Feature: Man Friday Seeks Sunday Drive

BAR are on the fast track to Formula One success but Anthony Davidson is caught in a quandary.

The more the 25-year-old Briton helps compatriot Jenson Button and Japan's Takuma Sato take on the sport's big-hitters, the more the test and reserve driver can see his job disappearing down the road.

Davidson is BAR's Man Friday, the unsung reserve driver who gets two hours in the limelight on the first day of practice at Grand Prix circuits helping the race aces prepare for the weekend.

Only the bottom six teams, as ranked in the previous Championship, can run a third car.

But if BAR continue their current strong form, chasing Renault for second place, there will be no opening for a Friday driver next year, assuming planned rule changes do not rearrange everything anyway.

"It's a bit of a Catch 22, isn't it?" says Davidson. "You want the car to be quick but at the same time you want to be doing this again next year. Better still you want to be actually having a race drive next year but I'm trying not to let that enter my mind at the moment.

"I'm fairly optimistic, confident about having a full drive next year and at the end of the day I'd prefer to be driving a quick car in testing and not doing the Fridays than doing Fridays in a slow car."

All Change

Davidson's performances have raised his profile at a time when Formula One is seeking to cut costs and encourage new teams and fresh talent into the sport. The revolution may not happen for some years yet but the man from Hemel Hempstead believes he has shown he belongs on the starting grid.

"I've got as much knowledge of these cars as Jenson and Taku do, I just don't get the chance to race them," he said last weekend. "And it's a shame to have that knowledge and not be able to use it."

At Barcelona last Friday, Davidson was third fastest in first practice - quicker than all but the Ferraris - and was second quickest behind Button in the second session.

At Imola, he was fourth quickest in session one and sixth in the second. In Bahrain before that, he was third fastest. Next week he gets to grips with Monaco, where Button has been tipped for a breakthrough win.

It was no wonder that struggling McLaren's David Coulthard suggested this week that the Friday rule should be changed to prevent BAR gaining a significant performance advantage.

Davidson has made the most of his opportunity, even taking into account the fact that Friday testers are not restricted in their mileage in the same way as race drivers seeking to preserve engines.

"They are actually carrying out different activities so often the case is disguised in that he might have a completely different programme from the race drivers," BAR boss David Richards said. "But his performance is very representative of his speed."

Davidson, a rival of Button's in karting, started twice for Minardi in 2002 as a stand-in but now has a far higher profile.

"It makes me laugh how a couple of years ago if I did a good job in a test nobody would have given a monkey's about it. No-one would care," he said.

"Now we've actually got a good car, now that the focus is on BAR, they see you and your name at the top and it doesn't matter how you do it."

Ralf Schumacher of Williams and Jaguar's Australian Mark Webber are the keys to the driver merry-go-round, with Ralf expected to move to Toyota and Webber to Williams in 2005.

But Williams's short list is likely to include Coulthard, Canadian former champion Jacques Villeneuve and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella. There are plenty of other top drivers out there.

Where that leaves Davidson is anyone's guess. He could stay at BAR for a fourth season or he could try and raise funds and become a 'pay driver' at a small team, despite saying in the past he would never consider that.

"I was misquoted that time as saying 'I'm not going to be a pay driver," he laughed. "I only said that because I don't actually have any goddamned money."