Why David Coulthard once said Michael Schumacher ‘wasn’t the best driver’ despite winning F1 title that year

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Michael Schumacher’s era of dominance with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004 set the tone for Formula 1 at the start of the 21^st century.

Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and now Max Verstappen have all gone on to secure multiple world championships on the bounce in the past 20 years.

However, Michael Schumacher was the original dominant force and alongside Rubens Barrichello was virtually unstoppable.

He won nearly 50 races in that period which is even more impressive when you consider there were fewer Grand Prix each year and in 2002 he was on the podium 17 times during a 17-race season.

Schumacher was up against his biggest rival Mika Hakkinen at the beginning of that spell before the likes of David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya started to challenge him.

It was Alonso who eventually ended his reign of supremacy in 2005 with Renault and Schumacher originally hung up his racing gloves the following year before deciding to return for a three-year stint with Mercedes.

Speaking to Autosport back in 2000 after Schumacher’s first title with Ferrari, Coulthard wasn’t particularly impressed with the German.

Schumacher had finished ahead of Hakkinen and Coulthard by winning the final four races of the season.

Coulthard believed that other significant factors came into play during the campaign and that’s why he ended up winning the title and denying Coulthard’s teammate his third successive championship.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

David Coulthard explains why Michael Schumacher ‘wasn’t the best driver’ after 2000 F1 title win

Coulthard was asked about Schumacher at the end of the 2000 campaign and said: “He wasn’t the best driver, because he was helped by too many factors.

“Next year it’s going to be tough for him because I want to win my first title and Mika his third.”

Mercedes-Benz president Jurgen Hubbert then commented: “Both drivers will be given a chance to win the title back for McLaren-Mercedes.

“And we will give them a package that is more reliable than this year’s.”

McLaren team president Ron Dennis added: “We all know that history repeats itself.

“But we will do everything in our power to try and prevent them from winning the title for the next 21 years.”

David Coulthard’s prediction didn’t come true as Michael Schumacher continued to dominate

Coulthard recently admitted that Hakkinen was a better driver than him – unlike two other world champions – but at the time would have felt he had a real chance of winning a title.

The Finn had a huge crash at the start of the 2001 season and he struggled throughout the rest of his final campaign, winning two more races but finishing more than 80 points behind Schumacher.

Coulthard ended up being Schumacher’s closest rival, although the German nearly doubled his points tally by the end of that season.

Schumacher’s 2000 title win was aided by some terrible reliability issues in the McLaren garage.

Hakkinen was on pole for the first two races of the season but failed to finish either Grand Prix, retiring again from the United States Grand Prix.

Coulthard also failed to score points at the opening two races, although he was disqualified from the Grand Prix at Interlagos.

Schumacher went on to prove Coulthard wrong with his performances after the 2000 season and is still considered one of the greats of the sport.