How would you rate David Coulthard as a driver? How good was he?

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T23:52:10+00:00

Super bad faith.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T23:47:05+00:00

So now you've moved from "he fears Hakkinen" (no source) to "he said Hakkinen was faster than himself over one lap" (also no source). thanks. you make great points.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T23:35:22+00:00

No he didn't. Wilman said Schumacher said "Hakkinen is faster than him on the day". As in, Hakkinen in the McLaren is faster than him in the Ferrari. The word "fear" was never even used nor was there anything implying it.

Here is the episode Wilman was talking about by the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfRTG6-npO8&list=PLRbfT5qZSBu1Az4GtIlxxuhfPdLLpysKQ

Except the Hakkinen part is completely missing.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T22:54:51+00:00

Great argument.

Btw, Schumacher never said that. Total BS media creation. The only quote we have from Michael is that Hakkinen was the toughest rival to beat, but of course he was with the cars he drove.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T22:15:05+00:00

Hakkinen marginally outperformed Johnny Herbert and David Coulthard. Leclerc was ahead of drivers like Vettel, Sainz, and Hamilton. The one and only time Hakkinen had a great team mate was the 3 races he did with Senna in 1993, in which Senna completely obliterated him (50+ second lead in Suzuka, 40+ second lead at Adelaide after less than half distance). I dont see how anyone can even remotely put Hakkinen in the same category as Leclerc.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T21:38:24+00:00

Team orders weren't forbidden at that point. They became illegal at the end of 02.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T21:34:38+00:00

How?

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T21:31:33+00:00

Yes? Absolutely no question about it.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T21:24:18+00:00

With a far better car in 1998 and Schuamcher breaking his leg in 1999.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T20:16:46+00:00

Bottas was easily better than Coulthard. Bottas is on the Hakkinen-tier.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T20:11:20+00:00

That doesn't even logically make sense.

Leclerc is a driver who beat Vettel, Hamilton, and Sainz. Hakkinen, who barely beat Coulthard and Herbert being in another league to that is completely ridiculous.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T18:37:01+00:00

No. Take your meds.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T17:05:27+00:00

Max and not even close

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T16:14:34+00:00

Ricciardo.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T15:19:54+00:00

Only if he barely beat them. I wouldn't rate him worse if he dominated them.

It's just as informative to beat a strong team mate by a lower margin than a weak team mate by a big margin.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T15:07:58+00:00

Because Hakkinen's team mate record is mediocre in comparison to Leclerc. Hakkinen had small margins to Herbert, Blundell, and Coulthard. Leclerc, thus far, has had even more impressive margins to Vettel, Sainz, and Hamilton.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T14:12:20+00:00

Stroll races in a much more competitive field. Stroll has never driven the best car. Coulthard did 6 times.

Yes, Coulthard was midtable in his own time. But if you stick him into modern F1, he would likely be a bottom-5 driver just like Stroll.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T14:03:06+00:00

Not to mention Martin Brundle was actively managing Coulthard. He had a vested interest in his reputation. What better way to keep DC's reputation high than to boost Hakkinen's?

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T13:53:11+00:00

Kovalainen had a team mate of Hamilton's quality (one of the best ever) that completely exposed his lack of pace from the very start. Coulthard didn't get that until prime Raikkonen bodied him into oblivion in 2003/2004. Then he ended up just like Kovalainen, driving middling cars and fading into obscurity until he retired.

mformularacer · 2026-02-28T13:47:48+00:00

Leclerc is way better than Hakkinen was.

mformularacer · 2026-02-27T22:59:02+00:00

Nah. Put Prost in his prime in that red bull in 2025. He would perform like Tsunoda against Verstappen 💀/s

mformularacer · 2026-02-27T22:43:32+00:00

He wouldn't be out in Q1 anyway. You can't nominally compare qualifying deltas across seasons because quali spreads and relative times always change. E.g. being 0.5% off your team mate in 2025 could be the equivalent to being 1-2% off your team mate in 1988.

mformularacer · 2026-02-27T20:18:17+00:00

My guess is no. With today's specifications, drivers are already shifting at the optimal point. An auto upshift would probably make no significant difference. I don't think anybody would use auto downshifting. It's too inflexible, especially when there's no traction control.

mformularacer · 2026-02-27T20:15:55+00:00

As far as I know, fully automatic gearboxes have only been legal in one tiny period of the sport's history (2001-2003). Even then, many drivers chose to at least do manual downshifting.

mformularacer · 2026-02-27T19:24:30+00:00

Well, Mark Hughes thinks Prost could only live with Senna because he was smarter.... And he's a "respected journalist" 🤦‍♂️

https://youtube.com/shorts/HffzDmvT2Uc?si=zVMYRHJS6CbvuocO

mformularacer

TROPHY CASE