The win that wasn't there

A young David Coulthard was so focused on getting in to Formula 1 that he scarcely noticed the day and night he spent hammering around the Sarthe

It is a little ironic that while Jacques Villeneuve has just signed up with Peugeot for this year’s Le Mans, his friend David Coulthard confesses that he sometimes needs reminding that he’s actually a winner himself at La Sarthe.

In fact, it was only a few hours before Motor Sport contacted him that Coulthard’s most recent prompt had come.

“I was just rereading a draft of a book I’m doing,” explains Coulthard. “It mentions Le Mans in one chapter, proudly boasting that I have won it. I had actually forgotten that.” 

Coulthard’s victory was in the GT class in 1993, when Jaguar returned to the event with the XJ220C. Today, however, the record books classify Coulthard, David Brabham and John Nielsen in 31st overall (just ahead of the non-finishers) due to their post-event disqualification for an illegal exhaust.

That does little justice to the fact that the three put in a stirring performance, overcoming 73 minutes lost through a fuel leak to beat the Larbre Porsche Carrera RSR of Joel Gouhier, Jurgen Barth and Dominique Dupuy to 15th overall.

Coulthard, at the time driving for Paul Stewart Racing in F3000 and with his sights set on F1 after landing a Williams-Renault test deal, reveals that he only took part because of the near two-month gap in his commitments that summer.

“It was one of those things I ended up doing because there wasn’t anything else happening at the time,” he says. “I couldn’t say I was passionate about Le Mans; it was only when I got on the podium at the end I realised just how big it was.”

Coulthard tested the XJ220 at Silverstone, but his ‘relaxed’ approach saw him miss pre-event practice and he only turned up from qualifying onwards. His workload increased, however, when Brabham hurt his foot after the car fell on top of it.

“Me being the youngster, they stuck me out for the sun-down period and the morning when the sun was coming up. It was difficult driving in that part of the day, but it was great. The team would tell you to adjust your pace by half a second over what’s quite a long lap, and I enjoyed that aspect – even if you’re not driving at 100 per cent all the time like in F1.”

Not all his memories are favourable, though: he still gets goosebumps from his treatment at the hands of one rival.

“Eddie Irvine’s Toyota passed me ridiculously closely on the straight; it just wasn’t necessary. I recall the door flapping in on the Jaguar and sitting there thinking ‘This isn’t much fun’.”

Although the disqualification was a clear disappointment, it did not make much difference to Coulthard’s life. “I’ve still got the trophy, it’s up in Scotland with all the others,” he smiles. “And my focus at the time was so much on F1 that it didn’t upset me much. I had been there and done the job.”

Would he do Le Mans again? “I would,” he says. “I wouldn’t want to go there with people I didn’t know though. There has to be a social aspect to it. I’ve been speaking to Gil de Ferran, Paul Stewart and Jacques Villeneuve and saying it would be fun to do it with friends. But I think the chances of finding a team willing to take us all on are quite slim…”