David Coulthard will make his eighth appearance in the Race of Champions after becoming the sixth driver confirmed for this year’s event, taking place in Bangkok on December 14-16.
The Scot, a 13 time winner in Formula One before racing for Mercedes in the DTM announced his retirement from racing last week to focus on other commitments including his TV work.
Coulthard made his ROC debut in 2004, but his best performance in the solo competition came in 2008 in Wembley Stadium when he narrowly lost out to multiple champion Sebastien Loeb in a best-of-three final. With that result shortly after Coulthard departed Red Bull Racing and F1 it bodes well for his chances following a second ‘retirement’.
“This will be my eighth ROC appearance and it’s a pleasure to take part,” said Coulthard. “The main draw is the camaraderie between the drivers and all the social events outside the cars but the racing is always exciting. In the ROC Nations Cup you never want to let your team-mate down, then you have the individual event. Looking at how I got on at Wembley, it seems I do better after I’ve just retired from something. That time I made the final so maybe this year in Bangkok I can finish the job.”
Coulthard will not be the only recently retired driver on the ROC bill, with Michael Schumacher already confirmed, he and Sebastian Vettel trying to add a sixth consecutive ROC Nations’ Cup title to their record as Team Germany.
Also confirmed are motorcycling legend Mick Doohan, Indycar champion Ryan Hunter–Reay and triple V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup. Both Hunter-Reay and Whincup will be making their debuts in the Race of Champions.
