David Coulthard: System is revolutionary
16 January 2010
David Coulthard believes that the Castrol Rankings could change the way fans follow racing
The 38-year-old Scot is the launch ambassador for the new global motorsport seedings system, which is powered by AUTOSPORT.com. He reckons it could revolutionise the way drivers are compared with one another across multiple categories and disciplines.
"This will give people the opportunity over the course of the season to see who are the best drivers," Coulthard said at the launch at AUTOSPORT International.
"It is the best way we have today to tell us who is the definitive racing driver. In the next decade we could well look back at the creation of the Castrol Rankings as the beginning of a legacy."
The Scot, who has scored more Formula 1 World Championship points than any other British driver in history, launched the Castrol World Driver Rankings at AUTOSPORT International at the Birmingham NEC on Thursday January 14.
Coulthard shot to fame in 1989 as the first recipient of the McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award, and made his F1 debut in 1994 for Williams as replacement for the late Ayrton Senna. After scoring one win for Williams, he moved to McLaren in 1996. He remained with the team until the end of 2004, scoring 12 grand prix victories, before moving to Red Bull for 2005.
After his retirement from F1 racing at the end of 2008, Coulthard remained at Red Bull as a team consultant and is also a respected expert on the BBC's F1 coverage. Although he is now inactive as a race driver, he did not drop out of the Castrol World Driver Rankings top 100 until June 2009.
The Castrol Rankings are a new system based on the performance of every race and rally driver across the world's leading world, international and national championships and major races, calculated on a 12-month rollover period.
The Castrol Rankings is based on drivers' measurable performance over the last 12 months, including everything from their grid position to fastest laps. For further information on how the Castrol Rankings scores are calculated, click here.
