Coulthard's major weakness that stopped him winning the F1 world championship
21:33, 12 Aug 2025
Updated: 22:12, 12 Aug 2025
1 Comments
David Coulthard duelled with multiple champions such as Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen. The British driver won races but revealed one of his key weaknesses that stopped him from challenging for titles.
Coulthard was blisteringly fast at times as he won the Monaco Grand Prix twice for McLaren while finishing second in the standings in 2001. Despite these successes, he never clinched the world championship.
He explained on the High Performance podcast that medium-speed corners were not Coulthard's strong point, and it separated him from the very best.
The 13-time Grand Prix winner said: "I was very good if I was all on the front axle. I was not very good in medium-speed corners because a medium-speed corner is still quite fast. Let's say it's 100 miles an hour. So you're turning into a medium-speed corner.
"Very quickly, you're leaning on the left rear tyre. That's just the nature of a medium-speed corner. You're not on the front, you're not completely on the back, and you're not in the middle."
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Coulthard: "I would be a bit... Is it there? Is it not there?"
"At high speed, you will be on the middle because you're aerodynamically balanced. Having used that 15 years as a driver and looked at the data against some of the great drivers, I think they were very good at that transition from front axle reaction to it suddenly squatting and the rear tyre moving.
"I would be a bit... Is it there? Is it not there? They just went, Yeah, it's there. And that would often give them the advantage."
Coulthard had some great days in Formula 1, such as his battling drive to victory at Magny-Cours in 2000, but wasn't able to win the championship.
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He is now a pundit for Channel 4 television in the UK and an ambassador for Red Bull after retiring as an F1 driver at the end of 2008.
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