His career was carved out as a lad when his father bought him his first racing kart and he went on to win the Scottish Junior Kart Championship.

Some 25 years after that first victory, David Coulthard yesterday announced he will retire from Formula One at the end of the season.

The Scot, who at 37 is the oldest driver in F1, confirmed his decision ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix. But he also said he had an "open mind" as to whether to compete in another form of motor sport in the future, adding: "I am definitely not hanging up my helmet."

Coulthard, who grew up in Twynholm in Dumfries and Galloway, made his debut with the Williams team in 1994. He went on to join McLaren and drove with the squad for nine years before joining Red Bull in 2005.

His father, Duncan, was a kart enthusiast and encouraged his son's hobby while he was still in primary school. Coulthard once told an interviewer: "My dad had it all mapped out for me to get into Formula One right from an early age. We were watching a race on television once when he turned to me and said I think you should move to Monaco when you're in Formula One'."

Coulthard, who does now live in Monaco, won his first junior championship in 1983. He went on to be named Scottish Open Kart Champion and British Super Kart 1 Champion and won the McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award in 1990.

In 1993 he became an official Formula One test driver for Williams Renault and was promoted to race driver the following year, after Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian driver and triple world champion, died from head injuries sustained in a crash during the San Marino Grand Prix.

Coulthard achieved 13 Formula One victories, but repeatedly fell short of the world championship, with much of his career coinciding with the dominance of Michael Schumacher, who won seven world championships. In 1998 and 1999, when Coulthard had a race-winning car, he was eclipsed by Finnish team-mate Mika Hakkinen.

The best season of his career was in 2001 when he finished second to Schumacher in the drivers' championship.

Only one year earlier he had walked away unscathed from the burning wreckage of a plane after it crashed during a flight from Farnborough, Hampshire, to Nice. The two pilots died instantly when the plane came down at Lyon-Satalas airport.

Coulthard later said of the accident: "There's absolutely no question it made me refocus. It's easy if you've been racing since 11-years-old, and this has been my profession since I left school, to take it all for granted.

"Out of that terrible event, which was so tragic for the families of the pilots, it was a question of Do I want to do this? What is my life?' I realised with absolute commitment that my life is Formula One."

He may have been dubbed racing's "Mr Nice Guy", but away from the track, Coulthard's private and business life have often hit the headlines.

He and his fiancee, Heidi Wichlinski, who was also a passenger in the plane, split up in 2001. He was then linked to a number of high-profile women, including Brazilian supermodel Simone Abdelnour, to whom he proposed in December 2003. That relationship also ended and he is now engaged to Karen Minier, a Formula One TV reporter.

In 2001, Coulthard joined forces with hotelier Ken McCulloch and property developer Peter Morris to found the Columbus Hotel in Monaco. Three years later they launched a new chain of boutique hotels in the UK.

Since then, however, the partnership has broken up and the Columbus has been put up for sale, reportedly after pressure from Coulthard, after forensic accountants found alleged improprieties in the books.

Back on the track, Coulthard, who will continue as a consultant with Red Bull, will take part in his last British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend.