Testing times for Davidson - News from FIA GT1 World Championship - Official Site

08/03/2010

Testing times for Davidson

Formula One race and test driver Anthony Davidson is the FIA’s official test driver for the GT1 World Championship. 

Davidson, who lives near Silverstone in England, has also competed in GT most notably in the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Sebring 12 Hours and last season at the Spa 24 Hours in the Nissan GT-R. 

At the Circuit Paul Ricard recently he performed the tests that will determine the Balance Of Performance for each of the six different marques that will compete in the 2010 championship.

Here’s how he viewed the test and his chance to weigh up the performance of the cars that will contest the 10-race series starting in Abu Dhabi next month. 

"I've been a test driver for many years in Formula One so I'm quite comfortable when we test a car of any type. The main factor is always performing at a set level of performance.

“That means not driving the car at 100 percent or just over and trying to hunt for lap times, but always doing the same job to enable every manufacturer a sensible baseline. 

"It can be difficult because, naturally, a driver finds different types of car easier or harder depending on their own personal style. 

"The weather conditions can change during the test which can affect the running as well and makes the job even harder but I had good fun in every car that I've driven.

"It's s a real insight into the differences between all the cars and trying to find the limit of each one as quickly as possible. 

"In terms of budgets for all the teams the Balance of Performance tests are very important.

”I know some people in racing who don't agree with the idea and want to go testing and spend money to gain performance.

"Formula One proves that teams spend more time testing, more time in wind tunnels and it escalates to disproportionate amounts of money which privateer teams in GT just can't afford. So balancing the cars has to be the right way to go especially in the current economic climate.

"I've agreed to do tests like this one at Paul Ricard every now and again to baseline all of the cars and try to get them within each other’s range of lap times. 

 “All of the cars have their strengths and weaknesses and you convince yourself that this time this lap time is going to be much better than the previous car you've tested and its not. So one of the surprises for me was how different the cars can feel out on the track for the same lap time. 

“As a driver to work with professional teams and compete against professional drivers in a world championship status event is fantastic, it's what every driver wants to do. 

“It's the reason I did Spa last year with Nissan and really enjoyed the race.

“I was in serious talks with a lot of teams for 2010 until I found something elsewhere but GT1 is something I'm looking forward to in the future and I'm sure it is going to be a huge success."

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