I haven't yet had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with DC, however the impression that I've developed from watching him in press conferences and talking with those that have spent time with him is that he is a genuinely nice, polite, thoughtful guy who is perhaps a little too intelligent for his own good.

And I suspect, unfortunately, that his career will be associated as much with a sense of unfulfilled potential as it will with his more stirring performances. Did Coulthard have 99.9% of what it took to be a champion and just fall down over that last 0.1%, or did he have the whole package and, for whatever reason, fail to completely exploit it? It's a question that even Coulthard might be asking himself in years to come.

Which still doesn't answer the question about why we are looking back, nor forward. The fact the DC's long tenure at McLaren will come to an end this year is common knowledge. What we don't know is what he will do instead ­ or indeed, what his real options are. His chances of snaring a seat with any team that sits above Jaguar in the Constructors' Championship seem slim, and it's hard to see the appeal in aiming much lower. In other words, it is difficult not to feel that the best chapters of DC's story have already been written.

This new book never says that in so many words, but it's a hard impression to shake off when you read between the lines. Even the book's subtitle: "His Decade in Formula One" seems to imply an ending, rather than a continuation.

The book itself is pretty much what you'd expect. Rowlinson is a reliable writer who expresses an empathy with his subject without idolising him. There is no flowery embellishment, just a tight, economical account of the path that Coulthard has walked from his years in the junior ranks to where he is today. As a member of the Autosport frontline, it's no surprise that the author relies on back issues of the British weekly magazine as a major resource. Secondary material provides the backbone of Rowlinson's research for this book, but one doesn't pick up one of these kinds of titles expecting oodles of original research anyway.

Consequently, it is also not the sort of book that you would pick up in the expectation that you'd find anything revelatory.

Instead, this book is a simple, straightforward account of Coulthard's career. That said, it benefits greatly from Rowlinson's experience and insight. For instance, the author provided some food for thought with his contention that Adrian Newey's jump from Williams to McLaren was detrimental to Coulthard's hopes on the grounds that the cars he designed were inherently (although presumably unintentionally) better suited to Mika Hakkinen's driving style. He also suggests that changes in the regulations regarding electronic wizardry such as launch control have worked against Coulthard by nullifying one of his greatest assets ­ the trademark lightning starts that he used to make back when the driver's skill played more of a part in the car off the line.

Neither of these are offered as excuses, and it is fair to balance that by saying that Coulthard is getting paid as much as he is because he is meant to be capable of adapting to changes and finding a way to make a car go fast. Nevertheless, they do highlight some of the subtle ways in which his task was made a little more complicated, and go some way to helping the fans at home understand why things have panned out as they have.