David Coulthard on stepping into Ayrton Senna's Williams seat and how the F1 icon influenced his career

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has revealed the influence that Ayrton Senna had on his career while opening up on his experience stepping into Senna's position at Williams after his death.

Coulthard served as Williams's test driver through 1993 and 1994 and was given a test at the Jerez Circuit following Senna's tragic death during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. He made his debut in Spain but was replaced by Nigel Mansell after two races due to pressure from Williams's engine partner, Renault.

"Well, I know subsequently through Julian Jakobi, who was at IMG when I first was managed by IMG and then became Ayrton's contractual manager, that Ayrton, having done a couple of test days with me, and he was listening and watching and trying to figure out whether he liked what I was doing," Coulthard said of Senna's influence on his career during an appearance on The Red Flags Podcast.

"I know that he'd spoken with Julian and he'd spoken with Frank [Williams] saying that he thought I deserved a chance in Formula 1. That certainly played a part in Frank taking the risk I guess, and promoting an inexperienced rookie rather than going with a number of drivers who'd been in grands prix that could have facilitated ending the season.

"So the reason I'm sitting here is not just because of Ayrton's passing, but because of his words before he passed, because, to come back to the opening of your podcast, if he thought I was a w***er, then I would never have seen the light of a grand prix track as a race driver."

Coulthard pointed to Senna's interest in knowing all of the team members as a contributing factor to his success with every team he drove for - Toleman, Lotus, McLaren and Williams.

"He was very aware of everybody and what their roles were, and wanted to know what everyone was doing and why they were there, so he could figure out whether they were on the team," he continued. "A team has everybody's back and there is no politics publicly in a team.

David Coulthard

Photo by: Getty Images

"When the great teams are winning, they're tight, and information doesn't get out. When teams aren't winning, and the finger-pointing starts, and the politics starts, that's when you expose the breakdown in that team. And he understood how to bring the team together.

"There's no accident that he was successful across the teams that he raced for. And Ayrton Senna, is he not one of... It's a bit like Ferrari is the most recognisable brand in automotive, is Senna not one of the most recognisable names, more than even Hamilton, who's obviously gone on to win many more championships, or Verstappen.

"The fact that we still celebrate him today just tells you, beyond my words, how special he was, and I consider one of the great privileges of my life that I was able to work with the drivers like Senna and Prost, and Mansell for different reasons. But Senna had an elegance. He had a class. He had a look, you know, I wouldn't normally recognise the handsomeness of other men, but he had a handsomeness which it would be very difficult not to find attractive."