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Coulthard - elite level but only occasionally great

“I never won the world championship, but there were moments where I was, to be arrogant, world-class against world-class performers,” David Coulthard explained to The Athletic.

“What they were was consistently world-class. And I dipped in and out of it. My performances were like that, so that’s why the result books reflect the drivers at that time. Mika was consistently quick. Michael was consistently quick. They got the world championships.”


Coulthard has explained even further. He recognised during his career the days on which he was untouchable and the steps he took to try to bottle that lightning. He engaged sports psychologists to try to work out what went so well on those days and to be able to reproduce it. But he admits he couldn't.


There are of course a number of reasons for it all needing to come together and in the midst is the frailty of the human condition. A human that needs to be performing within a tenth of a second at all times. Even if only driving to a target lap time. That is what the greats can do and what even the bloody excellent occasionally can't.


Part of this comes down to the manner of competing too. You take every advantage you can get - that is what the greats also do. In !997 Coulthard had two race wins to Hakkinen's one. And that one win was gifted to him by McLaren ordering Coulthard to let him by as part of the run out in the final Grand Prix. An advantage Hakkinen took. The very next race in Australia 1998 there was the first corner pact with the fast but fragile cars - the cars would hold station after the first corner. Hakkinen was leading but a hearing mix-up caused him to come into the pits unnecessarily and putting Coulthard into the lead. A lead he gave back when it was explained it had been a mix-up. An advantage Coulthard relinquished.


Coulthard probably did the "right" thing in both instances. But by giving up those advantages that he had earned by racing hard and not making mistakes, he validated any pattern there was in the team. But all of that makes up the person he was and is.


The greats build a team around them so that even when they disobey team orders it's as much a team problem as it is their own.

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