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In 2000, he was involved in a tight battle for the drivers' championship with Schumacher and Häkkinen, but eventually fell out of contention into a third place finish. In 2001, he finished the year in second place, but with barely half the points (65) tallied by runaway winner Schumacher (123).
Coulthard's subsequent years at McLaren, from 2002 through 2004, were disappointing as well, as he was regularly out-paced by younger teammate Kimi Räikkönen. Many of Coulthard's critics argue that his decline began early in the new millennium.[1] [2][3] In 2003 the FIA introduced the single-lap qualifying format. Since his Formula Three days, Coulthard had the reputation of being a poor qualifier. He openly admitted that he did not like the format and was a vocal opponent of it. With the announcement that Juan Pablo Montoya was to join McLaren in 2005 alongside Räikkönen, 2004 was to be Coulthard's last year with the team. A poor tenth place finish in the final 2004 standings (24 points, equal with the injured Ralf Schumacher) had not helped Coulthard's cause for 2005 either.
In 2010 while working on air for the BBC F1 coverage, he admitted that Ferrari had approached him for a drive while he was racing with McLaren. He turned down the offer, because he realised that if he was in the lead of a Grand Prix race and Michael Schumacher was behind him, he would have to move out the way to let him through.[4][5]
- ^ Thomson, Robert (November 2005). "David Coulthard's best season 2001". A Sporting Nation. BBC. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ MacAuley, Ted (5 May 2004). "Formula One: A decade, a decline; COULTHARD CAN'T HALT SLIDE". The Mirror.
{{cite web}}:|archive-url=requires|url=(help); Missing or empty|url=(help) - ^ Hamilton, Maurice (6 July 2003). "Coulthard's season stuck in traffic". The Observer. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ "Coulthard turned down Ferrari". ESPN. 14 July 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ "Coulthard will decline dream move to Ferrari". The Herald. HeraldScotland. 26 July 1997. Retrieved 10 December 2011.