Talk:David Coulthard

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Untitled[edit]

I removed 1996 Barcelona from the list of DC's podium finishes: his official website says he finished 3rd, but http://www.planet-f1.com/ and http://www.f1db.com/ agree that he retired. I also removed 1999 Montreal: the same two sites agree he finished 7th, not 2nd. --rbrwr

Aida's circuit[edit]

Well, I modified all the section of "Podiums and Wins" and I put the circuits links and not the Grand Prix links, but...I don't found the Aida article...anyone knows which is? --Reignerok 22:07, 25 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It is the TI Circuit

Gaz C 09:01, 28 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Opening paragraph is wrong, he's no longer fourth on all time scorers list, following 2008 Japanese Grand Prix he's 5th behind Fernando Alonso. He also crashed on the first lap again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.234.159.248 (talk) 06:26, 12 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Removed[edit]

I removed this: "With Jacques Villeneuve on his way to Williams for 1996, Coulthard had to look elsewhere."

Coulthard has recently stated that he regrets moving to McLaren, which he did for money, as he thinks he would have won the title had he stayed at Williams. Therefore the above statement is wrong, it wasn't because of the arrival of Villeneuve. I haven't added anything about DC's regrets as I can't find a link to it. Damiancorrigan 14:36, 9 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Coulthard is not a reliable source for his own bio, his self image is very different to reality. He was never world champion material and Frank Williams knew it. Furthermore he was recruited by McLaren as a number two, quite appropriate really. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.234.102.226 (talk) 04:14, 27 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think the following should be removed or a reference/citation provided

"In 1993, Coulthard..........played an important role in advancing the car's technology."

Personal life[edit]

Isn't the word 'gorgeous' a little subjective for Wikipedia?

Personally I don't go for Heidi Klum.

- Mull1

Could SOMEBODY include a pronunciation of 'coulthard' ... commentators use both options —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.172.99.15 (talk) 12:19, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comments/Whinger[edit]

Shouldn't the article mention the number of daft comments and whinges (it's always the car's fault, never his; some rules are silly) he's made over the years - the most recent being a claim that he's as good as Hamilton?

No.

You are stating that his claim to being as good as Lewis Hamilton is a whinge. How do you know he IS NOT as good as Lewis Hamilton? That has no place in an encyclopaedia, and nor really deserves any mention anywhere, it is a completely diffrent issue to Murray Walker comments, however. Saying these comments are 'daft' alludes to your oppostition to this driver. It means the article has partiality which is wrong and misleading; it further increases the poor image Wikipedia has in the media, adn justifies the claims of those who possess this view. The section you propose should not be included.

"How do you know he IS NOT as good as Lewis Hamilton?" - is this a joke? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.234.141.22 (talk) 05:44, 5 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DavidCoulthard (talk • contribs) 04:10, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think comparison with Hamilton might be adjudicated with the statistic of how often they've been better than their teammates... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.172.99.15 (talk) 12:17, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nationality[edit]

To Lurker, re comment that 'WPs don't get to decide nationality'.

The F1 infobox is about the sportsman/woman's racing career. The nationality in there is the nationality the driver races under. That nationality, by FIA rules, is British not Scottish. This is just the way this sport works and is reflected in all official championship results. Football, and many other sports, are different of course and I wouldn't expect to see British as a nationality in, say, Darren Fletcher's infobox. The racing nationality of a driver will not, by the way, in all cases even match his passport - at lower levels of the sport it's possible to compete for the country that issues your racing license (this is not true for F1, though). A bit like various African runners competing for Middle Eastern countries at present.

