For All Those Davidson Fans...

[sa_20v]

http://www.forumula1.net/2008/f1/f1-news/exclusive...

I can't tell you how much I want to see this guy in a competitive team, it's a crying shame he's not in Monaco this weekend.

[jon-]

He doesn't live a million miles away from me, I'd love to buy the guy a drink. Top bloke and loads of raw speed IMO.

I really hope he gets the drive he deserves.

[andy_s]

Be good to see him in a good drive, he's a hard worker.

[touring fan]

Whats the big deal about Davidson?
What's he really ever done?

Didn't win the Formula Ford championship.
Didn't win the F3 championship.
Years as a Honda F1 test driver, yet they didn't give him a race seat (If he was that good, that team would have certainly known it and would have raced him).
Sato, his Aguri F1 team-mate, beat him both years. And Sato is nothing special either.

Forget the fact that he's British and 'one of us'. The guy has not really done anything to deserve a seat in F1 and has always been beaten by his team-mate (in cars). Which is probably the reason why other F1 teams haven't signed him.

He seems like a nice guy but his results show him to be nothing special.

[Dan Friel]

He came second in British F3.. the year Sato won. But, as you point out, he's not much good either. So obviously the pair are useless.

Having attended a fair few F3 races, i recall Sato being awesome in those cars.

[touring fan]

I didn't say Sato (or Davidson) were 'useless'. I said they were nothing special.
They are obviously both good drivers, but not great or 'special' ones.

And, besides, being good in one category does not necessarily transfer to another.
F1 is littered with examples of drivers who were awesome in other categories, but struggled to get to grips with F1 (and vice versa).

Edited by touring fan on Friday 23 May 11:42

[Munter]

If Coulthard steps out of the Red Bull, does Davidson stand a chance of getting the seat?

[rubystone]

Munter said:

If Coulthard steps out of the Red Bull, does Davidson stand a chance of getting the seat?

Only if Davidson runs over Vettel whilst parking his car

[minghis]

touring fan said:

Whats the big deal about Davidson?
What's he really ever done?

Didn't win the Formula Ford championship.
Didn't win the F3 championship.
Years as a Honda F1 test driver, yet they didn't give him a race seat (If he was that good, that team would have certainly known it and would have raced him).
Sato, his Aguri F1 team-mate, beat him both years. And Sato is nothing special either.

Forget the fact that he's British and 'one of us'. The guy has not really done anything to deserve a seat in F1 and has always been beaten by his team-mate (in cars). Which is probably the reason why other F1 teams haven't signed him.

He seems like a nice guy but his results show him to be nothing special.

The big deal is that he's very quick yet hasn't had the opportunity or equipment to prove it. Remember 2004 when he was a test driver for Honda?

From Formula1.net:

In 2004 Davidson burst onto the scene as Honda’s test and reserve driver setting a blistering pace around the street circuit and lapping within touching distance of Michael Schumacher. He followed it up with an equally impressive display in Friday warm up in 2006 before out-qualifying five other drivers, including his team-mate Takuma Sato, in the inferior Super Aguri last year.

“Monaco was a real eye opener for other people and it put me on the map,” says Davidson. “To go second fastest to Michael in my first ever time there in a Formula One car, well my first ever time there period, was really good and people could no longer doubt my speed and consistency.”

That's why a lot of people rate him as something special.

[entropy]

minghis said:

touring fan said:

Whats the big deal about Davidson?
What's he really ever done?

Didn't win the Formula Ford championship.
Didn't win the F3 championship.
Years as a Honda F1 test driver, yet they didn't give him a race seat (If he was that good, that team would have certainly known it and would have raced him).
Sato, his Aguri F1 team-mate, beat him both years. And Sato is nothing special either.

Forget the fact that he's British and 'one of us'. The guy has not really done anything to deserve a seat in F1 and has always been beaten by his team-mate (in cars). Which is probably the reason why other F1 teams haven't signed him.

He seems like a nice guy but his results show him to be nothing special.

The big deal is that he's very quick yet hasn't had the opportunity or equipment to prove it. Remember 2004 when he was a test driver for Honda?

From Formula1.net:

In 2004 Davidson burst onto the scene as Honda’s test and reserve driver setting a blistering pace around the street circuit and lapping within touching distance of Michael Schumacher. He followed it up with an equally impressive display in Friday warm up in 2006 before out-qualifying five other drivers, including his team-mate Takuma Sato, in the inferior Super Aguri last year.

