“It Could Have Been You” – Ex-Williams Teammates Damon Hill and David Coulthard Praise Each Other on Twitter

Former Williams F1 teammates Damon Hill and David Coulthard were engaged in some brotherly love on social media. Hill had showered Coulthard with words of praise, following which David himself reciprocated that love.

Hill reacted to a clip on Twitter where he beat teammate Coulthard to pole position during Friday qualifying for the 1995 Australian Grand Prix. The battle to get to the top of the timesheets was an intense one, with Hill beating Coulthard’s fastest lap time by a tenth of a second to take pole.

Reflecting on that qualifying session, Hill said, “Hey DC (David Coulthard). You put me under pressure. You were a very fine driver. If you had stayed with Williams 1996, it could have been you.

“I have to admit, I’m glad you didn’t! C’est la F1. I do love this lap tho. And the V10 Yeah Baby!”

Coulthard had left Williams for McLaren in the 1996 season. It was in that year Hill won his first and only world championship title, while Coulthard only managed 18 points and finished in seventh place. In 1995, Coulthard finished in third place behind Hill in the Drivers championship standings.

What was David Coulthard’s reply?

Coulthard replied to Hill’s tweet saying, “Oh stop it DH (Damon Hill), it was written in the stars that you would be World Champion.”

Remembering how the Australian Grand Prix of 1995 panned out, Hill replied, “You had me beat in Adelaide. Until you hit the pit wall. Funny thing is MS (Michael Schumacher) did something similar the year before. Ancient history now tho.”

Unlike recent years, back in 1995, the Australian Grand Prix was the last race on the F1 calendar. Hill had won the race, but Schumacher took the championship by 33 points despite not finishing the race after a collision.

Following his championship victory in 1996, Hill switched to the Arrows F1 team for the next season. He then joined Jordan for the next two seasons before hanging up his boots.

As for Coulthard, he went on to race for Mclaren until 2004. The closest he got to winning a championship was in 2001, where he finished behind Schumacher.

Coulthard then went on to race for Red Bull until 2008 before calling it a day. His vacancy at Red Bull was filled up by a certain Sebastian Vettel who went on to win four consecutive titles. One could say he more than filled Coulthard’s boots.