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Interview: Davidson Talks to Jordan, BMW

BAR test driver Anthony Davidson says he has been approached by Jordan and is also talking to BMW about a Formula One drive for 2006

The 26-year-old Briton will be a free agent contractually at the end of August and he said at the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday he was doing all he could to get a race seat somewhere.

"I love racing so much I feel that it's probably my greatest strength as a driver," he said.

"Wheel to wheel stuff is always what I've enjoyed the most since I was a little kid racing against Jenson (Button) in karts."

Davidson said his lack of funding, an insurmountable stumbling block in previous efforts to get on the starting grid with hard-up independent teams such as Jordan or Minardi, was no longer such an issue.

Jordan, bought by Russian-born Canadian billionaire Alex Shnaider, will become Midland next year. Their current drivers are Indian Narain Karthikeyan and Portugal's Tiago Monteiro.

"Normally to get a drive that far down the pitlane you are looking at a lot of cash and we just literally haven't had that kind of money," said Davidson.

"Now, they (Jordan/Midland) have approached us and they're saying that they can do something so it opens up a new opportunity really just to be on the grid."

Whip Crack

"It's got to the stage where I just want to be racing," added the highly-rated reserve who started two races as a Minardi stand-in in 2002 and one for BAR this year without finishing any of them.

"You can only do so much testing as a young guy and it's not like I've been there and stepped back to do testing, like some of the other test drivers that are out there now.

"They can say 'I had a go, I had a fair crack of the whip' while I never have. That's really what I want."

Davidson said that although he had done the rounds of the paddock in search of a drive, staying at BAR as Rubens Barrichello's teammate would be the ideal scenario.

"This is where I'd want to be. Out of all of them, this is where it would be easiest to fit in. I know the car and team really well," he said.

"But at the end of the day if I can't have an opportunity here then I will search for a drive elsewhere."

The Briton raced in British Formula Three for Trevor Carlin, who was sporting director at Jordan for part of this season before handing over to Adrian Burgess.

"They were one of the teams we spoke to because of Adrian being there, and Trevor at the beginning of the season, and it made it easy to just go in and have a chat," said Davidson.

"We've been talking to BMW as well for next year, we've spoken to them a couple of races back," he added.

"But at the moment it seems they've got quite a lot of time to make their decisions. It's obviously a bit of a weird situation for them."

BMW have bought Swiss-based Sauber and will field their own team from next season once they have split from current partners Williams.

They have at least one vacancy, with Brazilian Felipe Massa leaving for Ferrari.

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