How David Coulthard once proved he was ‘a lot smarter’ than Red Bull-backed driver who never scored a point

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Red Bull have nurtured their fair share of talents and some have turned out to be more successful than others in Formula 1.

Not everyone can do what Max Verstappen or Sebastian Vettel has. The team’s first driver was an experienced hire, and it helped set them on a path towards success. David Coulthard finished his career at the Milton Keynes-based outfit, but did manage to score some podiums first.

Red Bull have come a long way over the last 20 years, and so too has their academy. Currently, they’re trying to decide which of their junior drivers to keep in a seat alongside Verstappen heading into the 2026 F1 regulations, which are significant changes.

Helmut Marko was left ‘laughing’ about the future of one Red Bull driver at the last race in Baku, and the time for the team to make a decision is nearing. One Red Bull chief might have saved their job after months of struggles, as the team starts to win races again and find the level they have been at for 15 years.

READ MORE: Christian Horner once revealed Red Bull’s ‘most significant’ F1 signing and it’s not Max Verstappen

David Coulthard proved he was ‘a lot smarter’ than Scott Speed after Australian Grand Prix incident

In the earlier days, back in the mid-2000s, Red Bull’s driver academy wasn’t quite as prolific. One of the individuals who would go on to get a seat in Formula 1 was Scott Speed.

The young American clashed with a senior Red Bull driver during his rookie season at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix, after Coulthard outsmarted him and claimed he had passed him under yellow flags. The incident enraged Speed, who ended up receiving a fine for swearing in the stewards’ room.

“Effectively, there was a crash in Melbourne towards the end of the race, and to miss the crash, I went around David. He had to make a pit stop anyway, so he was never going to be a factor in where I was going to finish,” he told F1’s Beyond The Grid Podcast.

“I remember they went and protested it, and I remember thinking like ‘Really? I didn’t affect your result at all, I was going to beat you either way, you got to make a pit stop.’ I could not understand what he was getting after, and in the meeting, they’re showing a video and a yellow flag came out to like 90 degrees of where he was.

“And he’s like ‘Yeah, I saw that yellow and I stopped.’ He was a lot smarter than I was, and he politicked it really well, and so, I was left with a ‘F— —‘ comment because that’s what I was capable of putting out, I guess.”

What happened to Scott Speed’s Formula 1 career after the 2006 Australian Grand Prix?

The penalty Speed received demoted him to ninth and stripped him of what would have been the only point he scored in Formula 1.

He’d finish ninth at Monaco the following season, too, but his career in the top flight lasted just 28 races before a young Vettel would replace him for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Unfortunately for the American driver, he would never get a shot at the highest level again, and has raced in just about every series across the world since then.

From NASCAR to IndyCar, to RallyCross and even Formula E, his racing exploits extend much further than some could boast.

For any fans of Speed, he hasn’t raced competitively for four years, and it looks as though he has no plans to return to motorsport any time soon.