'I was asked to let him pass so he could win his first race'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
During his career David Coulthard was known as a driver who was a team player, someone who had no problem with team orders. Yet sometimes he was pushed to his limits, let the Scotsman know.
In the 1997 season Coulthard drove for the McLaren, alongside Mika Hakkinen - before the Finn managed to win two championships to his name. In fact, at that time Hakkinen had never even won a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
This changed with the Jerez Grand Prix that season, but Hakkinen's victory can't be written entirely to Hakkinen's name. "I was asked to step aside in Jerez. We never talked about that before the race", Coulthard said in conversation with RTE.
No sleep loss for Coulthard
"It took several rounds, while the team manager tried to persuade me to obey the order, before I went aside. I don't mind following a team order because I'm a team player," the Scotsman continues.
Still, Coulthard said he could have written several victories on his CV. "Today it would have meant that I would have had a little more money, but I'm not losing sleeping because of it", Coulthard concludes.