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HomeFormula One‘I’ve been there and executed it’ – David Coulthard provides his tackle...

‘I’ve been there and executed it’ – David Coulthard provides his tackle McLaren intra-team battle as he recollects time alongside Mika Hakkinen

David Coulthard is relishing the combat between McLaren crew mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris up to now this season, making comparisons to the 2021 title race and the years he spent alongside Mika Hakkinen at McLaren.

After 12 of 24 scheduled Grands Prix, Piastri leads Norris by the slender margin of eight factors – equal to a sixth-place end – in the Drivers’ Championship standings, having received 5 races to his crew mate’s 4.

Forward of the marketing campaign resuming at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Coulthard praised Piastri for holding the sting however likened the scenario to Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s pulsating scrap 4 years in the past.

“If it was half a World Championship, Oscar’s received,” said Coulthard, who made 246 begins within the prime echelon, scoring 13 wins, 62 podiums and greater than 500 factors.

“I don’t assume anybody might say he hasn’t deserved to be main – he was main earlier than [the McLarens] got here collectively in Canada. But when Lando turns it round within the second half of the season, he’s doing it in opposition to somebody that’s a proficient third yr F1 driver.

“It’s a bit like 2021, the place some individuals are nonetheless so vocal about what occurred… just one driver might win. Each Max and Lewis drove like World Champions that yr, however solely considered one of them might have the title.”

Referencing how the intra-team combat has been managed up to now, Coulthard continued: “I believe McLaren have dealt with it rather well. I believe each their drivers are on the tamer facet of animal than the wilder facet of animal, in order that most likely makes it somewhat bit simpler.

“However this may be their solely probability to win a world title; we don’t know what 2026 brings, we don’t know what the long run is, so that you’ve obtained to grab the second.

“That’s why I’m actually impressed with how Oscar has stepped up this yr. However Lando’s response over the past two races is exhibiting his high quality as effectively. I believe it’s going to be a type of issues the place each of them deserve it, however just one can get it.”

Coulthard added that he had lengthy been braced for the aforementioned conflict between Norris and Piastri in Canada, drawing on his personal expertise alongside Hakkinen at McLaren from 1996 to 2001, which included a number of flashpoints.

“I predicted the approaching collectively, as a result of I’ve been there and executed that – I crashed into Mika, he crashed into me,” stated the Scot, who memorably collected his crew mate on the primary lap of the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix.

“It’s at all times going to be the case that irrespective of how tight a crew is, after getting the depth of each drivers having an opportunity to win, then that’s going to get increasingly more sophisticated.”

Whereas McLaren are in a powerful place in each championships, Coulthard has not but dominated out Verstappen and Purple Bull getting again within the combine – the Dutchman sitting 69 factors adrift of Piastri as issues stand.

“You possibly can’t rule Max out,” Coulthard argued, whereas lauding Verstappen’s stellar Qualifying effort at Silverstone final outing. “I believe for the championship, everyone knows it’s going to take an improve to unlock some efficiency.

“The place Purple Bull are proper now, and in the event that they have been frozen, it’s troublesome to think about that the second half of the season circuits are instantly going to swimsuit the Purple Bull higher than the primary half.

“It’ll take an improve from Purple Bull to offer him the consistency. Are they able to doing it? Completely. Have they executed it earlier than? Sure. Is Max distinctive? Completely.”

Learn extra from Coulthard and several other different former F1 stars in our mid-season legends overview.

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