Anthony Davidson

Davidson finished the season in 23rd place having scored no points.

Amid financial problems which threatened their continued participation in Formula One, Super Aguri retained Davidson alongside teammate Sato for.

Anthony Denis Davidson (born 18 April 1979) is a British former racing driver, currently working as an analyst for the Sky Sports F1 television channel, as part of the commentary team for WEC TV, as colour commentator for the F1 series of video games, and as simulator and demonstration driver for Mercedes AMG Petronas.

He is best known for racing in Formula One for Minardi and Super Aguri, and has been a test or reserve driver for the British American Racing, Honda, and Brawn GP teams.

Born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, Davidson began kart racing in 1987, competing in various British, European and North American championships.

He won three British championships (93, 94, 95), one Italian championship and was runner-up in the Formula A European championship in 1996.

In 1999, he moved to single seater cars, racing Formula Fords and winning the 1600 cc Kent engine class of the British Formula Ford festival that year.

The following season, he was runner-up in the British Formula Ford championship but did win the blue riband Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch and scooped the McLaren/Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award.

In late 2000, Davidson became the test driver for the British American Racing (BAR) Formula One team for the season.

The following season Davidson started two races for the Minardi team, temporarily replacing regular driver Alex Yoong, who the team had decided to suspend after he had failed to qualify for three races.

Minardi had originally planned to put Justin Wilson in the car, but he proved too tall.

Davidson's qualifying times were within 0.6s of teammate Mark Webber at his two starts in Hungary and Belgium, but he spun out of both events.

He was not given a chance to race in and remained as test driver at BAR.

Race drivers were Jacques Villeneuve and Davidson's countryman Jenson Button who joined the team from Renault.

When Takuma Sato was promoted to the race team following the departure of Villeneuve, it presented Davidson with the opportunity to become third driver.

This was especially useful in as BAR were able to run a third car in Friday morning testing, which became Davidson's duty.

He frequently impressed with his pace, other teams frequently taking note of his consistent lap times for tyre degradation data.

e.g. at Indianapolis he set the second fastest lap time in Friday practice after 19 laps.

In 2001, Davidson competed in the British Formula Three championship with the Carlin team, finishing second overall to teammate Takuma Sato.

His performance improved throughout the season and he outscored Sato from June until the season's end.

He also won the Formula Three Pau Grand Prix, the Spa Masters and the FIA European Cup.

In November 2004, BAR announced that it had failed to come to an acceptable contractual agreement with the Williams team to allow Davidson to drive for Williams in because Williams would not agree to his unconditional "repatriation" to BAR in.

Given BAR's long-term contract on Davidson, his chance of securing a race seat for 2005 was therefore called into serious doubt.

He was given the opportunity to fill in for an unwell Sato at the 2005 Malaysian Grand Prix, but his engine expired just two laps into the event.

As BAR had failed to be one of the top four constructors the previous season Honda were able to run a third car on Friday, giving Davidson a bigger role than in 2005.

In 2006 Davidson resumed his role as test driver for BAR, now owned by Honda and renamed Honda Racing F1.

Having previously done some radio commentary work for BBC Radio Five Live, in 2006 he made his debut as a television commentator, standing in for the absent Martin Brundle for ITV Sport at the Hungarian Grand Prix, which was won by Jenson Button and the Honda team.

On 15 November 2006, Super Aguri confirmed that Davidson would partner Takuma Sato for the 2007 Formula One season.

Thus, he became a regular Formula One driver for the first time.

At the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix Davidson was running third when his car struck a groundhog on the straight before the pits, ultimately putting him back to 11th place and ending his bid for his first career points.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix Davidson's rear suspension was broken during a collision with Giancarlo Fisichella, which forced him to retire.

In 2008 Davidson returned to Honda as test driver for the testing at Spain's Circuit de Catalunya whilst Honda test driver Alexander Wurz was racing at Le Mans.

However, on 6 May 2008 Super Aguri withdrew from the Championship leaving Davidson without a race seat.

Davidson was announced as a Honda test driver for the remainder of.

On 5 December 2008 Honda pulled out of Formula One due to financial problems.

Ross Brawn bought out the team and formed Brawn GP and Davidson signed on as a test driver.

On 16 November 2009, engine suppliers Mercedes-Benz bought out Brawn GP and renamed the team Mercedes GP.

Davidson continued in his role as reserve and development driver.

Davidson was linked with incoming teams Virgin and Lotus for the 2010 F1 season.

Davidson was the 2014 WEC World Champion, alongside his teammate, Sébastien Buemi.