F1 star had no idea team owner was listening to X-rated radio rant

David Coulthard interviews George Russell — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 star had no idea team owner was listening to X-rated radio rant

David Coulthard made quite a big mistake while working for Red Bull

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 23 July 2026 22:42

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Former Red Bull F1 star David Coulthard has revealed a hilarious story about one of his X-rated radio messages being heard by the team's owner.

Coulthard raced with Red Bull between 2005-2008, but did not manage to claim a single grand prix win in that time, as the Milton Keynes-based outfit were just beginning to find their feet in the sport.

He formed part of their first driver lineup, but the season after he left was when Red Bull first starting winning races, through the man who replaced Coulthard in Sebastian Vettel, who would then become world champion in 2010.

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Coulthard has remained a big part of the Red Bull project since departing their driver lineup, and is still a global brand ambassador and advisor for the energy drink giants.

But he is also now involved in multiple media projects, and during a recent episode of his new podcast, Coulthard revealed a hilarious story.

It relates to the 2007 German Grand Prix, where one of Red Bull's sister team's cars was sat ahead of Coulthard in the pecking order and the Scot being desperate to get past him, but the then team owner - the late, great Dietrich Mateschitz - was listening in from the garage.

Coulthard's angry team radio

Coulthard was talking about the dynamic between Red Bull and their sister team, now called Racing Bulls, but back then named Toro Rosso.

"I’ve been in a scenario, if I go way back Hockenheim, probably 2007, where I came out of my pit stop behind the Toro Rosso, as it was at that time, which has now become RB," Coulthard explained on the Up to Speed podcast.

"And I was in new tyres, it was in old tyres, and we were all part of the same family, being owned by Red Bull.

"So, I was on the radio saying: ‘Let the Toro Rosso know that we're at different phases of the race,’ and let's remind ourselves this was not a period where Red Bull Racing or Toro Rosso were scoring points on a regular basis; it was the building years. And he doesn't get out of the way.

"I get back on the radio and say, ‘Guys, I'm just losing time.’ You know, we didn't have cares, we didn't have DRS, we had to rely on somehow finding an overtake.

"Anyway, they didn’t get out of the way, so I'm on the radio going, ‘You're w******, you're all w******!’ To which I found out, Mr. Mateschitz, the owner of Red Bull, was on the radio listening to this.

"And, as it turns out, his point of view was the following: there are two teams owned by Red Bull, but they independently operate, and it's about which one can rise up to the top.

"So, I respect that, and I respect the fact that he therefore didn't come to me afterwards and say, ‘Don't ever speak like that on the radio again.’ But it wasn't broadcast. It was just when I got back to the pits. Christian Horner and the team were like, ‘Yeah, thanks for the compliment!’"

F1 Red Bull David Coulthard Dietrich Mateschitz