McLaren F1 race winner reveals Ferrari contract offer

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F1 News & Gossip

McLaren race winner reveals Ferrari contract offer

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Sunday 11 January 2026 14:55

McLaren F1 race winner David Coulthard has revealed he was offered a Ferrari contract, but had to agree to being their number two driver - second to none other than Michael Schumacher.

The Scottish racing driver earned 12 of his 13 grand prix victories with McLaren, racing with the team from 1996 until 2004.

During his F1 career, however, Coulthard was offered a contract with Ferrari, under one condition. He agreed to being the number two driver alongside Schumacher.

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Speaking during an appearance on The Red Flags podcast, Coulthard discussed McLaren's decision to not choose a number one driver between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and McLaren's commitment to maintaining the two best drivers.

"I think it’s been credit to McLaren that they’ve had these inter team battles over the decades because they have an attitude of getting the world's best drivers," Coulthard said.

“At Ferrari, there was definitely, under the Schumacher era, and I know that because I was offered a contract saying that I would be number two to Schumacher. With everything we know now I would naturally have been number two to Schumacher, but it was impossible for me to sign a contract that was committed to that.

“Eddie Irvine was happy to do that. So was Rubens and Massa. They had a lot of success and they were Ferrari drivers.

"But I think McLaren, in Prost-Senna and all of the big battles they’ve had between team-mates is because they genuinely want the best drivers and then try and manage them somehow.”

Have McLaren got it right with their drivers?

'Papaya rules' and the status of both Norris and Piastri during the 2025 season, was the subject of much debate. On the one hand, the team were praised for allowing both of their drivers to race, despite the encroaching threat of Max Verstappen.

Yet, the desire to keep things fair could have cost them the title in the end, with Piastri and Norris stealing points from each other while Verstappen operated as a one driver winning machine at Red Bull.

Thankfully for McLaren, Norris still managed to claim the championship at the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating Verstappen by just two points in the standings.

However, if the field is more competitive in 2026, with the likes of Mercedes coming to play with the big boys too, then McLaren's decision to have two equal drivers may come back to plague them once again.

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F1 Ferrari McLaren Michael Schumacher David Coulthard