71. David Coulthard

David Coulthard dominated Britain’s junior Formula Ford categories in 1989 and became the first ever recipient of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award for young drivers. In 1991 he fought a titanic battle with future Formula 1 rival Rubens Barrichello for the British Formula 3 Championship and won the prestigious Macau F3 Grand Prix.

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He joined the Williams Formula 1 team as a test driver in 1993, and after competing in eight Grands Prix for the team in the 1994 season he became a full-time F1 driver in 1995. That year he won the Portuguese Grand Prix and finished third in the championship.

After moving to McLaren, David took his new team’s first win in three seasons at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix. In all, he scored 12 of his 13 Grand Prix wins and 51 of his 62 podium finishes with McLaren, and, after supporting team-mate Mika Häkkinen to the drivers’ championship in 1998 and ’99, he finished runner-up to Michael Schumacher in 2001.

In 2005 David moved to the newly formed Red Bull Racing team. By the time he retired from Formula 1, in 2008, he had notched up 535 points, making him the highest-scoring British driver of all time.

After retiring from Formula One Coulthard continued working with Red Bull as a consultant and joined the BBC as a commentator and pundit for their coverage of Formula One. He returned to active motorsports in 2010 joining Mücke Motorsport in DTM, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (German Touring Car Masters) and retired at the end of 2012.

David Coulthard has also participated in the Race of Champions, finishing runner-up in the Drivers’ Cup in 2008, and winning the competition in 2014 and 2018. Since 2016 he has worked as a commentator and analyst for Channel 4 after they took over the BBC’s terrestrial television rights.

In 2019 he was elected president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club (owner of Silverstone Circuit).

Coulthard now uses his talents in the business arena from starting a number of successful businesses to ambassador roles to guest speaking.