» Coulthard optimistic of remaining in DTM

Former F1 driver David Coulthard is hopeful of renewing his DTM deal with Mercedes for a second season in Germany’s top-flight touring car series.

The Scot, a 13-time Grand Prix winner in a F1 career spanning 15 seasons, made a last-minute decision to join the tin-top series after completing several tests in the early part of 2010.

The former Williams, McLaren and Red Bull driver endured a difficult baptism adapting to the rough-and-tumble antics of the championship, but consistently improved over the course of his debut season, which peaked with his first points finish at last weekend’s season-ending round in Shanghai.

“The important thing for me – and I keep saying this – is that there’s been plenty of potential as the year has gone on,” Coulthard told AUTOSPORT in a recent interview.

“If I think back to the first race at Hockenheim, at that point I was thinking ‘what am I doing here?’ It moved on very quickly from a bit of testing for fun to me ending up on the grid for the first race!” he added.

“But I’ve felt more at home as the season has gone on. I think we’ve built a good platform for the future, so it’s worth sticking around again for a second year. Hopefully when we’re all back home [from Shanghai] we can get things sorted in the next couple of weeks.”

But he added that he would not push to be given one of the later-spec C-Class cars ahead of a younger driver in the Mercedes camp.

“I’m not going to sit here and demand a new car just because of my past achievements [in F1]. Obviously I take this seriously and I’d love to be in a winning car, but there are drivers out there at the moment that would me far more deserving of it than me.”

[Original image via LAT]