Coulthard must ditch playboy image

"Eddie lets himself down," said Coulthard. "He has too much to say about everyone. If he spent as much time and effort on testing and developing the car as he does on his scatterbomb talking, there would be an improvement in the car's performance."

Meanwhile, 1996 world champion Damon Hill, whose relationship with Coulthard was cool when they were team-mates at Williams for almost three years, has already forecast that the Scot's 2002 world championship challenge "could crumble" in the early stages of the new season. This is because Coulthard has a new team-mate at McLaren, now that double world champion Mika Hakkinen has retired - or taken a one-year sabbatical, as the team insist.

The new arrival is Hakkinen's countryman, 22-year-old Kimmi Raikonnen. He had the kind of debut last season which made Jenson Button's the year before look pedestrian. Raikonnen's potential was limited in the Sauber but the McLaren should give a clearer indication of what he can do. Hill even expects Raikonnen to "win a race or two" - the same number as Coulthard won in all of last year.

"It's an important year for David," says Hill. "Now that Mika has gone, the pressure is on him. David's role is a more responsible one. Maybe that will bring out the fully mature side of him - the bit that I think has been missing all this time. He is definitely a potential 2002 world champion.

"He's in a great position and I think he knows it. But if Kimi starts really well, it's possible David could crumble. I hope not."

The Scot has not won a race since Austria last May, and in total has 11 race wins to his name from 124 starts. Contrast this with Michael Schumacher, who has 53 wins from 161. If Coulthard is to have a hope of this year's title he must take maximum advantage during the first three long-haul races, when Ferrari will be running last year's car rather than the fast but as yet unreliable F2002. But Juan Pablo Montoya in the Williams is tipped by many as a likelier challenger.

The worst of it is that Coulthard firmly believes he should have been world champion in 1995, his first full season in the sport, had he not had tonsillitis.

"It's definitely a major regret for me," says Coulthard. "I had tonsillitis from the first race in March until I had my tonsils removed in June. It meant I spent a lot of time in bed lacking energy, not training and hoping that antibiotics would win over surgery.

"In the end I had the operation, but it takes it out of you and I was never really in top form for the rest of the year.

"If it weren't for that I might never have had to listen to all this nonsense that started in 1997 about me not being sufficiently hard to be a winner. I have a better race record than lots of guys who don't get accused of this silly stuff.

"This isn't just a job to me, it's a career. I don't want to get to the end of it and think that I could have tried harder to win the title."

The other Brits on the starting grid