Isn't he just the test driver? I wonder why they don't put him in the race...
yes - because of contracts with Jason & Takuma. unless the team 'enters' a thurd car, but for that I believe there are certain regulations and it also involved budget issues as a third 'race' car is an expensive proposition.
in the good old days of much, much less costs, there were more teams and many had 3 and sometimes even 4 drivers...
Brabham, Cooper, Lotus, Surtees, Fittipaldi, Hesketh, Matra, Arrows, ATS, Alfa Romeo.... and others were amongst the participants...
however, other teams are taking notice (i.e. Williams for example.
also... the first sessions (i.e. the "free sessions") ususally the first two or three are true 'tests' to just start feeling the track & the car... and having said that...
it still is a good performance, it really depends how his specific time measures against the actual qualifying times... the way it sounds, Davidson's times were very good.
Being a 'third/test' driver for a formula one team is no small accomplishment, in fact, depending on the case a test driver is a key component as there must be a lot of input from them when they are trying new things on the cars, sometimes such input is not necessarily the best from the main drivers as many of them are 'intuitive' drivers... and not technical... this varies from driver to driver... |
