Coulthard highlights hidden benefit of F1 ‘golden era’

Former F1 driver David Coulthard feels the championship is in a "golden era" with multiple teams capable of winning races.

The ex-Williams, McLaren and Red Bull man believes the series being tightly contested week-in-week-out is "much more impressive" than the periods of dominance F1 tends to see, and has the added advantage of helping to establish who the best driver is.

Whilst a member of the Woking team, the 13-time grand prix winner went up against Michael Schumacher during the German's unprecedented run of five consecutive drivers' titles for Ferrari between 2000 and 2004.

After joining Red Bull in 2005 - the team's first season in F1 - the Scotsman helped lay the foundations for Sebastian Vettel's four successive championships from 2010 to 2013.

However, the Channel 4 F1 presenter and pundit would much rather a hotly-contested championship - in addition to what differences between drivers in a tightly-fought race might reveal.

"I think that we're in a golden era of Formula 1," the 53-year-old exclusively told RacingNews365 when reviewing the current health of the series.

"It's always impressive when you have one driver or one team dominating, but this is much more impressive, that you have different teams and drivers, on any given weekend - and it's the closest we'll ever get to truly understanding who is the best driver."

F1 'becoming a lot more competitive'

Coulthard feels that even though the series is emerging from the latest Red Bull period of dominance, which itself was preceded by Mercedes casting aside the competition for seven straight years, it is part of the "nature" of F1.

He also backed Ferrari to rekindle its form, having struggled in the past few rounds, despite taking two victories this season - the same number as McLaren - and beginning the year with comfortably the second-best car.

"It's the nature of the sport, that there's performance profiles like this," Coulthard said, highlighting how teams' often conquer all before them for years at a time before a new power seizes control.

"Mercedes dominated for a while, then Red Bull have dominated, it's becoming a lot more competitive, because we've got Mercedes winning races, McLaren winning races. Ferrari maybe lagging a little bit behind, but inevitably, they will find form at a certain point."