Coulthard warns Norris in title battle with teammate Piastri

07:34, 21 Jun

byKimberley Hoefnagel

David Coulthard states that many world champions have one thing in common: they use their time extremely efficiently. He believes that a driver should focus more on driving than on peripheral issues.

Lando Norris has the best car of the field this season, but seems unable to extract as much from it as teammate Oscar Piastri. The Brit has spoken out more than once about his mental health, and the pressure that puts on him.

In front of the media, Norris always appears guilt-ridden, trying to explain the situation well. He prefers to point the finger at himself rather than his team or the car. A nice feature, which is also his great pitfall. This significantly increases the pressure on himself.

Coulthard warns Norris

"Look, I think anyone should do what makes sense to them. If you're asking me what I would do - then the less you say, the less you have to explain. The more you say, the more you have to explain," Coulthard said when talking with GPblog.

According to the Scotsman, it's extremely important that a driver thinks carefully about how he uses his energy. "If you start each day with a hundred percent battery, if you allocate 20% to explaining and 80% to driving, and the other guy with the same talent allocates 95% to driving and 5% to talking because he has to because of [the] FIA and because of that he just has more reserve."

Coulthard emphasised that a driver doesn't actually need the full 100 percent in every race, because some races are easier than others. "But it's a long season. It’s tiring. And you don't always get the chance to fully recharge that battery to a hundred percent."

David Coulthard.

Coulthard has learned much from world champions

The former F1 driver then reiterated that every driver must decide for themselves what they do. "I would never, ever want to be quoted as going, Coulthard says 'this is the wrong way to win a world championship'. I don't know. I never won a world championship."

"But what I have won in life is a whole bunch of experience and a whole bunch of insight to world champions and how they're made up," Coulthard continued, who has worked with several world champions throughout his career. He mentioned his old teammates Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen, and Damon Hill - all of whom became world champions.

"I worked closely with, Nigel Mansell for a year. Alain Prost for a year, Ayrton Senna for a couple of months. You know these are the teachers or the lecturers at the university before and during my career. These guys were very, very efficient with their time," said Coulthard.