In the wider world of course Coulthard is undoubtedly both British and Scottish and both should be reflected in the main text of the article. 4u1e 12:54, 26 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If the field is not intended to show nationality but the country a sportsman represents, it should not be named "nationality". As long as it displays something beyond the world of sport, it should be treated as part of the wider world, and not a matter for a sporting wikiproject to decide unilaterally. Lurker (said · done) 10:51, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Are you arguing that David Coulthard does not have British citizenship? -- Ian Dalziel 11:39, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Ian's right, Coulthard is unarguably of British nationality. Most (all?) people would also consider him to be of Scottish nationality in some sense, although opinions differ quite widely on what exactly that means. So if we're talking about nationality British is unarguably correct, while Scottish is arguably correct.
The difficulty is that in some cases (not Coulthard!) it's hard to prove what nationality (in the home nations sense) someone considers themselves. By all normal measures Tony Blair is Scottish (born and raised in Scotland to Scottish parents) but he doesn't seem to be considered as such generally. The passport nationality is a good way around this, since it is verifiable and unambiguous. 4u1e 12:42, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I think for people living in the UK someone's nationality should be a personal decision (rather than the 'nation' they must represent for the sport - if indeed F1 drivers represent a country).
For instance Andy Murray plays tennis for britain, but has stated he considers himself Scottish first, than british (and his article reflects this). On Coulthard's own website he defines himself as 'the Scottish Formula 1 racing driver' and I believe this article should reflect his wishes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.68.51.183 (talk) 12:13, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Does his website say that he does not consider himself British?
He is quite clearly both Scottish and British, and for consistency, while his notability stems from his F1 career, the nationality shown should be that used by the FIA. -- Ian Dalziel (talk) 12:31, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Note that 'nationality' links to FIA Super Licence, and the nationality is listed as it is on the driver's Super Licence. Scotland does not issue Super Licences, nor passports, so for all purposes, 'British' is the most accurate description. Bretonbanquet (talk) 13:52, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
So you think that your opinion of his nationality is more valid than his own?! Besides, if someone is Scottish they are automatically british too. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richardeast (talk • contribs) 14:25, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It's not my opinion, it's the opinion of the FIA, which is more valid than mine, yours and David Coulthard's. The link is to his racing nationality which is unarguably British. Bretonbanquet (talk) 15:29, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hummm - ok, I take onboard what you're saying Richardeast (talk) 16:34, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]


A bit biased & some un-cited comments[edit]

The opening text seems rather biased as if it has been written by someone who does not like/agree with things that David Coulthard has done. There are a number of personal and un-cited comments such as "He has a bizzare jaw-line which creates unique aerodynamic challenges and often crashes due to jaw induced turbulence which he blames on other factors.". Articles are not meant to be biased in this manner. Smita034 (talk) 10:41, 5 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not an aerodynamasist (can't even spell it) so I can't comment on the turbulence, but he does have an unusual jaw-line, I've seen it close up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.234.48.219 (talk) 03:53, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How is this worth mentioning? "first British driver since Jackie Stewart to take victory there", after all someone wins each race, Lewis Hamilton won this race in 2008 should his bio say he was the first British driver since Coulthard to take victory there? Achievements should not be exaggerated in this way, this is not a special case.

Tax Haven[edit]

Isn't the use of the word "taxhaven" mentioning where he lives inflammatory and unneccesary? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.233.65.136 (talk) 06:13, 9 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I suppose that depends whether sources can be cited attributing his living there to tax reasons. Best I could find so far: "... racing driver David Coulthard, who says tax is only part of his reason for living there ..." --Rogerb67 (talk) 13:35, 19 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Lucky Underpants[edit]

Apparently he had a pair of lucky underpants which he raced in for most of his early career. Googled it and found a reference to it straight away http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2003/aug/03/motorracing.features

and also a quote (from his autobiography?), which probably isn't suitable for Wikipedia?:

After the crash in Spa, I was taken back to the medical centre and, in front of Jackie Stewart and my parents they started to cut off my race suit. I was lying there, leg broken, still stunned from the crash thinking, "Shit, my lucky underpants are about to greet the world........" They cut my suit off and there I lay, in all my glory, my pants with more holes than cloth left, my bollocks hanging out of one hole, my dick falling out of another, it was a sorry sight. My mother was mortified. Actually, I have to admit, for years I carried them with me to every race. I have a little bag I take to races with little keep-sakes in, I don't really consider myself to be superstitious, but I had a St Christopher from my great-grandmother, some gold coins that someone else gave to me and those lucky underpants. Fast forward another six years to my time at McLaren, a team famed for its clinical precision and immaculate presentation and those lucky pants were still in my little bag. Then, one day, a McLaren employee was cleaning my things, saw these pants - which in all fairness were now over a decade old - and threw them away. I don't remember if I won that day or not, but I do recall my bag seemed a lot fresher.

