Anthony Davidson = Midland next year as main man Just what they need next year with there inlarged budget there going to need a driver that can develop the car not just drive it (badly) like the current pay for the drive donkeys they have a the moment.

I pretty sure that BAR success last year was helped massively by AD's input as 3rd driver. He had more input in to the team than any other 3rd driver out there. And he was lapping regularly faster than anyone in 2004.

Davidson will be faster than JB in the right car...

 

When? IIRC he did a few laps one race and retired.

 

On the fridays..

 

So Davidson in a car which hasn't got to run a race is quicker than the guys who will be racing?

Not saying that he isn't quick, but I don't think you can compare practice times of someone who isn't going to be racing in that car to those of the others who are (and therefore might have more fuel/less agressive aero/suspension setups etc).


p.s Coulthard would be quicker than JB in the right car, but he's just not good enough to get a decent drive

 

define 'right car'? coulthard is good, but not as good as button in my view. button's qualifying performances are always good, whereas coulthard struggles.

 

button seems to be crap off the line

 

Ok my point is that no test driver was as fast as AD last year and yes i'm sure that he was/could be running light fuel/new tyres/low DF etc but not all the time.
And every GP i can think of he was up in the top 5 in friday times, and many (Canada/USA spring to mind) was faster than everyone inculeding MS.

As its friday the race drivers could also run the car how ever they liked so why were JB/Sato almost always slower?

I'm not say that AD is the fastest driver in the world, but he is one of the best at giving technical feed back to move the car/team forward.

As for the 'right car' ok in the 'Same car' say, i feel AD would be faster over a season than JB.

 

You need to read my other posts on Coulthard - I think he's crap when there are other cars on the track.

I was just pointing out that 'in the right car' a lot of crap drivers would be quicker than better ones 'in the wrong car'.

 

As a driver, given the choice, would you

A) run the car in near race trim
B) run the car in experimental (potentially faster) trim

A) every time to gain valuable race practice I reckon.

As a test driver you'd be concerned with trying all of those odd setups to see if one works.

Again, not saying he's crap - just that you can't compare apples with pears.

Bit like saying, I blew away a 911 Turbo on the way to work this morning, he was probably just not pushing hard but you don't know that for sure..

 

Coulthard has won (I think 13) races, whereas Button has not, desite having a fantastic car last year. I'm yet to be convinced that Button is a winner in the truest sense. I hope to be proven wrong though. There's a very good Button vs Coulthard article in this month's F1 Racing actually.

What a mess he's made here. Still he's done the right thing in terms of his career, and Honda seem to be stupid enough to keep throwing money at him, so good luck to him.