Second Time Round
June 7th 2007 11:30
Wurz back in race trim
But then there are the ‘testers’. The guys who for one reason or another, wilfully to kicking and screaming, are always there, year in, year out. Luca Badoer is the prime example, a man with some racing experience, but has been the centre of Ferrari’s testing world for over eight years now. But he tells us he’s happy enough earning his millions, as are the other professional testers, like Marc Gene and Pedro de la Rosa. Driving a svelte, 300 kph beast around is by no means boring, but after countless laps and mile after mile, the tedium of routine can hit. Alex Wurz and Anthony Davidson are two drivers who, for the past few years have been trapped within this testing wilderness. The pair have managed to notch up some 9 years and hundreds of thousands of miles of testing between them. In 2007, however, both have managed to claw their way out of the testing jungle and into a race seat.
Deep inside though, exit strategies were already in advanced stages of planning. Wurz nearly landed a Jaguar seat in 2004, alongside Webber, until Red Bull money planted Christian Klien in the seat. Davidson was all set to try for a seat at Williams in 2005, until Honda pulled the choke chain and refused to let him join the shoot-out between Nick Heidfeld and Antonio Pizzonia.
Still, despite their obvious attempts to get out, McLaren and Honda were, understandably both highly reluctant to let their testing gems go. Wurz was seen as an integral part of the team, and any McLaren man would rave about his technical prowess and the immense value he brought to testing. Ron Dennis was convinced that Wurz was too valuable an asset to release, especially at a time when McLaren were desperate for a return to title success, and Wurz’s loyalty was rewarded with a pay-packet that would have be envy of several racers. Davidson meanwhile, still emanated youthful ambition, and was more explicit than Wurz about his desire to go racing. However, he was bound rather tightly by a Honda contract, which he still is under, and they made no secret about the fact that they wanted him as a tester, as they saw his technical virtues as important for their operations.
So far the return has been shaky. Davidson relished his first chance at a full season of racing in Melbourne, and made it clear that his primary ambition was to finish a grand prix. Super Aguri was one of the revelations in Melbourne, and Davidson qualified a remarkable 11th, just behind his team-mate Takuma Sato. His race, however, was compromised early when the back of his car was shunted by a Spyker and he battled on to finish the race in substantial discomfort. However since then, Davidson has been the less-impressive Super Aguri driver, and has struggled with the pace of Sato, who managed to seal the team’s first ever point at Spain.
Wurz meanwhile, had a rather inauspicious return to full-time racing. The Austrian has struggled to adapt to the new qualifying format, and has been outperformed by team-mate Nivo Rosberg as a result. His Melbourne outing didn’t necessarily re-endear the Austrian back to racing, either. He struggled all weekend with grip, and was nearly decapitated by David Coulthard’s Red Bull in a careless accident. However, after a scoring a strong points finish on the streets of Monaco, ahead of Rosberg.
Happy to be racing...at last.
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