Put yourself in Ron's shoes

[Tris]

OK with out going into spesifics... here are just a few of Coulthard's dastardly deeds from 1995-1999 there are more but I do not want to do mad!

1995 San Marino, Imola Leading the race he span promoting Hill to first. He recovered from the spin and headed to the pits for a new set of tyres... in his haste he speeded in the pits getting him a stop-go penalty.

1995 Monte Carlo, Monaco Squeezed Alesi into the barrier at the start. This almost pitched Coulthard upside down... the result, however, was mayhem. The race was red flagged straight away as only two cars missed all the action. At the restart 6 cars fell foul of the new jump-start detectors.

1995 Canadian, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Span on a damp patch under on of the bridges on the track. The two following Ferraris took avoiding action and Alesi store third place from his teammate as a result.

1995 Italian, Monza The pole position holder span on the exit of Ascari on the warm up lap. He was then out of the race blaming oil on the track as a result. He assumption was correct as a multi-car pile up after the start on the same corner (trigger by Papis) stopped the race. This allowed Coulthard to restart the race from his pole position.

1995 Italian, Monza Leading on Lap 14 David went off heavily into the gravel trap. He got back on the track and headed for the pits only to retire with a failed front wheel bearing.

1995 European. Spun off on teh warm-up lap.... again!

1995 Japanese, Suzuka. Went off on the Spoon curve and regained the track straight away. However, at the next corner the gravel and mud he had collected in his side pods came out under breaking. David supplied the moving surface that he needed to plant his car in the gravel.

1995 Austrailan, Adelaide Crashed on entering the pit lane hitting. He was leading the race.

1996 Brazilian, Interlagos Lost control of the McLaren and under-steered off after Subida do Loago dropping eight places from sixth to fourteenth

1996 San Marino, Imola Stalls after his second pit stop. The reason given was loss of hydraulic pressure.

1996 Spanish, Catalunya Coulthard collided with Lamy and both were out on lap one.

1996 Italian, Monza Spun off into retirement on lap two after hitting the tire stacks at the first chicane breaking his steering.

1996 Japanese, Suzuka The Scott stalled his McLaren on the grid at the start causing it to be aborted.

1997 Argentinean, Buenos Aries Had a coming together with Michael Schumacher on the first lap he was eliminated.

1997 Monte Carlo, Monaco Crashed into Hakkinen and Hill on lap two. After Hakkinen triggered the accident with a spin.

1997 German, Hockenheim Crashed out on lap two

1997 Belgian, Spa Francorchamps Span out on lap nineteen.

1998 Australian, Albert Park After a gentleman's agreement with Hakkinen about who would be first into the first corner (at the start) would not be challenged in the race… Coulthard allows Hakkinen through into the lead The action started a massive debate in F1 about the use of team orders and drivers influencing the results of the races.

1998 Argentinean, Buenos Aires In an incident filled race, Coulthard took off Alesi when trying to get back to the podium places. Coulthard carried on and got his third place.

1998 British, Silverstone With the weather getting worse, DC spins off on lap 38. He retired from the GP

1998 Belgian, Spa Francorchamps Crashed on the straight after the first corner at the start. This triggers a multi-car pile up involving most of the cars on the grid. Only the first 4 got away cleanly. The race is stopped and 18 of the 22 cars make the restart.

1998 Belgian, Spa Francorchamps Whilst allowing Schumacher to pass, Coulthard did not give Schumacher enough room in the wet conditions and Schumacher hit him. He removed the front portion on his car. Both he and Coulthard pitted into retirement. Schumacher went around to McLaren pit in the middle of the race to tell Coulthard what he thinks only to held back by his team.

1999 Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve After the pace car had gone in the race was back on for position. Eddie Irvine overtook Coulthard... but Coulthard with the faster car and line tried to take it back in the Senna hairpin. Coulthard gets too close to the Ulsterman and hit Irvine sending them both spinning off the track. Both are able to continue.

1999 Austrian, A1 Ring Hits his team-mate in the first corner of the race. Spinning his team mate around. Mika tried to get back on but as he was facing against the flow of traffic he had to join last.

1999 German, Hockenheim Could not get past Panis to take 8th place, so David too a short cut to pass him. David receives a stop-go penalty for cutting the chicane when passing.

1999 European, Nurburgring Leading the race, he goes off and into the gravel.

1999 Japanese, Suzuka With Schumacher chasing Hakkinen, Coulthard is in front (although a lap down after crashing) when Schumacher comes up to lap him. He holds up Schumacher, which eventually stops Schumacher challenging Hakkinen. Coulthard is called back into the pits soon after this to retire from the GP.

