Autosport – 01 August 2019

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‘B team’ Super Aguri in 2007.

“It was a fantastic benchmark for a

young driver coming in to measure yourself

against the race drivers,” says Davidson,

who continued his racing career alongside

his sim duties driving LMP1 prototypes for

Peugeot and Toyota. “All the data would be

there for the engineers to extrapolate and

pour over to see how your performance was.

“The test driver would often run

diff erent programmes, as you were testing

developmental parts that might not see the

light of day, but in the lap times you were

able to show what you could do – it was

right there for everyone to see.”

The early 2000s was a period of

unlimited running, when teams had

the budget to produce a carbon copy

of the race team, running multiple cars

when the race drivers were present.

After losing his drive at Jaguar,

Pedro de la Rosa was signed by McLaren

as one of two testers alongside Alex Wurz.

He completed more than 50 test days in

2006, and believes he benefi ted greatly

from the experience.

“It made me a much better driver,” de la

Rosa says. “When I look back at my time

weekend. As a result, the role of test driver
came to prominence. Teams would be on
the lookout for up-and-coming talents
who could drive consistently, not make
mistakes and off er intelligent feedback.
When Nigel Mansell failed to partner
Alain Prost at Williams for 1993, the
team promoted test driver Damon Hill
as he was familiar with the FW15C’s
complicated electronics and was a popular
member of the squad. Suddenly, a new
avenue for drivers wanting to get an F1 race
drive was opened up but, as manufacturer
involvement and spending increased, being
a test driver became a fundamental part of
a team’s research and development plan.
It was a full-time job itself.
In 2000, Anthony Davidson was
appointed to test for British American
Racing (BAR), and stayed on through its
guises as Honda, Brawn and now Mercedes
as a simulator driver. He admits that he
didn’t know whether it was the right thing
to stop racing after fi nishing runner-up to
Takuma Sato in the 2001 British Formula 3
championship – aside from two grand prix
outings for Minardi in 2002 and sporadic
GT outings in Prodrive Ferraris fi elded by
BAR boss David Richards – but knew it
was his big chance to prove himself in
an F1 environment, and was ultimately
rewarded with a race seat for Honda