Davidson shoots for the history books
For a man who remained on the fringes of Formula 1 for so long, it seems strange to think that, for Anthony Davidson, his new programme with Peugeot in sportscar racing represents his best chance of going down in the motorsport history books.
Now 30 years old, the diminutive Davidson spent just one full season as an F1 race driver (2007 with Super Aguri), yet countless more as a test and reserve pilot. He may have failed to chalk up even one point during his F1 career, but Peugeot believes in him to the extent that he has been given the nod over World Rally superstar Sebastien Loeb, who instead will concentrate on his Citroen exploits on the stages.
As a result, the Briton will contest next month's Sebring 12 Hours, the Spa 1000Km in May, and June's Le Mans 24 Hours in a Peugeot 908 HDI, sharing with fellow ex-F1 drivers Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz. He should also race in the Silverstone 1000Km in September if Peugeot announces its participation in the race, which it is expected to do. He has every chance of winning any of these races.
Davidson lies 814th in the Castrol Rankings, mainly because he's only started two races in the past 12 months. At the beginning of 2009, he held 645th position, thanks to his scores in the first four races of the '08 F1 season, before Super Aguri closed down. During March and April, Davidson slid into the 1200s, before dropping off the table completely at the end of April.
An outing in June's Le Mans 24 Hours in a Lola-Aston Martin, shared with Darren Turner and Jos Verstappen, produced ninth on the grid and 13th in the race, and moved Davidson back into the Rankings, in 934th place. The following month he raced a Nissan GT-R in the Spa 24 Hours, with Turner and Michael Krumm, and finished 10th, producing his current Castrol Rankings score.
That's a lowly position for someone so widely renowned as a super-quick driver, but at least his 2010 programme with Peugeot means that he should be able to move further towards a more realistic position in the Rankings. Indeed, his early career suggested that he should easily rank at least among the top 50 in the world...
In 2000, he was a race-winner in British Formula Ford and won the prestigious Festival (ahead of Danica Patrick), before winning the McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award and stepping up to British Formula 3 in '01. In his rookie season of F3, he was beaten to the title by Carlin Motorsport team-mate Takuma Sato, a driver with whom his F1 career would run almost in parallel.
Davidson became a BAR test driver, also getting two F1 race outings with Minardi in 2002. In '04 and '05 he was BAR's reserve, acting as understudy to Sato and Jenson Button. When Sato was dropped for '06, the Japanese landed with the new Super Aguri team. Davidson stayed on at BAR (now redubbed Honda) as test driver for one more year before lining up alongside his old mate at Super Aguri. They raced together through '07 and early '08 before the team folded.
With Sato too back in action this year, in IndyCar, there could well be a parallel move up the Castrol Rankings by both men!
