After sitting on the sidelines for the 2009 Formula One season and watching his team race to not one, but two one-two finishes in the first eight rounds of the years, former Red Bull racer David Coulthard finds himself regretting his decision to hang up his helmet at the end of last season.

At thirty eight years of age, the Scotsman was unsure if he would be able to readjust to the new demands on drivers this season with the raft of new rules and regulations. However, as he watches his replacement, young gun German driver Sebastian Vettel, roar to victory, he fully believes he could have lasted another season.

"In such a high-pressure sport you have to be able to recover and come back and deliver each time,” he was quoted as saying in the Daily Record. "I questioned whether I still had the energy to do that. As it happens, the way the regulations changed I almost certainly would have had the energy to handle a season."

David stepped down at the end of 2008 because he didn’t want to be the last one to acknowledge that his time behind the wheel had come to an end, however while he wishes he was still in the cockpit, he also knows that he has contributed significantly to the winning car beneath Vettel.

"I felt that Red Bull had good alternatives and that it would be better to recognise ahead of time than recognise after or be the last to know it was time to go. Through my career I had opportunities to drive the best cars, winning cars, and I joined Red Bull a few years ago to help the team develop.”

“There are middle-grid teams that stay in the middle grid but along with other people I helped influence the positive development of Red Bull and they've gone forward and progressed each year. That coincides with the fact I've reached the end of my time as a Grand Prix driver but I'm happy the car has come good. My fingerprints have been on the development of this team since its inception so I feel as much a part of that as any of the other 700 people who work for them."