“There was a real chance of going to Ferrari,” he admitted, “but considering the contract that was on offer, it would have been the wrong thing to do.”

“I always made my choice based on what I thought was the best opportunity for performance the following year.”

Well did he make the right choice? There seems to be no clear answer.

In 1996 Coulthard seemed to be on a par with the performance of Hakkinen at McLaren, and in 1997 outperformed him. But when McLaren got the car/engine package right in 1998, it was Coulthard that made way for Hakkinen, as early as the first race of the season, and it was clear that in all reality, and despite what Ron Dennis said, Coulthard was Hakkinen’s back-up.

But it would have been the same at Ferrari without a doubt. Eddie Irvine was crushed by Schumacher in 1996, 97 and 98, but when Schumacher was forced out of the second half of the 1999 season with a broken leg, only then did Irvine step up to the fore. So the question is whether or not Ferrari deliberately engineered Irvine's car so that he would not be able to challenge Schumacher, and if that were the case, then the same would have happened to Coulthard.

As it turned out, at McLaren, Coulthard was given the opportunity to race, and until 2000, had a better car than the Italians, even if Ferrari beat them in 1996 and 1997. Coulthard was never told to pull his car over to one side to allow Hakkinen to win, apart from 1997 at Jerez (where Hakkinen took the lead on the last lap, after Coulthard had allowed him to pass some 20 laps earlier). Not even Melbourne 1998 was a team order situation, more a driver agreement on who reached the first corner first would be allowed to take the victory.

David Coulthard allows Hakkinen past at Melbourne, 1998. Was this a career-ending move?

So it would seem that if Coulthard had gone to Ferrari he may well be out of a drive by now. At McLaren he was never really in a strong position to challenge for a world championship (apart from the early stages of 2001, by which time Hakkinen had lost motivation), but was still a well regarded and respected driver.

Some say he may have stayed too long, but if he had left there were never really any major seats available in the period 2001-2004, and would have ended up where he is now a few years earlier. Not that he is in a bad position now of course, for Red Bull Racing have transformed Coulthard, apparently overnight, and now Coulthard has that opportunity for Ferrari power, AND Adrian Newey designs for 2007 onwards, if he remains there of course.

So it would seem that Coulthard made the right decision at the end of 1995. He was given more of an opportunity at McLaren then he would have been given at Ferrari, and now he has helped entice Ferrari power, and Adrian Newey to Red Bull. He may not need the Ferrari team for glory, but Ferrari power, and the top designer in F1 could just possibly send more than he ever dreamt of his way.

Don’t rule it out, for anything can happen in Formula One, and it usually does.

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