Anthony Davidson

Anthony Davidson was Minardi's first ever British driver, standing in for Alex Yoong in 2002 for two races. It could so easily have been another Brit, Justin Wilson, but the 2001 F3000 champion, 193 cm or 6'3" in height, was too tall for the PS02 cockpit. After dicing with the likes of Jenson Button in the British karting scene, Davidson progressed to Formula Ford in 1999 when he won the 1600cc class at the highly-competitive Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. BRDC Chairman Martin Brundle maye have smoothed the way for Davidson to race for Minardi but it was a last-gasp thing: he even had to borrow a mechanic's sparco overalls.

It was a baptism of fire, as the Hungaroring was atrack he'd never raced on and the PS02 was a car he had no experience with. He immediately broke a record, though, for the fastest fine in Grand Prix history. As he first left the pits, he nailed the Minardi before the official end of the pitlane and broke the speed limit. A $1000 fine racked-up in just 13 seconds. Davdison put it down to exuberance and laughingly revealed he didn't have the money anyway. He qualified for the Grand Prix and this he did, half a second off Mark Webber's time. During the race, he span off, though he had set a faster race lap than Mark Webber. Qualifying half a second off Webber again at Spa, he pushed too hard through Pouhon on raceday and slid off into the gravel. He said he'd been trying to match Webber's lap times and when Mark retired then switched to trying to match former team-mate Sato.

Davidson continued as the test driver of the BAR team and made one race appearance for that outfit in Malaysia 2005, though he again failed to make it to the checkered flag when his engine went up in flames. He had to wait until 2007 for a first full race stint which came with the Super Aguri team. While Davidson now regularly made the finish, unlike his teammate Takuma Sato he scored no points. Things could have gone differently, however, when he ran in third at the Canadian GP only to be hit by something he later described as a "beaver crossing the track". His F1 career came to an end when Super Aguri folded in 2008. Following his F1 exit, Davidson concentrated on FIA endurance races. His best Le Mans result was a 2nd place in 2013, teaming up with Sebastian Buemi and another former Minardi stand in, Sebastien Sarrazin.