Coulthard driving for the McLaren team at the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix.In 1996, Coulthard contracted with McLaren to drive alongside future champion Mika Häkkinen. His first season with McLaren was unremarkable, as the Mercedes-powered team struggled to find speed. He led at Imola and lost out to an inspired Olivier Panis at Monaco.

In 1997, in his second year with McLaren, he finished the drivers championship tied with Jean Alesi for third place (after the disqualification of Michael Schumacher). He had taken two wins and could have added more, but for problems. At Montreal he was leading, but was brought into the pits for a precautionary stop. Coulthard stalled his engine twice whilst trying to exit the pits, losing his lead in the process. What made this even more frustrating for Coulthard was that the race was stopped just a few minutes later due to Olivier Panis' crash. If Coulthard had not pitted, he would have won the race. At Jerez, Coulthard was running in 2nd place towards the end of the race and was catching race leader Jacques Villeneuve after his earlier collision with Michael Schumacher. Due to team orders, Coulthard was forced by McLaren to allow his teammate, who was running close behind him, into 2nd place. On the final lap of the race, Villeneuve let both McLarens by and Coulthard thus felt he maybe should have won the race.

In 1998, the McLaren was consistently the fastest car on track, but it was Häkkinen who made the most of it, winning the title. Coulthard took just one win and spent most of the year in a supporting role.


Coulthard driving for McLaren at the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix.In 1999, a combination of under-performance and bad luck saw him finish the season in fourth place, and McLaren lost the constructors' title to Ferrari. Häkkinen became champion, whilst Coulthard won twice. In 2000, he was involved in a tight battle for the drivers championship with Schumacher and Häkkinen, but eventually fell out of contention into a disappointing third place finish. In 2001 he finished the year in second place, but with barely half the points (65) tallied by runaway winner Schumacher (123).

Coulthard's subsequent years at McLaren, from 2002 through 2004, were disappointing as well, as he was regularly out-paced by younger teammate Kimi Räikkönen. Many of Coulthard's critics argue that his decline began in 2003[citation needed], when the FIA introduced the single-lap qualifying format. Since his Formula Three days, Coulthard had the reputation of being a poor qualifier. He openly admitted that he did not like the format and was a vocal opponent of it. With the announcement that Juan Pablo Montoya was to join McLaren in 2005 alongside Räikkönen, 2004 was to be Coulthard's last year with the team. A poor tenth place finish in the final 2004 standings (24 points, equal with the injured Ralf Schumacher) had not helped Coulthard's cause for 2005 either.