“Monaco was a real eye opener for other people and it put me on the map,” says Davidson. “To go second fastest to Michael in my first ever time there in a Formula One car, well my first ever time there period, was really good and people could no longer doubt my speed and consistency.”

That's why a lot of people rate him as something special.

That's a joke!

If you follow F1 properly then you would know that testing isn't a good form guide because of tyres and fuel load and engine mapping.

Same with the old Friday practice/3rd driver rules - why do you think Ant and Wurz kept trading fastest laps on Fridays? Because they had nothing else better to do and they could run low fuel and turn up the revs whereas the others had to save their cars for the rest of the weekend.

If Ant was quick then over a season he would've beaten Sato but didn't. This is coming from a driver who tested the Hondas and raced them no less, but was more or less equal to Sato.

I would go on to say Ant was only good over a lap, Sato was the better race driver - with the added bonus of scoring points, spectacular passing moves, holding up a train of cars, can't really say Ant has much racecraft - Canada last year was a freak race and down more to luck, IMHO.

Considering that Sato did nothing spectacular against as Button's team mate, then what would've Ant done?

Answer: not much!

[JP_Midget]

The most impressive thing that Davidson has done that I witnessed was his appearance as part of the commentary team for ITV when he was test driver for Honda. That was the most insightful GP I think that I have seen. He displayed just how good his knowledge was as well as being able to communicate it in such a way that even I understood it. I'm hoping that he makes it back into the commentary box, even though I'd much rather see him out on the track racing on merit.

Good luck Antony!

[matt3001]

rubystone said:

Munter said:

If Coulthard steps out of the Red Bull, does Davidson stand a chance of getting the seat?

Only if Davidson runs over Vettel whilst parking his car

Got to find somewhere for Grosjean as well, guess Piquet will be unemployed at the end of the season and Flavio can put Rom in the 2nd Renault

[minghis]

entropy said:

minghis said:

touring fan said:

Whats the big deal about Davidson?
What's he really ever done?

Didn't win the Formula Ford championship.
Didn't win the F3 championship.
Years as a Honda F1 test driver, yet they didn't give him a race seat (If he was that good, that team would have certainly known it and would have raced him).
Sato, his Aguri F1 team-mate, beat him both years. And Sato is nothing special either.

Forget the fact that he's British and 'one of us'. The guy has not really done anything to deserve a seat in F1 and has always been beaten by his team-mate (in cars). Which is probably the reason why other F1 teams haven't signed him.

He seems like a nice guy but his results show him to be nothing special.

The big deal is that he's very quick yet hasn't had the opportunity or equipment to prove it. Remember 2004 when he was a test driver for Honda?

From Formula1.net:

In 2004 Davidson burst onto the scene as Honda’s test and reserve driver setting a blistering pace around the street circuit and lapping within touching distance of Michael Schumacher. He followed it up with an equally impressive display in Friday warm up in 2006 before out-qualifying five other drivers, including his team-mate Takuma Sato, in the inferior Super Aguri last year.

“Monaco was a real eye opener for other people and it put me on the map,” says Davidson. “To go second fastest to Michael in my first ever time there in a Formula One car, well my first ever time there period, was really good and people could no longer doubt my speed and consistency.”

That's why a lot of people rate him as something special.

That's a joke!

If you follow F1 properly then you would know that testing isn't a good form guide because of tyres and fuel load and engine mapping.

Same with the old Friday practice/3rd driver rules - why do you think Ant and Wurz kept trading fastest laps on Fridays? Because they had nothing else better to do and they could run low fuel and turn up the revs whereas the others had to save their cars for the rest of the weekend.

If Ant was quick then over a season he would've beaten Sato but didn't. This is coming from a driver who tested the Hondas and raced them no less, but was more or less equal to Sato.

I would go on to say Ant was only good over a lap, Sato was the better race driver - with the added bonus of scoring points, spectacular passing moves, holding up a train of cars, can't really say Ant has much racecraft - Canada last year was a freak race and down more to luck, IMHO.

Considering that Sato did nothing spectacular against as Button's team mate, then what would've Ant done?

Answer: not much!

Who or what are you referring to as a joke - me, or the article?

[wainy]

Dan Friel said:

He came second in British F3.. the year Sato won. But, as you point out, he's not much good either. So obviously the pair are useless.

Having attended a fair few F3 races, i recall Sato being awesome in those cars.

