Davidson in action at Le Mans

By Phil Huff (12/06/2003)
June 12 2003

Lucky Strike BAR Honda test driver Anthony Davidson gets some real racing in this weekend, as he heads down to the 71st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Foregoing his BAR duties for a weekend, Davidson will be taking the wheel of a Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS, alongside former ASCAR racer Kelvin Burt and F3000 driver Jamie Davies. Davidson's keeping things very much in the family, however, the Ferrari being developed by BAR team boss David Richard's Prodrive company.

Although BAR Formula One testing duties have been a touch scarce of late, Anthony is starting to champ at the bit and just wants to get behind the wheel of a racing car again. "This is an event with a lot of history, and it's great to take part in that and have it on your CV," says Anthony. "Testing has gone well and I'm sure that, in the 550, we have the car to do it. I'm really looking forward to it. Not racing regularly this year means that every race I do is good and I enjoy it more. I've really got into the spirit of 'team-mates', and a real team atmosphere, over the last couple of months, and the 24-hour test at Paul Ricard showed me what it's like for team members as well as drivers. In fact, I think we get an easy deal as at least we get to sleep occasionally."

A lack of track time at Le Mans, which Davidson has never driven before, isn't holding him back. "I am just about to nip down to the BAR factory, as the track program that they have got is as real as it gets. I've also got some video games to help me learn the track, which are really good these days."

After his first outing he's confident: "It's a great circuit, really good fun to drive, even if it's a bit more bumpy than I thought it would be. We all learnt the track quickly, and I feel at home in the car after the good test we had at Paul Ricard as well as today. We were on the pace with our team-mates in the other car for nearly the whole day which is good, bearing in mind they've got more Le Mans experience, and the team is top of the GTS list, which is a boost for all of us. The race is going to be a real challenge, with higher levels of concentration needed than I originally thought. Even on the Mulsanne Straight, you don’t get that long to rest between the chicanes!"

The racing kicks off at 4pm on Saturday, finishing a full 24 hours later.