Only one driver in the history of Formula 1 has won more races than David Coulthard and not won a world championship.

Stirling Moss ended his F1 career in 1961 with 16 victories, trumping David Coulthard by three victories.

Coulthard made his Formula 1 debut for Williams in 1994, replacing the legendary Ayrton Senna after his death.

It was an extremely tough start to life on the grid for the Scottish driver, and he was briefly replaced by world champion Nigel Mansell that year before earning the seat full-time in 1995.

At that point, Coulthard had already lined up a move to McLaren, which is where he had his greatest years in the sport.

He came up against teammate Mika Hakkinen and Ferrari star Michael Schumacher during his peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Hakkinen became a two-time F1 champion, and Schumacher shares the record with Lewis Hamilton for most titles (seven each) ever won in the sport.

However, Coulthard’s 13 Grand Prix wins were never enough to sit at the top of the standings at the end of a season, and he’s now explained why, despite being ‘world-class’, he thinks he missed out on that opportunity.

19 Aug 2001: Michael Schumacher of Germany and Ferrari enjoys his victory while stood beside an unhappy David Coulthard after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix and, a record equalling, 4th World Drivers Championship at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, Hungary. Mandatory Credit: Tom Shaw/ALLS…

David Coulthard ‘dipped in and out’ of being world-class during his Formula 1 career

Coulthard took part in an interview with The Athletic and was talking about his F1 career.

Asked about his peak, he explained: “OK, I never won the world championship, but there were moments where I was, to be arrogant, world-class against world-class performers.

“What they were was consistently world-class. And I dipped in and out of it.

“My performances were like that, so that’s why the result books reflect the drivers at that time.

“Mika was consistently quick. Michael was consistently quick. They got the world championships.”

Martin Brundle believed Hakkinen was faster than Schumacher, which made Coulthard’s job of trying to be the quickest driver within the McLaren team hard enough without having to take the German into account.

Coulthard finished third in the drivers’ championship on four occasions, but it was the 2001 season where he came closest to achieving his goal of becoming a Formula 1 world champion.

Why David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher nearly fought in a Formula 1 pit lane

Coulthard finished second to Schumacher during the 2001 F1 season, but never came close to toppling the Ferrari star.

The Scottish driver won two races that year, but Schumacher added nine victories to his career tally that season and finished second on a further five occasions.

Schumacher ended the season with 123 points, and Coulthard was his closest challenger with 65 points by the time the chequered flag flew at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Coulthard once explained how Schumacher wanted to fight him earlier in their careers, highlighting just how competitive they were on the track.

In a different era of Formula 1, Coulthard would have come far closer to winning a championship, with Ferrari’s dominance in the early 2000s making it impossible for anyone to stop Schumacher until Fernando Alonso came along.

However, as he described, he may have just been slightly too inconsistent to have ever put together the perfect campaign.