David Coulthard

The past year has flown by since I hung up my drivers' gloves and finally stopped being a Formula One racing driver. In the past 12 months since my final appearance at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix I have become a father, a TV pundit for the BBC and, of course, a serial winner on television programmes such as "Mr and Mrs" and "Family Fortunes," as well as being able to reflect at last on my 15 years in a sport that I would not have swapped for the world.  

The TV work has provided some adrenalin for me, but nothing in life will come close to the wide gamut of emotions experienced as a racing driver. Now, when I look at the races from the comfort of the TV studios and paddock, I sometimes wonder whether I'd been totally mad. After all, so many times I found myself in a near suicidal situation, driving at 200 mph in searing rain with visibility virtually zero and with no idea what's in front of you. It was complete lunacy. All you had in your possession was a blind faith that everything would work out OK, that and a modicum of talent, I guess. That is how I see it now but, when you're out there racing, none of these thoughts enter your head. Instead it's close to being the best feeling in the world.  

I miss being a driver but I reckon I got my timing to retire spot on. A year before would have been too early. I wasn't ready to give it all up. This year, though, would have been one year too far. I found the sport mentally fatiguing because I never stopped thinking about it, in and out of the car. I won 13 Grands Prix, which couldn't have been an accident, and I can cling to the fact that I won more points than any British driver in F1 history. That's what longevity can do for you, and I fully expect Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button to overtake this mark at some stage.

I would have loved to have won a world title like Jenson. I could have dined out on it for the rest of my life. I'm not jealous of him for one simple reason. I don't do jealousy. I was jealous once as a young man over a girlfriend and realised the emotion did not agree with me. I have to be honest and also say that I wasn't as good as Michael Schumacher or Mikka Hakkinen when I had my chances to win the title. I had some talent, but not as much as many drivers. What I was able to do was get close to maximising my potential and I'm happy with that.

I'm equally proud of what I felt I achieved with Red Bull. The team have grown from strength to strength and I'd like to feel my input on all matters played its part. Toyota could have had the same opportunity when I left McLaren and Martin Brundle, my manager, went to talk to them. They made it clear they were not interested, which I found strange at the time because of all the experience I could have offered in and out of their car, and now they are out of the sport. Clearly the management made some poor driver decisions and I wonder how long it took the main board in Tokyo to realise when told they had a contract with a Schumacher that they had the wrong one.  

 
Toyota's departure from F1 was just one of many incidents that made the 2009 season compelling both for negatvie and positive reasons. You had the lying scandal with Lewis and McLaren which led to the departure of Dave Ryan and, more remarkably, Ron Dennis stepping down, the crashing scandal in Singapore with the admission from Nelson Piquet that he had deliberately crashed which resulted in team principal Flavio Briatore being given a lifeling ban with a four year stretch for head of engineering Pat Symonds, but also the amazing emergence of Brawn Racing, Jenson winning the title, the McLaren comeback where Lewis showed his talent in the second half of the season, and the continuing rise of Red Bull.

Next year will be so interesting, especially with Jenson teaming up with Lewis at McLaren. In my opinion Jenson has hung his privates out for us all to see. The easy option would have been to have stayed at Brawn. Instead he's chosen to join a team who has one of the most talented drivers in the world, with a team behind him, and a team not exactly noted for its great relationships with drivers. The question on everyone's lips will be can Jenson get the better of Lewis in the same car? We will have to wait and see but I can tell you one thing: I know racing drivers and while you feel comfortable finishing 10th if your teammate is 11th, you feel awful if you end up 4th and your teammate's in 3rd. 
I've swapped the steering wheel for the microphone and I've found it amazing how, as a driver, you could not go anywhere near another team's garage. As soon as anyone saw you the shutters would go down. Now, working in TV on the F1 circuit, I'm welcomed with open arms although I'd like to think having been a driver for so long has something to do with it. Adapting to the new job has been quite nerve-wracking. I'm very used to being interviewed, but that's very different from being a pundit, especially when you have Eddie Jordan alongside you who, as everyone knows, is close to being totally nuts, but good fun.  

My other TV appearances in the past few months have caused endless hours of banter, and mostly at my own expense. I used to watch "Mr and Mrs" as a kid up in the Borders so being asked to go on the "All Star" show struck me as a fun idea which would remind me of my childhood. Karen, my partner, needed some convincing, partly because she was concerned about her English. Anyone who has met Karen, who is Belgian, will tell you that she speaks better English than I do. I had it written into my contract that we would win, of course, and that's precisely what we did. The "Mr and Mrs" carriage clock now sits proudly on our mantelpiece.

When it came to "Family Fortunes" I thought it would be a nice day out for the rest of the Coulthard family and give them the chance to go on telly, seeing that they've been so supportive towards me over my career. Again, we managed to win, despite the fact that in the final round when I was asked to name a fruit with a stone I said "grape." To be fair to myself I said "plum" first but that answer had already gone, plus in Monaco, where I spend much of my time with Karen, the grapes have large seeds. Luckily my sister, who was in the final round with me, showed more intelligence.

Any other time I've had has been taken up with young Dayton Coulthard, who has just passed his first birthday. It has been an eye-opening experience, so very tiring, but also so very rewarding. The Christian name comes from the fact that I wanted another "DC," and that the family firm is called Hayton Coulthard after my uncle Hayton. It was just a case of removing the "H" and replacing it with a "D." It is not, as some have assumed, Daytona after the famous race in America, without the "a."

On my last day in F1 in Brazil I filmed everything that happened, including the drivers' parade which I wasn't supposed to do. My take on it was as it was my last race, what exactly were the authorities going to do about it? I wanted Dayton to enjoy his Dad's last day as a Grand Prix driver. I also filmed his birth, although that is definitely not for public consumption. He therefore has a record of his first few seconds of life. If he has half the fun I've had over the past 20 years then I'll be made up for him.
I wish all Sportsvibe readers a Happy Christmas, and here's to what promises to be an awesome 2010.