Put Your Foot Down, David Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kart races

Duncan Coulthard was the Scottish National Karting Champion. Although he gave up karting when David's grandfather died, he maintained an interest in the sport and gave David a kart on his 11th birthday; like many Formula 1 drivers, David Coulthard started out in kart racing. He won several Scottish championships as a teenager.

Answer: 1989

Coulthard was 18 at the time. The British Formula Ford Championship was designed to give kart racers their first taste of motor racing, and was replaced by the F4 British Championship in 2015. The same year, Coulthard won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award for young racing drivers, and was given the opportunity to test drive a McLaren car.

Answer: Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna died in a crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix (Ratzenberger, incidentally, had died the day before). As a result, a place in the Williams team was freed up and Coulthard, who was a test driver for the team, was asked to test drive a car at the Jerez circuit. Coulthard made his F1 debut in the Spanish Grand Prix, but failed to finish.

He was replaced by Nigel Mansell for the French Grand Prix and the final three races of the season. Coulthard finished eighth that season and won an award for ITV Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Answer: Portuguese

Coulthard had a bad start to the season, but things improved by the time of the Italian Grand Prix, when he achieved his first pole position. He also had pole position in the Portuguese Grand Prix, and beat both reigning champion Michael Schumacher and team mate Damon Hill, who came second and third respectively. He later came second in the Japanese Grand Prix.

Answer: Twynosi

Coulthard is from Twynholm, a village in Dumfries and Galloway. 'Twynosi' is a portmanteau of 'Twynholm' and 'tifosi', an Italian word for hardcore motor racing fans. Twynholm was also home to the David Coulthard Museum, which was started by his father Duncan and used to be run by his sister Lynsay.

It closed down in 2018 as Cocoabean, a chocolate company who owned the building where it was housed, needed the space for manufacturing purposes.

Answer: Mika Hakkinen

Mika Häkkinen, the 'Flying Finn', was Coulthard's team mate from 1996 to 2001, and the more experienced of the two. In 1998, Coulthard got into trouble in the Australian Grand Prix when he let Häkkinen pass two laps from the end, even though Coulthard himself was winning. Coulthard stated afterwards that he and Häkkinen had a 'gentleman's agreement' that whoever passed the first corner would win. Coulthard had also let Häkkinen pass him at the European Grand Prix the previous year, but on that occasion, it was on the McLaren team's orders.

Answer: True

Coulthard was travelling in a Learjet along with his then girlfriend Heidi Wichlinski, his bodyguard Andy Matthews, and two pilots. He had borrowed the plane from David Murray, then chairman of Glasgow Rangers. The plane was headed for Nice but developed engine trouble en route, and crashed during an attempted emergency landing. Though Coulthard, Wichlinski and Matthews survived the crash, after escaping through a window, David Saunders and Dan Worley, the co-pilots, were both killed. Coulthard participated in the Spanish Grand Prix nevertheless and came second, while team mate Mika Häkkinen was the winner.

Answer: Red Bull

Red Bull bought the Jaguar team, and made their debut in the 2005 F1 season. Coulthard joined in 2005 and stayed with them until his retirement in 2008. His team mate in 2005 and 2006 was Austrian driver Christian Klien, who was replaced by Australian driver Mark Webber in 2007. During his time at Red Bull, he did not win any races; his final win was with McLaren at the 2003 Australian Grand Prix.

Coulthard was unable to participate in the notorious 2005 USA Grand Prix as Red Bull, along with several other teams, used Michelin tyres, and the safety of the tyres was called into question. The seven teams using Michelin tyres, including Red Bull, withdrew from the race. Subsequently, only six drivers participated: Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello and winner Michael Schumacher, Jordan's Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan, and Minardi's Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher. Other non-participants included Kimi Räikkönen, Jacques Villeneuve, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa.

Answer: The saltire

The saltire is the white cross on the Scottish flag. Coulthard's helmet design is blue, with a white saltire crossing it. In honour of fellow Scottish driver Colin McRae, after his death in a helicopter crash, Coulthard had the colour of his helmet changed to grey and white for the Japanese Grand Prix.

He planned to get other drivers to sign the helmet and give to McRae's family as a token of respect. Incidentally, the Coulthard family do actually have their own tartan, and in 2004, McLaren commissioned a helmet for the Hungarian Grand Prix with the Scottish lion rampant on one side and the Coulthard tartan on the other.)

Answer: He didn't finish the race - he had to retire due to a collision

Coulthard was hit from behind by Williams' Nico Rosberg, and then collided with Rosberg's team mate, Kazuki Nakajima. Ferrari's Felipe Massa was the winner of that race, with team mate Kimi Räikkönen third and Renault's Fernando Alonso second. Coulthard was disappointed at his early retirement, especially as he had planned to perform a doughnut manoeuvre for the crowd (which involves creating skidmarks on the track by making the car spin, and is discouraged as it puts a major strain on the car and can cause it to lose control).

He retired with 13 F1 wins under his belt, and stayed with Red Bull the following year as a testing consultant before moving into media work.