[Airhead]

Billy_Hunt,

I'm still with you and I'm not especially a DC supporter. But how come the guy is crucified for what, not beating Mika on a second weekly basis, while others (Rubino for instance) are able to be second string because TGF is their team mate. This really is more an argument about the deficits of both McLaren drivers rather than just DC. I believe that the fault for McLaren can be laid at some poor pit/strategy calls through the year. How come it is universal knowledge that the McLarens were the best cars of the season. If so they hid it well in my eyes.

For me the drive of the season was DC in the French GP. Inspirational stuff. Lets not forget DC was the only driver to survive a plane crash during the season as well. He seems pretty focussed to me.

[LYM]

Tris you only recalled up to 1999, so he's been good this year huh?

Funny that some of you keep insisting that DC and RB aren't good drivers, and win races becos they are driving the best cars. Somehow I feel Newey and Todt are intelligent people and would not risk millions to employ poor drivers to complement their quality vehicles. DC may not be as good as TGF and Mika, but I rank him alongside with JV and TYGF.

Maybe he's just being outspoken not whiney, and if he is he's not the only one. We saw his humble side at Sepang so let the new season start anew.

[Billy_Hunt]

Tris...You could say the same for any driver here's one for TGF who is currently the best driver around




1992 Imola, San Marino Tried to pass the speeding Brundle, he spun and broke the suspension on his car.

1992 French, Magny Cours Tried to overtake Senna at the Adelaide Hairpin. Senna was forced into retirement straight away. Later Michael drove into the back of Stefano Modena. This finally put Schumacher out of the race.

1992 Belgian, Spa Francorochamps Cut Ayrton Senna up badly inuring the wrath of the reining world champion.

1993 Spanish, Catalunya Scumacher was unsettled by the smoke given off by Zanardi Lotus as it's engine let go, Schumacher has a momentary off track excursion.

1995 San Marino, Imola Pushed too hard just after changing to a new set of tyres. This caused Schumacher to promptly stuff his Benetton right into the barriers.

1996 Monte Carlo, Monaco Crashed out on the first lap after losing the lead to Hill at the start.

1998 Austrian, A1-Ring Trying to catch Hakkinen, Schumacher ran wide over the gravel. He had enough speed to get back on the track but he had destroyed most of the front of his car.

1999 Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve On the last corner of the track, with the marshal warning of oil, he loses control of the car. With no run off at that part of the track there is no where to go but into the wall


I could'nt find alist of his mistakes this year just like you didnt (mmm ! could we have got them from the same site )

But was it (off the top of my head) 3 DNF due to crashes this year.
I'm not having a dig at TGF All I'm saying is you could pull alist like that off for any driver, if you could not, you would have to question what kind of racing driver he is .
There seems to be a lack of DC fans in this forum so I stepped in, I don't think the criticism aimed at him has been justified (Judging on this years performance)
Equaly RB or any other driver.
You can't keep going back to 19 0 blob live in the now !
If there are any DC fans around here step in please .

[Don K]

Originally posted by Billy_Hunt
Tris...You could say the same for any driver here's one for TGF who is currently the best driver around

Are you sure?
Tris has posted a list with something like 25 mistakes in 5 years.

And you are trying to counter
with a list of 8 mistakes in 8 years ...

[Gt_R]

eh...so All drivers make mistakes huh!~ Well the better ones make lesser...the worse ones...more!~ And Michael is better than DC!~

[Tristan]

DC is the most overated driver of recent years. He has had the best car ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION (Williams and, subsequently, McLaren). He has acheived precisley NOTHING with his carreer and it's about time he left McL and gave somone else a chance. Thank you, and good night!

[Tris]

Hi all!

Ok. lets address a few points here! First of Billy_Hunt I know where you got Schumacher's list of offences.... of MY site! OK may be I am a little anally retentative over this but I am currently in the middle of a bit of massive research into this kind of thing! For each year on my site at the mo there are about 2,500 words per year. When the new “All time section” goes up it will be more like 12,000 - 15,000 words for each year. (If you want to find out how many mistakes DC / MS made in 2000 look under the 2000 season section of my site.)

Schumacher has made plenty of mistakes.. but may of them he has gotten away with.. going off at Mangy Cours in 1997, Missing Snt devote in 1997, spinning at Indy this year.... I could go on let me tell you! But anyway the reason why I started this thread off is that I know there is a lot of anti-DC vibes on this list. I wanted to know why.

