How Toro Rosso almost drove David Coulthard to Red Bull exit door
David Coulthard was Red Bull’s first ever driver.
David Coulthard has revealed that Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso almost convinced him to leave the sport as he was against the idea of having a second team.
The Red Bull brand arrived with not one but two teams set up in quick succession and while it now looks like a canny move, Coulthard was one of the voices against it at the time, suggesting all focus should be on making one constructor successful.
David Coulthard reveals early Red Bull/Toro Rosso concerns
The Toro Rosso team has helped Red Bull nurture many young drivers and even now in its VCARB era, having two teams on the grid is a benefit only Red Bull enjoy.
But had Coulthard had his way back in 2008, he would have scrapped the idea altogether.
“At the beginning of that 2008 season, when I tested the new car. I [don’t think I] thought ‘oh, god, I’m scared or I’m not quick’,” he said on the Beyond the Grid podcast. “I just suddenly, for the first time in my career thought ‘I’ve run out of time, this is not going to be a winning car.’
“We were too far away in that first test and I know how much it takes to develop a car, how long it takes to make a car become a faster car.
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“If you remember that 2008 season we had the same car as Toro Rosso. They had the Ferrari engine, we had the Renault. They had more horsepower, they could basically run Adrian [Newey]’s car with more downforce and we were being outperformed by the junior team and subsequently, they took away that ability for teams to have designs from other teams.
“I’d always been personally against Toro Rosso. I remember saying to [Red Bull co-founder] Dietrich [Mateschitz] ‘it’s difficult enough to win with one team, why do you think we can win with two?’
“It was a kind of driver from a guy called Dany Bahar who worked with Dietrich at the time who I’m sure had very good business reasons to want to do that. And there’s an argument to show that the junior team has helped develop talent. Sebastian [Vettel has], come through there. Max [Verstappen] has come through there.
“So it’s served the purpose but at the period when we were trying to win with one and get all of the attention, get all of the focus from Austria, we then have a sister team which is, at that point, quicker than us and I was like ‘okay, I’m done.’”
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