DUNBARDUNBAR(^14) 1 AUGUST 2019
Davidson felt far more prepared for Sunday
than he had for qualifying, but his Honda
engine blew up after only two racing laps.
“Every race I went to I was excited and
hopeful of getting a race drive, but with
trepidation at the same time as you knew
you could get thrown in at any second
before qualifying,” he says. “On another
occasion I had a seat-fit at Jordan because
it didn’t look as if Giancarlo Fisichella
would race. It didn’t happen, but there
was always a chance I would get a call-up.”
There are often last-minute deals that
are struck between teams when a seat
becomes vacant. After Sergio Perez
suffered a concussion in qualifying for the
2011 Monaco Grand Prix, he travelled to
Montreal a fortnight later still suffering
the after-effects. That year Sauber had GP3
champion Esteban Gutierrez as its official
reserve driver, but hadn’t figured that the
youngster would be needed to race.
When Perez withdrew following first
practice in Canada, Sauber approached
McLaren to use de la Rosa, who had raced
for the team in 2010. He had previously
been called up by McLaren to replace Juan
Pablo Montoya for the 2005 Bahrain Grand
Prix and set the fastest race lap, impressing
enough to earn another opportunity when
Montoya dramatically left the team
following the 2006 US Grand Prix.
The reason for overlooking the team’s
official reserve – a scenario repeated when
Lotus plumped for Heikki Kovalainen to
replace Kimi Raikkonen for the final two
races of the 2013 season, rather than its
“When I was a test driver for McLaren,
it was a really important role in the team,”
says de la Rosa. “Nowadays the test driver
role doesn’t make sense because there is
no testing – you’re mainly a simulator
driver and have to race in other series.”
TESTING – BUT NOT IN THE
REAL WORLD
Today, the role of a reserve driver is
essentially one that involves hours
reserve driver and GP2 champion
Davide Valsecchi – can be explained
by the changing dynamic of the role.
When several F1 manufacturers
pulled out in the late 2000s, in-season
testing was massively restricted to
further reduce spending. So-called
young driver tests were created to help
burgeoning talent yet to start a grand
prix, but these are essentially revenue-
generators for the smaller outfits.
“I thought it was
absolutely bonkers
to be going straight
into qualifying”