‘I’ve been there and done it’ – David Coulthard gives his take on McLaren intra-team battle as he recalls time alongside Mika Hakkinen

David Coulthard is relishing the battle between McLaren workforce mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris up to now this season, making comparisons to the 2021 title race and the years he spent alongside Mika Hakkinen at McLaren.

After 12 of 24 scheduled Grands Prix, Piastri leads Norris by the slender margin of eight factors – equal to a sixth-place end – in the Drivers’ Championship standings, having gained 5 races to his workforce mate’s 4.

Forward of the marketing campaign resuming at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Coulthard praised Piastri for holding the sting however likened the scenario to Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s pulsating scrap 4 years in the past.

“If it was half a World Championship, Oscar’s gained,” acknowledged Coulthard, who made 246 begins within the high echelon, scoring 13 wins, 62 podiums and greater than 500 factors.

“I don’t suppose anybody may say he hasn’t deserved to be main – he was main earlier than [the McLarens] came together in Canada. But when Lando turns it round within the second half of the season, he’s doing it in opposition to somebody that’s a proficient third 12 months F1 driver.

“It’s a bit like 2021, the place some individuals are nonetheless so vocal about what occurred… just one driver may win. Each Max and Lewis drove like World Champions that 12 months, however solely certainly one of them may have the title.”

Referencing how the intra-team battle has been managed up to now, Coulthard continued: “I feel McLaren have dealt with it rather well. I feel each their drivers are on the tamer facet of animal than the wilder facet of animal, in order that most likely makes it slightly bit simpler.

“However this is also their solely probability to win a world title; we don’t know what 2026 brings, we don’t know what the long run is, so that you’ve acquired to grab the second.

“That’s why I’m actually impressed with how Oscar has stepped up this 12 months. However Lando’s response during the last two races is exhibiting his high quality as nicely. I feel it’s going to be a type of issues the place each of them deserve it, however just one can get it.”

Coulthard added that he had lengthy been braced for the aforementioned conflict between Norris and Piastri in Canada, drawing on his personal expertise alongside Hakkinen at McLaren from 1996 to 2001, which included a number of flashpoints.

“I predicted the approaching collectively, as a result of I’ve been there and executed that – I crashed into Mika, he crashed into me,” stated the Scot, who memorably collected his workforce mate on the first lap of the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix.

“It’s at all times going to be the case that regardless of how tight a workforce is, upon getting the depth of each drivers having an opportunity to win, then that’s going to get increasingly more sophisticated.”

Whereas McLaren are in a powerful place in each championships, Coulthard has not but dominated out Verstappen and Pink Bull getting again within the combine – the Dutchman sitting 69 factors adrift of Piastri as issues stand.

“You possibly can’t rule Max out,” Coulthard argued, whereas lauding Verstappen’s stellar Qualifying effort at Silverstone final day trip. “I feel for the championship, everyone knows it’s going to take an improve to unlock some efficiency.

“The place Pink Bull are proper now, and in the event that they had been frozen, it’s tough to think about that the second half of the season circuits are instantly going to go well with the Pink Bull higher than the primary half.

“It is going to take an improve from Pink Bull to provide him the consistency. Are they able to doing it? Completely. Have they executed it earlier than? Sure. Is Max distinctive? Completely.”

Learn extra from Coulthard and a number of other different former F1 stars in our mid-season legends review.