David Coulthard recalls how ‘conniving’ Alain Prost upset McLaren after retiring from Formula 1

Follow us on Google Discover

David Coulthard worked with his fair share of Formula 1 legends across his career, the majority of whom were while he was at McLaren.

Although he goes down as one of the better protagonists in history to have failed to win the drivers’ championship, he still contributed a lot during a 15-season period.

In 1998, he won a constructors’ title with McLaren and backed Mika Hakkinen up in consecutive title triumphs at the end of the millennium.

Coulthard ended up retiring at the end of the 2008 season, but had already helped to lay the foundations for Red Bull’s dynasty in the following years. Everywhere he touched found success.

David Coulthard’s full F1 champions ranking! Are there any decisions you disagree with?

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Michael Schumacher made Coulthard realise champions are different after a collision at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix.

Just a year prior, Coulthard helped Jacques Villeneuve win a title, despite driving for rival teams. The Scotsman made plenty of friends.

READ MORE: David Coulthard reveals his only ‘criticism’ of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris team orders

David Coulthard says Alain Prost deceived McLaren with test driver role in 1996

One of the great champions Coulthard got to work with was Alain Prost, who officially retired from Formula 1 at the end of the 1993 season.

He then worked as a French TV pundit for the next two years before penning a deal to work with McLaren in 1996. He had previous with them, having won a title in 1989 together.

Little did they know, he was actually planning to set up his own team for 1997, and was able to gather information on how to run his team on top of his duties as a test driver.

According to Coulthard, speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, it’s something that his boss, Ron Dennis, wasn’t aware of at the time. It would’ve helped to give him a slight head start.

“When he came to McLaren in ’96 as a sort of advisor/test driver. He’s also a little conniving, because he knew, I guess, that he had the chance to start Prost Grand Prix, and what he was doing was getting a ringside seat inside McLaren for a year, discovering what it took to run a team.

“Then he started his own team, so I suspect Ron Dennis was a bit p—– off with him because he wouldn’t have known that.”

READ MORE: David Coulthard explains why he now rates Max Verstappen as a better F1 champion than Lewis Hamilton

How did Prost Grand Prix fare after their debut season in 1997?

Prost would sign Olivier Panis and Shinji Nakano for the 1997 season, and actually got off to a very strong start.

The former managed two podiums in his first six races before breaking his legs in a brutal crash in Canada. After that, he was never quite the same driver.

Jarno Trulli stepped in during his absence and did manage a fourth place at Hockenheim. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.

The two would end up being teammates in 1998 and 1999, the highlight being a second place for Trulli at the Nurburgring in ’99.

But both were replaced for 2000 by Jean Alesi and Nick Heidfeld, who wound up scoring zero points. In 2001, their last year in operation, they had five different drivers and eventually signed off from the grid having failed to win a race.