When it was announced that DC will team up with Brundle for 2011, some hinted that it would be a conflict of interests to have the 39-year old ex-driver commentate an F1 race while being a Red Bull employee. However, according to the Scottish newspaper Daily Record's Sunday edition, a BBC spokesman begged to differ.
“David Coulthard will not be asked to drop or suspend his ties with Red Bull in the interests of impartiality,” said the aforementioned spokesman. “We take steps to ensure that none of the off-air relationships that our talent may have can compromise on-air activity.”
Up to this point, neither Coulthard nor his Red Bull team commented on the matter.
Coulthard joined the Red Bull Racing outfit back in 2005, following a 9-year stint with McLaren. He stayed with the Austrian team until the 2008 campaign, at the end of which he announced his retirement for the sport. Ever since, in parallel to his BBC commitments, he has been an ambassador for Dietrich Mateschitz' organization, having participated in several Red Bull demo events across the world.
Apart from his two jobs with the BBC and Red Bull, Coulthard is also in the running for a full-time deal with Mercedes-Benz in the DTM series. DC debuted in the aforementioned championship with the Stuttgart-based manufacturer last season, and scored his first and only DTM point at Shanghai, in the final round. Ever since, he has been publicly keen to sign a contract extension with Merc for 2011, but discussions about that prospect are still ongoing.
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