David Coulthard shares which two former F1 world champions he thought he was better than

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David Coulthard was one of the most successful drivers of his generation who never managed to win a world championship.

On the all-time list of Formula 1 drivers ranked by race wins, David Coulthard sits joint 23^rd with two-time world champion Alberto Ascari.

The likes of Felipe Massa, Rubens Barrichello and even the great James Hunt all failed to reach his tally of 13 victories.

However, during his time with Williams and McLaren, he was never capable of truly challenging for a title, despite finishing 3^rd in the Drivers’ Championship on three occasions and being runner-up to Michael Schumacher in 2001.

His time with McLaren coincided with Schumacher and Ferrari’s dominance in the early 2000s and teammate Mika Hakkinen winning back-to-back championships in 1998 and 1999.

Hakkinen’s accomplishments were such that he ended up being an inspiration to current driver Valtteri Bottas who has had a very successful F1 career.

In an interview with RaceExpress during a Red Bull press event, Coulthard was asked to rank himself among his peers.

He made his debut in 1994 following the death of the great Ayrton Senna and while many drivers would have crumbled under that pressure, Coulthard managed to forge a very successful F1 career.

In his opinion, Coulthard believes he was a stronger driver than two previous champions that he raced against.

One of those was 1996 champion Damon Hill, while the other was his successor Jacques Villeneuve.

It speaks volumes about Coulthard’s confidence in his own ability that he thought he was the fastest driver of the trio.

However, he’s not afraid to admit that another champion of that era had the upper hand over him during races.

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David Coulthard believes he was faster than Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve

Coulthard was asked to speak once he heard the name of a driver that he thought was better than him.

The interviewer named Jarno Trulli, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Eddie Irvine, Mark Webber, Juan-Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve before finally reaching Mika Hakkinen,

Coulthard then spoke up and said: “Mika he was better for sure.

“The others are all great drivers, no question. Some had better qualifying speed than me or something but in terms of prolonging a career and getting race victories, I stayed quiet for the majority because other than Damon, I won more races than all those other guys.”

How David Coulthard compared to Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve

While Coulthard did win more races than Villeneuve in his career, Hill nearly doubled his tally over the course of his time in the sport.

Hill also managed that feat in a much shorter space of time, although Coulthard points out that his longevity is one of the reasons why he considers his career to be better than the 1996 and 1997 champions.

Villeneuve also succeeded outside of Formula 1 with his 1995 Indy 500 win something very few other champions have managed.

Damon’s father Graham Hill accomplished this feat as did Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell, however, Villeneuve’s F1 career was shorter than Coulthard’s partly for this reason.

He also spent years racing for midfield teams such as BAR and Sauber before walking away, whereas the majority of Coulthard’s career was spent with McLaren before becoming one of Red Bull’s initial drivers on their F1 debut.

Judging drivers against each other on talent alone is incredibly tricky when they never raced against each other in the same cars.

However, in 1996, it was Hill who defeated Villeneuve at Williams to claim the title even if he was dropped instead of the Canadian the following year.

However, while Coulthard believes he was the superior racer of the trio, Hill and Villeneuve can both point to their world championships as reasons why they’re wrong.