F1's high-speed middle finger: David Coulthard relives his clash with Michael Schumacher

New York Times

a day ago

David Coulthard was seething.
He knew his car could — should — have won the French Grand Prix, but Michael Schumacher had done it again.
The great, aggressive German chopped across the Scotsman's bows at the start of the race in Magny‑Cours. And Coulthard was bottled up behind Rubens Barrichello in the other Ferrari, who had one job: to slow the chasing McLarens.
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But Coulthard wouldn't be denied. He followed Barrichello closely, then overtook with cunning racecraft. By this point, Schumacher was seven seconds ahead. Coulthard chased, stopped for fuel and tyres, and chased some more. Finally, he earned a chance at retribution.
The McLaren driver got a run down Magny‑Cours' long back straight, but Schumacher knew what was coming. He took the hairpin's inside line. With Coulthard looking for a repeat cutback pass after his Barrichello success, the legendary Ferrari driver held firm — and shoved his silver rival wide.
Coulthard's response — at around 40 miles per hour — was immediate.
'I gave him the bird, because I was so p––––d off,' Coulthard told The Athletic at the 2025 British Grand Prix, just a few days past the 25th anniversary of the clash. These days, Coulthard is a Formula One TV presenter, Red Bull ambassador, and current president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, which owns Silverstone Circuit.
He remembers the race, which he went on to win, as 'one of my career-defining moments' and 'one of my best weekends.'
The Briton scored 13 F1 race wins in a career that spanned 247 starts between 1994 and 2008. He ultimately finished third in 2000, where Schumacher, after years of trying, finally defeated the McLaren drivers, led by double world champion Mika Hakkinen. Coulthard went one better in 2001, but never took the crown.
'OK, I never won the world championship, but there were moments where I was, to be arrogant, world-class against world-class performers,' said Coulthard, speaking ahead of the wild, wet 2025 British Grand Prix won by current McLaren driver Lando Norris.
'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.'
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Coulthard should have started the 2000 French GP from pole position, but was instead second. Fuel pump problems meant he and Hakkinen swapped across McLaren's three cars in qualifying — allowed under the rules back then — with the spare known as a 'T-car.' Schumacher, meanwhile, had claimed pole after diligently working to improve his car's set-up and handling, then nailing his best lap.
'I remember waking early. I'd stayed just outside the track in my motorhome, I got on the rowing machine, did half an hour, and I just was so confident even though I was second on the grid,' Coulthard said of his feelings pre-race.
'It was really a bizarre qualifying session, but I was still confident on a track that I had been strong on before. Michael did the big chop on the run to the first corner that allowed Rubens to go round the outside. So, now I'm p–––– off. I was angry. I had to fight to come back, overtake Rubens, get on to Michael.'
Coulthard called his first move against Schumacher 'a bit half-hearted, but he did what he does, which is going to push you wide.'
Schumacher would go on to become F1's first seven-time world champion, but at the time of this clash, the German had two titles (and none for Ferrari) alongside a fearsome reputation shaped by the events of Adelaide 1994, when he collided with Damon Hill and beat him to the title with both retiring. Then there was the final race of the 1997 season in Jerez, where another controversial collision led to Jacques Villeneuve winning the world championship, with Schumacher stripped of second place.
Coulthard's immediate sweary response at Magny-Cours generated headlines.
Autosport magazine declared the following week: 'The Only Way is Up (yours, Michael).' Although one of its readers was distinctly unimpressed and felt the need to 'express my disgust… my daughters, aged six and eight, and I watch the grands prix together, and if I wanted them to witness such obscene gestures, I would take them to a football match. Michael Schumacher's sportsmanship might not be the best, but not even he has stooped this low.'
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The Associated Press report said Coulthard was 'like a highway driver with a case of road rage,' and had 'greeted his Formula One rival with a clenched fist and an obscene gesture.'
Coulthard apologized for his actions afterwards. 'And it was completely absurd that I'd think he would see me giving him the middle finger, but it was just the frustration of, 'Buddy, you can try that, but I'm still coming by it one way or the other.' I was convinced I was winning that grand prix, so it was just a question of where I was going to get past him.'
Schumacher told reporters that day, 'If he doesn't like it, he can go somewhere else… It's normal practice; I remember in Malaysia (1999), he overtook me and pushed me to the outside. I don't believe I complained a lot.' Schumacher has not been seen in public since he suffered a severe brain injury while skiing in December 2013.
Coulthard's moment came just seven laps later that day in France. He feigned another look at the Adelaide hairpin's outside, then dived to the inside when Schumacher moved to cover his first position. The Ferrari stayed alongside through the corner, and they bashed wheels on the exit.
'It was just a race of commitment. I was committed, and if he turned, we were going to crash because I had the overspeed,' Coulthard said. 'But I know that you can't watch your mirrors the whole time, so I felt that he thought that I'd be too far back, or I wouldn't try that based on what happened before.
'But I did everything right. And there were a few moments where I was able to do that sort of wheel-to-wheel racing with Michael and come away with the result.'
Schumacher would later retire from the 2000 French GP when his engine failed and billowed smoke.
Twenty-five years on, does Coulthard still feel he was right to apologize for his gestures? 'I apologized afterwards because I remembered there was kids watching and all that sort of thing. I wasn't sort of inciting violence or anything, but it wasn't very sporting, and I always kind of prided myself on being a sportsman. It is what it is. Passions run high. The frustration was there.'
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The incident has parallels with today's racing. Schumacher's move was typical of his style, continuing the tradition established by the very aggressive Ayrton Senna. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen's uncompromising racing in this era garners similar debate.
In shoving Coulthard wide at the Adelaide hairpin, Schumacher's driving is actually codified these days in F1's 'Driving Standards Guidelines.' A driver has to have their 'front axle ahead of the front axle of the other car at the apex' of a corner. And, if they don't, the driver on the inside can run them fully wide and take all the space. The onus is on the driver attempting to live by the sword.
However, at the turn of the century, not only were such moves largely unregulated, but aggression was the exception, not the norm.
'You've got to live for your time, haven't you? That was that time, and so I'm happy,' Coulthard said.
One of the most striking things about the French GP saga is how visible Coulthard's gestures were from the cockpit of his McLaren MP4/15.
In those days, before many of the safety systems used in modern F1 car design had been established, the drivers' helmets were fully exposed, and often their hands were too when turning. Since 2018, the halo cockpit protection system has better cocooned the drivers, along with other developments, such as much higher cockpit sides — a design that followed Coulthard's crash with Alex Wurz at the 2007 Australian GP.
In modern F1, it's therefore even harder to see such driver emotion behind the wheel, which is a longstanding issue. An exception is Liam Lawson giving Sergio Pérez the finger at the 2024 Mexican GP, after they'd clashed earlier at the latter's home race.
Visible outbursts are rare these days, though verbal ones are commonplace on the team radio broadcasts that weren't aired in 2000.
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Under the rule of FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem since late 2021, driver expression has also been curtailed. The most stringent restrictions — where drivers faced fines of up to €120,000 for repeat offenses — were only rowed back on in May after much debate.
'Maybe they're all told, 'If you do anything, you get fined.' So they get on the radio,' Coulthard said of this. 'And we've obviously had a bit of that, people getting upset and swearing on the radio.
'Heat of the moment, we want to see passion, and people show passion in different ways. I want to see that people care. Certain drivers don't look to be that bothered if you have a good day or a bad day. Certain drivers, you can see that.
'It does matter. Because sport is an escape from everyday lives. You feel for (athletes). You're with them.'
(Top image: John Marsh/EMPICS/Getty Images)