Over the course of his 15-year Formula One career, Scotland's David Coulthard has amassed a rather impressive total of 12 pole positions and 13 race wins. But his equally impressive tally of 62 podium finishes tells a lot more about his fight to become the best, when he was always just one step behind. Having seen team-mate Mika Hakkinen take two consecutive world championships in 1998 and 1999, Coulthard's career was gradually being eroded away by his superior team-mate as time started to turn against him.

2000 followed a similar pattern for Coulthard, and he once again found himself at the wrong end of Hakkinen in the McLaren fight. Despite scoring three wins to the Finn's four, Hakkinen's metronomic consistency in finishing second cost Coulthard in the long run, as Hakkinen took over the title fight in the closing stages of the season, ultimately losing out to Schumacher for the first time. With Ferrari's relentless development work continuing to take its toll on McLaren's efforts in 2001, Coulthard was only able to watch from a distance as Schumacher wrapped up the title with five races to go. After starting well with two wins and three more podium finishes in the first six races, Coulthard stuttered mid-season, retiring three times and finishing on the podium just twice. A late-season spurt of four podium finishes in the final five races was far too little too late, and he ended up trailing Schumacher by a colassal 58 points, but 18 clear of Hakkinen.

Ferrari's domination of the 2002 season offered little in the way of reward for Coulthard, and although any potential championship challenge was quickly dismissed, he did manage to take one of two non-Ferrari wins, with his second victory at Monaco. Alongside Hakkinen's replacement Kimi Räikkönen, Coulthard was expected to assume the role of team leader, but from the off was pushed hard by the Finn, especially in qualifying when Coulthard was outqualified 10 times out of 17. Sporadic podium finishes elevated Coulthard to fifth in the championship standings, just ahead of Kimi, but behind both Williams-BMW drivers.

It was another year of 'what could have been' for Coulthard in 2003, as team-mate Räikkönen launched his first assault on the drivers' championship. After starting the season with a victory in Australia, his last ever in F1, Coulthard was outraced by Räikkönen in every one of the remaining races, with the Finn also outqualifying the Scot more often than not. While Räikkönen was easily scoring consistent podium finishes, Coulthard regularly finished fifth or lower, resulting in a meagre score of 51 points at season's end, compared to Räikkönen's 91.

His poor 2003 proved to be the beginning of the end of Coulthard at McLaren, and after another unfullfilling season at the team in 2004, when he scored just 24 points without a single podium, David had to opt for a seat at the newly-renamed Red Bull team to keep his F1 career alive. Driving alongside Austria's Christian Klien for much of the season, he was able to resume his role as team leader, scoring points on regular occasions but usually with finishes outside the top 5.

In 2006, he was able to score Red Bull's maiden podium finish, after a succession of mid-race retirements gifted him third place, but it was an otherwise disappointing season for him and the team. Points were difficult to come by, with him scoring on just five occasions in total, as grid slots and race finishes outside the top ten became all too familiar. That pattern of performance followed with Coulthard into 2007 and 2008, scoring points in just 6 races over the course of the two years, boosted by his final F1 podium at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.

After being comfortably out-performed by team-mate Webber throughout the 2008 season, Coulthard was replaced by Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel for 2009, as the Scot turned his attention to TV punditry.

Decade highs:
Multiple victories in impressive 2000 season
Debut podium for Red Bull at Monaco 2006

Decade lows:
Losing seat at McLaren, forcing him to Jaguar/Red Bull to keep career alive
Getting pushed out of Red Bull by Vettel

2010s?
Coulthard is currently an advisor to Red Bull alongside his role as pundit for BBC's F1 coverage, positions he is likely to retain into the future.