Coulthard enjoyed a long and largely successful career in F1. He debuted for Williams in 1994, before long stints at McLaren and Red Bull Racing.
From 247 entries and 246 starts, the Scottish driver won 13 races and scored 535 points before exiting in disappointing style at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix.
But, while his F1 career included plenty of podiums and success, there were also a fair few funny moments and fails too. So, on his birthday, let’s take a look…
It’s rare we see drivers spinning off on the formation lap, it’s more common for a car to break down. But Coulthard ended up flying off road and into the gravel before the 1995 Italian GP, beaching his Williams. He was meant to start on pole but when lap two carnage caused a restart, he was able to line up P1.
When you’re leading a race in your first full F1 season, there’s a fair amount of pressure on your shoulders and mistakes can happen. But, that doesn’t make it any less awkward.
Coulthard was holding P1 early in the 1995 Australian GP when he locked up going into the tight hairpin at the pit entry and crashed into the wall, damaging his suspension. Oops…
Probably one of Coulthard’s most well-known races, and not for the greatest of reasons. On lap out, coming out of the first corner, DC lost control of his McLaren and spun across track. He was collected by pretty much the rest of the field and caused a red flag. Later (after the restart), he was – of course – hit by Michael Schumacher.
Not his finest moment… Coulthard rudely cut across Jacques Villeneuve in Argentina in 1998, causing both to spin out.
Sometimes in F1, tiny mistakes can have big consequences. Coulthard put a wheel onto the grass and white line at Suzuka and spun off, hitting the wall. It could’ve been a lot worse but was still a scary moment.
Coulthard probably wasn’t a very popular guy at McLaren after his 1999 clash with team-mate Mika Hakkinen on lap one. DC ended up finishing second but Hakkinen’s recovery to third unsurprisingly overshadowed that.
Both drivers were perhaps to blame for this shunt, but Coulthard was pretty far back and it was an over-enthusiastic move on Alexander Wurz which caused this unusual collision in Australia 2007.
Space was something Coulthard didn’t leave for Felipe Massa at the 2008 Australian GP. The Ferrari was well alongside when DC just closed the door and pitched his car into the air. It then disintegrated, weirdly.
What others can you think of? Let us know below!
