EXCLUSIVE: David Coulthard speaks to our F1 podcast Pit Lane Torque to mark McLaren’s 1,000th begin.
McLaren are the defending champions on this milestone season for the staff (Picture: Getty)
David Coulthard has little doubt McLaren will break Mercedes’ dominance and win Grands Prix in what’s a landmark yr for his outdated staff. McLaren Racing first began competing in System 1 60 years in the past and subsequent Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix will mark their 1,000th begin within the sport.
They have a good time these milestones because the defending drivers’ and constructors’ champions after Lando Norris secured his maiden title final December. Rivals Mercedes have hit the bottom operating in 2026 having tailored quickest to the brand new laws, however McLaren’s restoration has been swift and Norris received the Dash race in Miami earlier this month.
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And their former driver Coulthard is assured extra success is on the way in which. “They’re 100% again on observe,” the 13-time race winner advised our F1 video podcast Pit Lane Torque. “That they had a really aggressive final run out after a tough defence of the beginning in Australia and in China.
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“However I do not doubt that they will be profitable Grands Prix this yr. We’ll see how the event race goes, however they have one thing that is working and so they’re persevering with to maintain including to it as effectively.”
Racer Bruce McLaren first entered his eponymous staff into an F1 race on the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. He scored the outfit’s first win two years later in Belgium however was sadly killed whereas testing a Can-Am automobile at Goodwood Circuit in Sussex in June 1970. However the staff lived on with enterprise associate and pal Teddy Mayer assuming management.
Within the a long time since, eight drivers have received 13 titles representing McLaren which has received 10 constructors’ championships.
With 203 race victories, McLaren’s win share stands at a bit over 20 %. “In contrast to boxing, the place you clearly need to win all of your matches, in motor racing, in case you win 20 % or much less of the Grands Prix you enter, you are thought-about actually profitable. It is simply such a aggressive surroundings,” mentioned Coulthard.
All however certainly one of his 13 F1 wins had been scored whereas representing McLaren over 9 seasons between 1996 and 2004. He added: “It is an incredible story, the McLaren story… now, it is bought to be one of the crucial recognisable names in motor racing. Solely Ferrari can high everybody.”
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The McLaren household has not owned any portion of the staff or wider enterprise because the late-Seventies. However even when boss Ron Dennis had full possession, there was all the time resistance to transferring away from the McLaren identify. Coulthard mentioned: “It regarded prefer it was a kind of logical step from Mercedes being an engine provider, to being a automobile partnership, to then Mercedes shopping for McLaren.
“If that had occurred, the identify would have been phased out, however assume Ron and Mansour [Ojjeh] resisted, as the 2 primary shareholders at the moment, to stay impartial.
“That they had some difficulties for a couple of years there, however I do not see McLaren disappearing as a reputation and a model out from System One, even supposing they, not like Pink Bull, nonetheless very a lot are engine buyer. However they proved final yr which you can nonetheless have a variety of success in case you do an incredible job on the opposite facet.”
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