Davidson Turns Down Us Drive For Bar

[r1ckst4]

BAR-Honda test driver Anthony Davidson has turned down a prime drive in the Champ Car World Series to keep himself in line for a BAR-Honda race drive.

The Briton was approached to replace Bruno Junqueira in the multiple championship-winning Newman-Haas squad in the US-based series, after the Brazilian broke his back in the Indianapolis 500 last Sunday.

Davidson is believed to have discussed the offer with BAR management before deciding against an opportunity that would have given him access to race-winning machinery.

Sources indicate that he was given assurances by BAR-Honda that he is in line for a race drive should a vacancy become available.

"I got approached by Newman-Haas to replace Bruno Junqueira," Davidson confirmed to ITV-F1's website.

"But I decided not to go forward with it because my main objective is race with BAR-Honda in Formula 1 next year."

Jenson Button is understood to have a clause in his contract that allows Williams to take up its option on him if he does not score 75% of the world championship leader's points total by the end of the Turkish Grand Prix.

With Button needing to win the next five races with Fernando Alonso not scoring to avoid such an eventuality, it seems likely that at least one seat will become available at BAR in 2006.

Other drivers that have been connected to a potential switch to BAR are Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, Red Bull Racing star David Coulthard and McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=33026

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good choice, it would be very silly of him to accept that offer. I'm pretty sure he'll get that seat he's been wanting for years.

[dydzi]

i always believed in him, hope to see him next season in f1. he's pretty good driver, i don't know why he isn't starting in races already

[jorismo]

i always believed in him, hope to see him next season in f1. he's pretty good driver, i don't know why he isn't starting in races already

He might not be better than Button and Sato. Altough I think he beats Sato

[Jack_Bauer]

I sincerely hope he does get a race seat at BAR next season as he's basically put his entire career on hold for the last couple of years. If BAR go and replace Button with someone else (Barrichello, Wurz, Wheldon) it would be extremely cruel for the guy. This season has been especially bad for him as he is the real victim of BAR's success last season, meaning that he doesn't get a chance to show what he can do in the Friday free practice sessions. Then when he did get a chance due to Sato's illness his engine grenaded after about 5 minutes of the race. I guess the one excuse that BAR could use for NOT giving him a race drive is that he hasn't actually driven a competitive race for a number of years. But you'd have to assume that if he's had a chat with the management about his future then they've given him some concrete assurances about his future with the team.

[johnnyperl]

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello

really! how serious is that, is his contract up? is massa still in line to replace him?