Davidson sets his target for Hungary

"My first aim is to put the car on the grid," Davidson admitted. "Minardi is a perfect place to be for your first race. Not a lot is expected but if I did a race with British Amercian Racing [with whom he is a test driver] I'd be expected to be midfield. If I wasn't, I'd look bad. Now, I'm expected to qualify."

As far as his own expectations are concerned, the 23-year-old said: "If I did this race in a BAR now, I'd expect to be half a second away from Villeneuve and Panis in qualifying. At the last two tests I've been only two tenths away at Mugello and Monza. I'm not familiar with the Minardi of course, so I'd be delighted to get within half a second of Mark Webber."

Asked what he'd learned from the experiences of former Carlin F3 team-mate Takuma Sato at Jordan, Davidson replied: "It's told me a lot about how good Fisichella is! No matter what Taku does out there, Fisi is a bloody good driver. It shows you how competitive F1 is and how long it takes to feel at home in an F1 car."

Assessing Davidson's prospects, BAR team leader Villeneuve said: "He's done a lot of mileage and a solid job as a test driver. He can do a good job but it's very difficult to judge testing. When race drivers test we are working on the car and not trying to do the ultimate qualifying lap, whereas a test driver will. So it's always very difficult to know how good they really are."