Anthony Davidson confirmed as third driver with Honda

[Ed]

British driver Anthony Davidson will be Honda's third driver in 2006.
The team is entitled to a third car on Fridays and Anthony will fill that role. It will be Anthony's 5th year with the team.
Anthony's efforts for securing a race seat in 2006 haven't materialised and it appears he opted for a third driver role for the time being.

Anthony said:

I'm really looking forward to starting the 2006 season with the team in its new guise as the Honda Racing F1 Team. I have enjoyed five years with the team during which time I have made a positive contribution to its development. My decision to remain with Honda is the right one, for sure. They are committed to F1 for the long-term and absolutely focused on winning the World Championship. Although I would prefer to be in a race seat in 2006, I am in the best possible position to work towards achieving that goal. For now, we have a very intensive testing programme coming up in preparation for what should be an exciting 2006 season.

Full Honda Racing statement

[Julian Mayo]

Do you get the feeling this guy just aint gunna make it into a good race seat ?

[mlittle]

Do you get the feeling this guy just aint gunna make it into a good race seat ?

Yeah, you're right on this one, Julian. Sad thing about Davidson's current situation is this...back during this past year's Champ Car season, when Bruno Junquiera got injured during the Indy 500, Newman-Haas looked at a couple of drivers, including Davidson for the seat. They eventually put Oriol Servia into Junky's seat, but I kinda wonder....what kind of season do you think Davidson would've had if he had accepted their offer.

For the record, Servia had one win(Montreal), 6 podiums, and finished 2nd in the points behind Bourdais.

[JayVee]

Davidson is very unlucky and the problem is that he keeps getting stuffed around by his own countryman

I guess if he went to the US he wouldn't return unless he blew everyone away over there.

[Julian Mayo]

Now there is a thought. Perhaps he will get Button's seat in 2007

[mlittle]

Davidson is very unlucky and the problem is that he keeps getting stuffed around by his own countryman

I guess if he went to the US he wouldn't return unless he blew everyone away over there.

Maybe, JayVee, but.....look at what's happened to da Matta since he returned to NA motorsports from F1. He got one win(Portland), but the rest of the season was just horrid. Talk in the CC paddock is that he's out of his ride w/PKV for 2006; ironically, the same talk has him getting a possible third seat w/Newman-Haas, w/whom he drove for when he won the CC title in 2002(which opened the door for him to go to F1 the next year!)

[JayVee]

And what did da Matta do in F1 ? Pretty much nothing depsite winning in the US before hand (didn't he ?)

What I meant is that for a driver who is racing in the US to then race in F1 they have to be the best over there otherwise no one will hire them in F1. That is a risk Davidson would have taken if he went to the US.

[mlittle]

And what did da Matta do in F1 ? Pretty much nothing depsite winning in the US before hand (didn't he ?)

What I meant is that for a driver who is racing in the US to then race in F1 they have to be the best over there otherwise no one will hire them in F1. That is a risk Davidson would have taken if he went to the US.

True, true. When da Matta headed over to F1 in 2003, the consensus was that "Shorty"(what everyone called him over here in NA) would take the success he had in CART winning the 2002 title and translate that into decent results in Formula 1. (Obviously, that didn't happen.) I think it's generally a tad easier for a driver who wins in F1(i.e. Mansell, for instance) to head to NA and race rather than the other way around.

[Julian Mayo]

And what did da Matta do in F1 ? Pretty much nothing depsite winning in the US before hand (didn't he ?)

What I meant is that for a driver who is racing in the US to then race in F1 they have to be the best over there otherwise no one will hire them in F1. That is a risk Davidson would have taken if he went to the US.

True, true. When da Matta headed over to F1 in 2003, the consensus was that "Shorty"(what everyone called him over here in NA) would take the success he had in CART winning the 2002 title and translate that into decent results in Formula 1. (Obviously, that didn't happen.) I think it's generally a tad easier for a driver who wins in F1(i.e. Mansell, for instance) to head to NA and race rather than the other way around.

Does that mean NA racing is easier to compete in than F1 ?

[JayVee]

F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, I think everyone agrees on that.

Usually a Formula 1 winner does well in the US but the other way around isn't usually as successful.

Also a driver who struggles in F1 usually makes his mark in the US. I have never heard of a struggling Cart or Indy driver that even makes the grade in F1.

Of course there are exceptions and I am sure mlittle will remind me of those but this is the general trend I'd say

[mlittle]

Depends on the definition used. The big difference between F1 and NA motorsports(CC, IRL, etc.) is that, besides being good on road courses and street circuits, drivers over here also have to be good at running on ovals. When Nigel Mansell won his CART title in 1993, he(to the best of my mind) had never raced on a closed-course oval track to that point, yet he places third at the Brickyard, wins the next week at Milwaukee, wins on a 2-mile oval at Michigan and then backs that win up with a win on the "paperclip" oval at Loudon, NH and then puts the exclamation point on the title by winning on what was then the toughest 1-miler in NA, Nazareth. That's 4 wins out of six oval races(the exceptions being Phoenix and Indy).

I'm not saying, Julian, that it's easier over here than in F1; far from it. But I suspect if the CART-IRL split hadn't occured, then NA motorsports would be on a very even keel w/F1 in terms of difficulty.

[JayVee]

And Nigel Mansell was past his prime in F1 at the time. He drove for McLaren I think a couple of races before being replaced

I think also that the lesser the number of seats the tougher it gets and the better you have to be to make it. Don't know how many seats there are available in Cart and Indy but each would surely be more than the 20 available in F1 and that makes the series more competitve (and we still have mediocre drivers every once in a while )

I wonder what does this have to do with Davidson Sorry

[Julian Mayo]

By the time nige was racing ovals he had the advantage of moving his belly to the inboard side of the car. An unfair advantage surely. Hmmm, maybe JPM has a similar theory with F1........anyway where were we.....oh...... the split in NA racing is a valid point Mfer. I concur

[mlittle]

And Nigel Mansell was past his prime in F1 at the time. He drove for McLaren I think a couple of races before being replaced

I think also that the lesser the number of seats the tougher it gets and the better you have to be to make it. Don't know how many seats there are available in Cart and Indy but each would surely be more than the 20 available in F1 and that makes the series more competitve (and we still have mediocre drivers every once in a while )

I wonder what does this have to do with Davidson Sorry

3 parts to the posting, JayVee....

1}As far as car counts go in either NA series, right now it looks as though the IRL will probably have around 20 cars(+/- 1), while CC will probably end up w/either 20-21 cars(+/- 1 or 2), for a total of around 40-42, as opposed to the 20 in Formula 1(22 if Super Aguri F1 makes it to the '06 grid).

2}You're right about Mansell; McLaren did indeed drop him in 1995 after a few races then.

3}As for Davidson.....the rumor mill here in the States' has it that if Davidson can't find(for whatever reasons) an F1 race seat after 2006, it's a 50-50 chance he'll bolt for NA and try his luck in either series(most likely CC). Ironically, I think I mentioned this in an earlier posting, but when Junquiera was injured during the Indy 500 last May, Newman-Haas inquired as to whether Davidson could fill in for Junquiera. I wouldn't be surprised if, come 2007, Davidson comes over to NA if he's not in an F1 racing seat.

Of course, this is still the preseason, so...who knows what could conceiveably happen?

[Julian Mayo]

If I remember correctly Mansell could not fit comfortably in the McLaren tub, despite extensive modifications