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Anthony Davidson Q&A

This weekend Anthony Davidson is hoping to make his grand prix debut for Minardi. The 23-year-old has been drafted in by the F1 minnows to help the team get both drivers in the race after the previous incumbent Alex Yoong failed to break the 107 percent limit in two of the past three races. Davidson is not without F1 experience however, and has racked up thousands of miles of miles in testing for BAR this season. AUTOSPORT's grand prix editor Jonathon Noble caught up with the Englishman


"Well I am excited but it hasn't really sunk in yet. In the last couple of tests with BAR I have felt pretty comfortable in the car and felt I could do a respectable job in a race situation. It is something I have been dreaming of since I was eight years old so it has finally come true. It has made me and everyone involved in my career so happy. To sit on the grid with all those guys is a mega achievement, no matter who you are or who you are with. So I am really happy and cannot wait."


"Yes, I think in that way it is a good thing because you don't have a lot of time to dwell on it - you sign and you do it. I think the Jordan thing when it came quite close it put me in the right mindset. I had kind of already prepared for it before so when Giancarlo got well I felt a bit robbed. But this time I know it is going to happen, it still hasn't sunk and it won't until I get out in the car on Friday morning."


"I have never had a challenge like this in my career, I have never been thrown into a situation that I was totally new to and I think the closest thing I have done is the IndyCar thing where it was last minute decision. I performed pretty good in that but doing a race in F1 is totally different. I don't know the circuit and it is a bloody tough one as well to get a good lap in a new car."


"That is right, we will see how Hungary turns out but I am really, really looking forward to Spa, that is the main one. It is one of my favourites as well, and to do Spa in F1 is absolutely mega experience. I have got everything ahead of me - pit stops etc - but I am sure if you start thinking about it then you will start worrying about it. I am sure when the time comes I will be fine and I will probably be better than what I expect of myself. I am not big-headed and I don't expect to set the world alight, I don't think people expect me to. But I think I will probably, knowing me, end up being better than I expect."


"Yes an amazing job. I have been against two race drivers all year, I say against but we are in the same team and you have to post your times against them and you measure yourself against those two. It has mainly be against Olivier who has been the strongest out of the two. And in the last couple of tests I have been less than half a second away from them and I should think that Mark has got to the stage where he could challenge the very best. So to be put against him in the race situation, in a team that I am not familiar with and in a car I am not familiar and at a track I am not familiar with is asking quite a lot, but I prefer it this way, because everyone thinks he is mega. It is the same as when we went against Taku, no one wanted to be his team-mate so you aim for the best and have to put yourself against the best."


"I think a good job in these two races is to qualify for both and that has to be the first initial target and then to make it through with no real dramas and make a solid job of it, that is all I want of it for myself. I am really doing this for me, I have to do this for me. I want to prove finally that I always believed right from an early age. I always wanted to get to F1 and now I have the chance."


"No not really because the only pressure I have is from myself. I have been given this opportunity, I don't really care how or why. I am not really sure why I have been given this chance or how it came about - I came back from holiday and found I was in a bloody F1 race - which is quite cool. All I know is that I have been given a chance and I want to do well and it has come to my point in my career, this is make or break time. You are judged in front of the whole world and if you do a good job you are praised for it and if not then you will be put down for it, that is the hard game you play."

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