By Ian Lockwood
January 4 2006

The BBC have snubbed Britain's highest point scoring Grand Prix driver of all time by not presenting him with an end of year award. Coulthard, however, is not too downhearted as the award in question was for the "Silliest Facial Hair in Motorsport"

The judging panel apparently though that David's designer stubble looked quite good! The "Top Gear" gear show also overlooked DC's mate Jenson Button who has been sporting his own whiskers recently. In the end the judges unanimously decided that the only rightful recipient of the award should be newly crowned F1 World Champion, Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard won praise for his uniquely silly postage stamp-sized piece of hair under his lower lip. There are rumours that he was also awarded bonus marks for managing to grow a monobrow.

Back in the real world, David and team-mate Christian Klien will be back at work next week when a four day test gets underway at the Jerez circuit in the south of Spain on 10th January. After DC gave the RB2 its shakedown at a wintery Silverstone last month, the real job of testing proper begins here, with each driver getting two days behind the wheel. From then on, the RBR test team will just about be able to claim Spanish citizenship, spending almost the entire two months until the start of the season commuting between the three Spanish tracks, Jerez, Barcelona and Valencia.