Anthony Davidson announces his retirement as a professional racing driver

Sky Sports F1 presenter and former Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson has announced his retirement from professional driving.

The 42-year-old Briton will end his career with the completion of the 2021 World Endurance Championship in Bahrain on November 6th.

Davidson made his Formula 1 racing debut at the 2002 Hungarian Grand Prix for Minardi, substituting for Alex Yoong at this and the next race in Belgium, but retired on both occasions.

After a year as a test driver for BAR in 2004, he represented the unwell Takuma Sato at the 2005 Malaysian Grand Prix, but suffered an engine failure after two laps.

The only full F1 season Davidson finished was at Super Aguri in 2007, with his best results being eleventh three times. The team withdrew from the championship four races in the 2008 season.

Since then, Davidson has focused his racing commitment on sports cars and won the World Endurance Championship for Toyota in 2014, combining this with his role as a simulator driver for the Mercedes F1 team.

“One more thing to go … what I’ve decided will also be my last race as a professional racer,” Davidson tweeted.

“It was an unbelievable and unforgettable journey and I would like to thank everyone involved on this path.”

P3 yesterday in the # 6HBahrain with my teammates @RobGonzalezV & @afelixdacosta.
One more thing to go … and I’ve decided that it will also be my last race as a professional racing driver. It was an incredible and unforgettable journey and I would like to thank everyone involved

pic.twitter.com/2Sud9d6Qpu

– Anthony Davidson (@antdavidson) October 31, 2021

Davidson currently drives for the Jota team in the LMP2 class of the World Endurance Championship and shares an Oreca with co-drivers Antonio Felix da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez.

The trio won a category at the Portimao run of this year’s series and is in third place in the LMP2 championship standings before the final.

Davidson said last summer that after signing a new deal with Toyota for 2017, he was considering retiring at the end of the 2019 season when he turned 40.

“When I signed this contract, I saw it as three more years of trying to win Le Mans with Toyota,” he said. “I definitely toyed with the idea of ​​just quitting at that point.”

However, after the first year of that deal, Davidson was ousted by Toyota in favor of Fernando Alonso, who duly won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2018 and 2019. Davidson’s highest Le Mans placements were runner-up in 2013 and third the following year.

He revealed that stepping back into a less competitive environment in LMP2 had rekindled his love for racing.

“Driving with Roberto as a gentleman driver is a lot more fun than driving for a manufacturer with all the pressure that comes with it,” Motorsport.com quoted Davidson as saying.

“In a way, I had to fall in love with racing again because I had completely lost my love for it at Toyota.”