Coulthard on Raikkonen: He called me 'an a******e, not a team-mate'

Former Formula One driver David Coulthard has provided an insight as to what it was like to share a garage with Kimi Raikkonen, and has revealed that on one occasion, the Finn told him he was "an a******e, not a team-mate".

Coulthard and Raikkonen were together at McLaren for three years between 2002 and 2004, but did not take the team higher than third place in the Constructor's Championship during their time behind the wheel as team-mates.

Raikkonen is currently on his second stint with Ferrari, but accusations have been aimed at the Prancing Horse for favouring Sebastian Vettel during races. This was no more obvious than at the Chinese Grand Prix when he was used as a pawn to slow down other drivers so that Vettel could gain ground in the race to claim the flag.

Coulthard thinks that Raikkonen won't mind being the second priority at Ferrari, and reckons he only saw the Finn angry once during their time together.

“I was team-mates with him for a couple of years and the only thing that p*ssed him off was when he did a stage dive at Ron Dennis’ and I chose to catch Kathy Ojjeh, [McLaren part-owner] Mansour Ojjeh’s wife, who was also doing one,” Coulthard told Express Sport.

“So when Kimi hit the deck, he pretended to be knocked out. When he jumped up he said ‘you’re not a team-mate, you’re an a******e’.

“I said ‘I’m sorry but I’m going to catch the lady every time’.

“Other than that, I don’t remember him every getting p*ssed off.

“In fairness to him, Kimi has delivered great speed in the first three Grands Prix but hasn’t been lucky.

“He will win a Grand Prix this year and we’ll all get tremendously excited about it and say ‘oh he’s one of the fans’ favourites’.

Coulthard then compared Raikkonen to the polarising figure of Joey Barton, a footballer who has attracted controversy numerous times in his career.

"He is the Joey Barton of F1," the Scot continued.

"He’s popular because he is anti-establishment rather than by being an outwardly nice individual. They come in all shapes and sizes.”

Raikkonen finished second in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the weekend, 2.460 seconds behind the winner, Lewis Hamilton.