92.10.68.145 (talk) 12:53, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation of his name[edit]

How is his name pronounced? Is ˈdeɪvɪd ˈkoʊlθɑːrt the right pronunciation? --Gamma127 (talk) 16:16, 29 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's "Cool-th-ard". Jonchapple (talk) 10:52, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm struggling to find a reliable source for this one. While I suspect that many Scots would consider the answer obvious, this is a point that is open to being challenged, not least because of the number of commentators (including the never-wrong Murray Walker :-) who have consistently pronounced his name differently. Longwayround (talk) 12:33, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Current picture[edit]

Is it just me or do others feel that the current top picture is a bit contrived and that this one is more appropriate? Bjmullan (talk) 09:35, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No takers? I will then change it. Bjmullan (talk) 22:42, 4 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Flagicon in infobox[edit]

I saw my change removing the flagicons on the infoboxes had been reverted - but the guideline quoted to justify this was for use of a general flagicon use within the article (i.e. where someone represents a specific country at a sporting event), not for someone’s nationalities and not on their infobox – which has its own specific guidlines within the flags section;

"Avoid flag icons in infoboxes As a rule of thumb, flag icons should not be used infoboxes, even when there is a "country", "nationality" or equivalent field: they are unnecessarily distracting and give undue prominence to one field among many. The guidelines for a number of common infoboxes (eg. Template:Infobox company, Template:Infobox film, Template:Infobox person) explicitly ban the use of flag icons."

If you feel a special case should be made for some individuals, please make the case on the WP:Flagicon talk page (there's been a discussion on there already for 'Flag in Infobox').

On a personal note I don’t disagree with the editor that flagicons are a nice visual aid - but I can understand why the general consensus has been to take them out for nationalities in infoboxes – so to try to ensure consistency across the encyclopaedia I've retaken them out.

Richardeast (talk) 09:49, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please see this discussion over at WP:MOSFLAG Longwayround (talk) 18:53, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Negatively biased article needs revision[edit]

This article seems very negatively biased. It should be in the business of stating the facts and leaving any judgement of them to readers.

For example:

"a series of poor performances" - says who? "barely half the points" - putting a negative spin on events. "disappointing" - who was disappointed? If this cannot be cited, it should be removed.

There is no mention of him being twice winner of the Monaco Grand Prix - surely this is a major omission.

This article needs to be cleaned up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rjhughson (talk • contribs) 22:50, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Then why don't you? --Falcadore (talk) 03:09, 1 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Dubious[edit]

These two pages [1] and [2] both state that DC became the tenth member of the 200 Club. And the following lists the others:

Currently in the 2011 grid, only three other drivers other Jenson has crossed this feat. It includes Micheal Schumacher with 277 races, Rubens Barrichello with 313 and Jarno Trulli with 243 race starts. Barrichello is the only driver with over 300 race starts which is the most by any Formula One driver. In Formula One’s history there are only seven other drivers to cross the 200 mark. They include David Coulthard (246), Riccardo Patrese (256), Gincarlo Fisichella (229), Gerhard Berger (210), Nelson Piquet (204), Andrea de Cesaris (208) and Jean Alesi (201).

— http://www.thesportsmirror.com/2011/08/button-enters-the-elite-200-club/

Thoughts? Longwayround (talk) 21:20, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. I think Coulthard was the tenth driver to participate in 200 Grand Prix meetings, after Patrese, Barrichello, Schumacher, Berger, de Cesaris, Piquet, Alesi, Prost and Alboreto. The thing is, Prost and Alboreto didn't actually start 200 races - Prost failed to start three of his, leaving him on 199; and Alboreto failed to qualify for 21 of his, leaving him on 194 starts. So Coulthard was the 8th driver to start 200 races, but the tenth driver to participate at 200 Grand Prix meetings. Bretonbanquet (talk) 21:32, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
That's rather what I was wondering. I suspect we ignore Fisichella. Would he have joined the club after DC? Longwayround (talk) 21:34, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, he reached 200 after Coulthard, and so did Trulli and Button. Bretonbanquet (talk) 21:37, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I've added the following explanatory note: 'in the list of drivers to have started 200 Grands Prix (Alain Prost and Michele Alboreto entered 202 and 215 races but started fewer).' Longwayround (talk) 21:41, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Looks good to me :) Bretonbanquet (talk) 21:42, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright violation?[edit]

While checking references for WP:FACT I spotted what appears to be copyright violation.