If I remember correctly Sato was in the top 3 F3 champions as defined by Autosport. Was in the magazine a couple of months ago they listed their top 10 of F3 drivers and Sato was up there with Schumacher and Senna.
I am not saying that Sato could bring the same to F1 but he is a lot better than some of the pay per drive competitors.

[entropy]

minghis said:

entropy said:

minghis said:

touring fan said:

Whats the big deal about Davidson?
What's he really ever done?

Didn't win the Formula Ford championship.
Didn't win the F3 championship.
Years as a Honda F1 test driver, yet they didn't give him a race seat (If he was that good, that team would have certainly known it and would have raced him).
Sato, his Aguri F1 team-mate, beat him both years. And Sato is nothing special either.

Forget the fact that he's British and 'one of us'. The guy has not really done anything to deserve a seat in F1 and has always been beaten by his team-mate (in cars). Which is probably the reason why other F1 teams haven't signed him.

He seems like a nice guy but his results show him to be nothing special.

The big deal is that he's very quick yet hasn't had the opportunity or equipment to prove it. Remember 2004 when he was a test driver for Honda?

From Formula1.net:

In 2004 Davidson burst onto the scene as Honda’s test and reserve driver setting a blistering pace around the street circuit and lapping within touching distance of Michael Schumacher. He followed it up with an equally impressive display in Friday warm up in 2006 before out-qualifying five other drivers, including his team-mate Takuma Sato, in the inferior Super Aguri last year.

“Monaco was a real eye opener for other people and it put me on the map,” says Davidson. “To go second fastest to Michael in my first ever time there in a Formula One car, well my first ever time there period, was really good and people could no longer doubt my speed and consistency.”

That's why a lot of people rate him as something special.

That's a joke!

If you follow F1 properly then you would know that testing isn't a good form guide because of tyres and fuel load and engine mapping.

Same with the old Friday practice/3rd driver rules - why do you think Ant and Wurz kept trading fastest laps on Fridays? Because they had nothing else better to do and they could run low fuel and turn up the revs whereas the others had to save their cars for the rest of the weekend.

If Ant was quick then over a season he would've beaten Sato but didn't. This is coming from a driver who tested the Hondas and raced them no less, but was more or less equal to Sato.

I would go on to say Ant was only good over a lap, Sato was the better race driver - with the added bonus of scoring points, spectacular passing moves, holding up a train of cars, can't really say Ant has much racecraft - Canada last year was a freak race and down more to luck, IMHO.

Considering that Sato did nothing spectacular against as Button's team mate, then what would've Ant done?

Answer: not much!

Who or what are you referring to as a joke - me, or the article?

The 'joke' and what I find laughable is your interpretation of Ant of being 'quick' but not:

1. Having the opportunity - teamed up with Sato who was nothing special in F1 and was more or less equal to him

2. Not having the equipment - the SA07/08 were really RA06/07 customer Honda chassis and so Ant shouldn't really have any excuses. The SA07 was blatantly better than the RA07.

Ant was over-rated and proven to be over-rated,

End of.

[10 Pence Short]

I remember watching Sato in F3. He had already developed the ability to be erratic, but when he was dialled in, nobody could get anywhere near him- including Davidson.

[refoman2]

you could say the same about button too,he didnt win F3 championship but still got F1 drive,what ever happened to marc hynes?????????

[dxb335d]

touring fan said:

Whats the big deal about Davidson?
What's he really ever done?

Didn't win the Formula Ford championship.
Didn't win the F3 championship.
Years as a Honda F1 test driver, yet they didn't give him a race seat (If he was that good, that team would have certainly known it and would have raced him).
Sato, his Aguri F1 team-mate, beat him both years. And Sato is nothing special either.

Forget the fact that he's British and 'one of us'. The guy has not really done anything to deserve a seat in F1 and has always been beaten by his team-mate (in cars). Which is probably the reason why other F1 teams haven't signed him.

He seems like a nice guy but his results show him to be nothing special.

He may not be special, like Kubica etc. But he is a good driver.

I rate him higher than Button!!

I presented him a trophy at Brands in 2000 i think it was when he won a support race at the FF festival!!

He would be better off in Touring cars or Le-mans!

[sniff petrol]

dxb335d said:

I rate him higher than Button!!

I presented him a trophy at Brands in 2000 i think it was when he won a support race at the FF festival!!

He would be better off in Touring cars or Le-mans!

Someone appears to have swapped your full stop and exclamation mark keys around Carlos!

[jimmyjam]

Anthony's brother is sometimes on PH.