Zoom Test drivers now have a very restricted role in F1

Anthony Davidson believes Formula One should re-introduce rules allowing teams to field a third car in Friday practice for test drivers.

The 29-year-old Englishman is disappointed his advanced talks with Honda about returning to the test cockpit in 2009 were foiled, but he admits that testing roles are no longer as valuable as in the past.

"These days it's not a very good job," he told the German-language adrivo.com. "It is not what it once was because everything has been cut back so much."

Davidson was a test driver for BAR and Honda between 2001 and 2006, latterly running on Fridays of the Grand Prix weekends the year before he made his full time race debut for Super Aguri.

"We used to test for four days with three cars in Barcelona or even in Bahrain," he recalled. "They were fantastic times for test drivers."

"The Friday tests were also very good for us and it is really unfortunate that those opportunities for test drivers are no longer there. Drivers like myself, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica had the chance to show in the Friday tests what we can do in a Formula One car under pressure."

"We did a good job and all become proper race drivers. Whoever didn't prove themselves on the Fridays did not get race cockpits. It therefore functioned very well."

"It's bad enough that this opportunity is gone, and now all the other tests during the season have gone as well."

Davidson said he hopes to contest the famous Le Mans 24 hour race in 2009, and continues to hope for a test or simulator-development role with a Formula One team.

Source: GMM
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