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Anthony made his karting debut in 1987 at the age of eight.
He enjoyed a successful karting career, and has the honour of being the most successful British Karter of the 1990s having won the British Junior title in 1994 and 1995 and various other International titles over the next four years.
2000 saw Anthony's first full season of car racing. He triumphed in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival and was awarded the Autosport/McLaren Young Driver of The Year prize as well as securing a test drive with BAR.
Anthony partnered Takuma Sato in the 2001 British F3 championship, winning six races to end the season just behind his triumphant team-mate and opted not to race in 2002 in order to concentrate on his Formula One testing duties.
Davidson's big break finally came in August 2002 when he was drafted in by Minardi to replace Alex Yoong in the Hungarian and Belgian rounds of the World Championship.
The young Englishman out-paced his respected teammate Mark Webber during his first ever F1 practice sessions but was unfortunate to spin out of both races.
That said. he impressed race fans and F1 insiders alike with his down-to-earth attitude and his ability to learn circuits and give his engineers good feedback.
In 2004, Davidson was stunning, sadly few of us got to see his performances.
As test, and reserve, driver for BAR, the youngster only really got the opportunity to show his skills during testing and on Grand Prix Fridays. Though he usually dominated the Friday sessions, often out-pacing the established Grand Prix stars, it meant little in the greater scheme of things.
Had Jenson Button moved to WilliamsF1, it is quite possible that Anthony would have taken his place alongside Takuma Sato, however it never happened. Instead, 2005 saw Anthony remain with BAR, and even though (pre-season) he was linked with a number of drives, it was another year of testing, leaving the youngster and his fans wondering if we would ever see him racing in F1 again.
As it happens, we didn't have to wait too long to see 'Ant' back in the cockpit, for when Takuma Sato was taken ill on the Friday evening of the Malaysia Grand Prix, 'understudy' Davidson was brought in. It was all very last-minute, with the Englishman only having the two 45-minute Saturday sessions to acclimatise himself before taking part in qualifying, however, he did remarkably well to qualify fifteenth, just six places behind teammate Jenson Button.
Sadly, his race lasted just two laps before his engine gave out - as did Button's. For Anthony, it was over almost before it had begun.
As the year progressed, attention turned to Anthony's plans for 2006, though one British magazine - and its website - regularly had him having seat fittings for one or more of the 'precarious' 2005 drives.
When the dust had finally settled, there was no Midland drive, nor WilliamsF1 or Super Aguri, and consequently the 26-year-old spent another season at Brackley, though at least he had the opportunity to take part in some of the Friday free practice sessions.
It looked as though 2007 would be another year spent on the 'substitutes bench', but then came the call from Super Aguri and the opportunity to work with his former F3 teammate, Takuma Sato. In reality, one of the main reasons that Anthony got the Super Aguri drive was that he retained his close ties to Honda, and working on the SA07, effectively the RA106, would allow him to feed back data to the Brackley team.
Despite a lack of racing over the previous few years, and continuing questions as to his race fitness, Anthony used the opportunity given to him in 2007 to full effect. While he was never to score a point for the Leafield outfit, his performances, particularly in qualifying, where he out-performed his teammate 10-7, were a clear indicator that given the right equipment he could fight for points.
Despite suffering the lion's share of reliability issues, and the odd dose of bad luck - who else found themselves eliminated by a Groundhog? - Anthony kept his head down and got on with the job. However, like his teammate, he found himself up against it in the latter stages of the season as the money began to run out and the team found itself unable to continue developing the car.
With a week to go before the start of the 2008 season, despite its assurances that it would be on the grid in Melbourne, there were serious doubts regarding the future of Super Aguri. Then, on March 10, four days before the first practice session in Melbourne, the team announced that it had reached agreement with the Magma Group regarding the acquisition of the team, and that Magma had in turn reached agreement with Honda regarding technical cooperation and engine supply. The team also confirmed that Anthony, and 2007 teammate Sato, would continue to drive its cars.
Statistics - Prior to 2008 Season
Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 2
Grand Prix: 20
Wins: 0
Points: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 0
Best result in 2007: 11th (3 times)
Best qualifying 2007: 11th (2 times)
Worst qualifying 2007: 21st (Belgium)
Average grid position 2007: 16.24
2007: Out-qualified Takuma Sato 10 times
2007: Out-qualified by Takuma Sato 7 times
2007: Completed: 865 out of 1065 laps (81.22%)
2007: Finished 12 times from 17 starts (71%)
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