Britain: Anthony Davidson chats to the press

By Phil Huff (08/07/2004)
July 8 2004

Following on from Jenson Button's appearance at the pre-race press conference, Lucky Strike BAR Honda's third driver Anthony Davidson took over the hot seat.

Give us an idea what you do, what your job as a third driver entails?

We just have a bit of fun on Fridays! Basically I do general testing, basically we are limited on time and we can only do tyre evaluation work and minimal set-up work as well. But yeah, well, basically some of the times they will take my set-up work on to the race car.

You seem to do more laps than anyone else, what is the reason for that?

Erm, fitter! No, we have a programme we run to and if we do more laps than anyone else then it is because we can, because we have unlimited mileage on the third car engine and we don’t have to save that for the race so we can just keep pounding around and get as much data as we can for the race weekend.

You often set very quick times, you are always up there, so we asked Jenson what sort of question we should ask you and he said 'how much fuel do you run' and then I suggested, well how much more revs are you allowed?

He has been winding me up! Just now he said I was on 15kg every time I go out! But, no, me and him are joking about it all the time. Basically we are pretty close now and we have known each other for ages as well, so we can joke about these things. In the general testing I am really close to him now so it is good. It is better for him, better for Takuma as well. The closer I am to them the more relevant the testing is, so it is good for everybody in the team.

Are you saying you do run more revs or you run less fuel?

I run more revs, but it is not much. But we are on the same fuel load all the time.

So you must be pretty pleased with your performances in testing. You normally keep it on the prepared surface and you've been pretty quick as well, so what does the future hold for you?

I have been quick. A lot of it is real genuine lap time. The last run that was really amazing was at Indy, where I actually had more fuel than the two race drivers when I did that time and we did 19 timed laps, so that was a really good one for me there. Basically, the reason I am going faster is that we are really close on speed it is just I get more tyres. So it is flattering me in a way but the times have been really good in general testing anyway, away from the media. We have days when I can be on top of those guys and I come away really happy but nobody really gets to know about it. The future is looking quite good, I have signed a new management deal and Dave and Steve Robertson have come on board to help me and my current manager. So the future is looking promising but there are no discussions that have happened yet and we are just waiting to finalise our plans and move forward together.

Would you be guaranteed some sort of job with BAR if you were to stay?

Yeah, I actually have got a long-term contract with BAR and without being cocky; they would reluctantly let me go to another team to let me race, so I would like to thank them for that. They have been really supportive the whole way through and they would continue to be if we landed something for next year. If not, then we continue doing the testing and, you know, try again.

You are working for a competitive team, is there a certain level down to which you would race?

Oh, beggars can't be choosers, but at the end of the day we haven't got any money so we can't pay to be at the back of the grid. It is what I have said all along - I would if I had a sponsor, any day, but we don't, so we can't.