I've flagged the article because of these similarities and these.

Not being an expert on DC myself, I've no real idea where to start in tidying up any potential issues. Longwayround (talk) 22:11, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This seems to be the relevant edit. Longwayround (talk) 00:21, 11 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have reverted your change, as I don't believe the article fails WP:COPYVIO. Undoubtedly the text added in the edit you identified was based on the information at http://www.dcmuseum.co.uk/david/biography.php but by looking at the diffs, it looks to me as though efforts have been made to reword the article text to avoid the copyright violation. Worst case, those remaining 25 phrases just need to be tweaked further. DH85868993 (talk) 00:41, 11 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Respectfully, I disagree. I am, however, in the process of attempting to reword the relevant section. Have a look at my current draft to see where I'm up to and potentially lend a hand. Longwayround (talk) 11:00, 12 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I should add, having investigated further, that I'm not even sure that my rewrite isn't guilty of being a close WP:PARAPHRASE. Longwayround (talk) 20:25, 12 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you would look at the WP F1 talk page, it has been pointed out and justified that this looks like a case of the DC Museum site copying content from this article. Based on that, I would support this copyright issue being dropped. QueenCake (talk) 16:40, 13 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As general notice to all, I removed the tags based upon it being a backwards copyright violation. The full justification can be found on the WP F1 talk page. Thanks. QueenCake (talk) 19:17, 28 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright problem removed[edit]

Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: http://www.dcmuseum.co.uk/david/biography.php. Infringing material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. Longwayround (talk) 00:28, 11 December 2011 (UTC) Longwayround (talk) 00:28, 11 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wow.[edit]

I didn't know you could copyright text, cool. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.19.120.56 (talk) 01:38, 11 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Early Life and Career[edit]

The article states "Coulthard was educated at Kirkcudbright Academy, achieving eight O-levels". This cannot be correct since O-levels are a qualification used in England and other countries but never in Scottish state schools such as Kirkcudbright Academy. There is probably confusion with O-grades which were taught in Scotland during Coulthard's childhood. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.171.2.78 (talk) 09:52, 5 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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They all worked except the www.davidcoulthardmuseum.com one, which I have replaced. DH85868993 (talk) 00:51, 25 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Scottish Education[edit]

http://www.kirkcudbrightacademy.website/senior-school/ The Kirkcudbright Academy provides a Curriculum through the Scottish Qualifications Authority. Therefore, reference 2 provided is obviously misinformed because you cannot study O-Levels (English) and Highers (Scottish) at the same school, only Scottish O Grades and Highers. Hence, I corrected the Article. S2mhunter (talk) 11:43, 8 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

As I said in my edit summary, the source to which this information is referenced specifically states that he left school with "8 O-Levels, 1 Higher and 6 Detentions." Given that the source is itself Scottish I would expect them to know the fine details of what was and wasn't possible to achieve at a Scottish school in the late 1980s. If they are incorrect, you'll need a source that specifically states what qualifications he gained. A source that shows the current general situation is not sufficient to prove what happened to one specific individual nearly 35 years ago. Pyrope 15:50, 8 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your reply. I studied at a Scottish school in the late 1980s and it wasn't possible to study O-Levels and then Higher Grades, as indicated in the reference, only Ordinary Grades. Therefore it is obviously a typo. This is further corroborated by the School itself stating in its website that it only provides a Curriculum through the Scottish Qualifications Authority. If a referenced article stated that Nigel Mansell studied O-Grades and then A-Levels, I would hope you would question its correctness, so it's just common sense. https://www.factsnippet.com/site/facts-about-david-coulthard.html https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/david-coulthard-15171.php S2mhunter (talk) 12:23, 11 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Born in Scotland he's Scottish end of[edit]

just the description Jbhoy (talk) 23:07, 21 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And raced under a British licence. Mac Dreamstate (talk) 23:12, 21 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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