After karting at the age of 11, prior to progressing to the British Formula Ford Championship and the Formula 3000 series, David achieved immediate success thanks to his natural skill. His first Formula One team was Williams, for the 1994 season replacing Ayrton Senna. Despite his youth, David won his first Grand Prix in Portugal in the following year, before moving to McLaren for the 1996 season. In 1997, David won two races and finished 3rd in the World Drivers' Championship in the 1998 season.
Between 1999 and 2000, he won five races before finishing 2nd in the Drivers' Championship, just missing out to Michael Schumacher in 2001. 2002 and 2003 brought two more victories, yet in 2004 David left McLaren to move to Red Bull. With his new team, David secured his first podium in 2005, proving that David’s success stems from his talent, not his teams. In 2008, he retired from Formula One racing.
Since his retirement, David has continued to work with Red Bull as their consultant, on top of joining the BBC as a commentator and pundit for their live coverage of Formula One racing. Returning to active motorsports in 2010, David joined Mücke Motorsport in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, before retiring again at the end of 2012.
Founded in 2018, David is a representative of the groundbreaking W Series, a race designed to bridge the gender gap in motorsports. Though the amount of male and female kart racers is almost equal, when racing at a professional level the female representation is significantly lacking - David wanted to do something about this. Due to a lack of funding and opportunities, talented female racers aren’t given the same chances that male racers are, so the W Series was created to bring female motorsport racers into the limelight.
With the hopes of providing a transition into Formula One, David is a spokesperson and advisory board member of the series. As a speaker, David discusses not just the technical aspects of racing, but the mental strength and physical challenges he faced while racing at peak performance. Passionate about gender equality, he can also highlight the practical strategies to tackle inequalities.
