bollard from the inside of a corner. The ones that are meant to stop the drivers from cutting the corners, but they just flop over and pass under the car when hit.
It’s a joke trophy. The awarding body is apparently the FIA (Federation Installation de l’Apex) and the citation read:
“Presented to David Coulthard in recognition of his services to bollard sales worldwide from all your friends at the FIA”.
The bollard was sourced from China.
@Alia: See, I don’t read “blogs” of this nature because the comment forms are always disabled whenever I visit. Thanks for the link and insight though, muchly appreciated. 🙂