OK. I think that Coulthard is not one of the very best drivers in the field. I agree with Senna in that I think that the best drivers should be in the best cars. Coulthard has never been out of a top running team. How many people would love to see Fisichella, Trulli, Villeneuve in the second McLaren? I do not have a problem with DC’s driving. I do not like his whining and crappy excuses though. he is turning into the Mansell of the contemporary scene. Look at the crappy excuse he gave for crashing into the pit lane at Adelaide in 1995!

“When Coulthard came into the pit lane for his first pit-stop on lap twenty he crashed into the wall that marked the outside of the pit lane, terminally damaging his left-front suspension: he had to retire. He offered the following explanation, “What happen was that I slowed for the pits sufficiently, but when I came down into second gear the engine suddenly picked up and drove me forward. I should have dipped the clutch but I was so surprised that I hit the brakes and slid into the wall. I am very disappointed but not embarrassed; I was caught out by something that has been a problem in the pit lane all year.”

I think Coulthard’s career has stalled. He is not going to become WDC in the same team as Hakkinen. I posted 27 Coulthard offences for the 1995-1999 Period. Hakkinen has made 16. He needs to move to another team to kick start his career. (You are not telling me that team owners do not have lists of all the mistakes drivers have made!) Interestingly Coulthard and Hakkinen have had quite a number of altercations whilst they have been team-mates.

1995 Canadian, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Collided with Herbert on the first lap of the race. Hakkinen's nosecone punctured the side of Herbert’s Benetton stopping it from going anywhere. Both retired.

1995 Belgian, Spa At the start of the second lap, Hakkinen span in La Source... he retired. 1995 Austrailan, Adelaide Suffered a massive accident in practice. The impact factored his skull and he was unable to take part in the race.

1996 European, Nurburgring Broke the pit lane speed limit on his first stop and had to serve a ten second stop and go penalty. 1996 Monte Carlo, Monaco Hakkinen, Salo and Irvine all collided and took each over out due to some bad marshalling.

1996 Portuguese, Estoril After Coulthard rejoined after his first pit stop Hakkinen rammed his team mate. Both need a subsequent trip to the pits. To add insult to injury Hakkinen got there first and Coulthard had to wait.

1997 Monte Carlo, Monaco Crashed into Coulthard and Hill retired on lap two After Hakkinen triggered the accident with a spin.

1997 German, Hockenheim When asked about the problems that the Williams team had experienced over the weekend he commented: "The problem with Williams? It’s the drivers." 1998 French, Magny Cours Tried for the inside on Irvine on the last corner of the lap. He missed his down change and spins in front of the team pit. He did not damage the car and carried on.

1998 British, Silverstone Span on the entrance to last corner complex and lets Schumacher through into the lead

1998 Italian, Monza Trying to catch the Ferrari of Schumacher, Mika span off and through the gravel trap. He rejoined but was soon overtaken by Eddie Irvine and Ralf Schumacher.

1999 San Marino, Imola An unforced error in the last corner of the track sends Mika flying into the wall. This cost him a valuable 10 points towards his world championship effort.

1999 Monte Carlo, Monaco Goes straight on at Mirabo... He slipped on oil left from Takagi. The rival to Hakkinen, Schumacher, was allowed to drive on by and get a lead.

1999 French, Mangy Cours. Whilst trying to get the lead in the very wet conditions Mika tries to overtake Barrichello and spins in the Adelaide hair pin... losing a potential 10 points.

1999 British, Silverstone After pitting he loses his wheel on the following lap right opposite the pits. This costs him valuable time as the McLaren team tries to establish what the problem is.

1999 Italian Monza Whilst leading the GP his makes a elementary error in the first corner of the lap, he spins off and out of a certain 10 points. To cap it all off he went for a cry in the bushes!

I think the real question is that does DC deserve to be in a McLaren when there are far better drivers out there? As for DC’s apology to Schumacher.... I would have rather seen him stick to his guns. F1 needs intense rivalries to make it interesting... Piquet/Mansell Senna/Prost Hill/Schumacher. if DC can beat Mika he should stay put, if he can’t he needs to leave McLaren for pastures fresh. If I were Ron I would keep DC. He does as he is told and is no real threat to Mika (Ron’s main man as we all know!) If Coulthard is going to be WDC he needs to beat MS and Mika. He has not beaten Mika in the championship since they were team-mates. The exception was 1997 but Hakkinen was robbed of 4 almost certain race victories by technical failure!

[Carla O]

Tris, i know you think DC is top Rogue... but that list is a bit too much... i don't think i can sleep now...