INTERVIEW BY ROBERT LADBROOK
GETTY IMAGES
JUNE 19, 2016, LA SARTHE, 14.57 CEST. This was the moment that Anthony Davidson knew he was destined never to win the Le Mans 24 Hours. Having just relayed the runaway No5 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 Hybrid to Japanese team-mate Kazuki Nakajima, the British ace was then forced to watch despairingly from the garage as the car ground to a halt on the start/finish straight just a lap from the chequered flag. Despite a total of nine topflight efforts with the likes of Toyota, Peugeot and Aston Martin, Le Mans victory would almost inexplicablyescape him. It’s hard to think of another driver more deserving.
“I remember
this kid called Button demolishing everyone“
After half a life dedicated (perhaps overly) in search of a race seat in Formula 1, Davidson marked himself out as one of the top talents in sports car racing, and that Le Mans near-miss certainly shouldn’t define his career. He’s been a winner at Sebring, a world champion with Toyota, raced in 24 grands prix and is now a key part of Mercedes’ F1 test team. Not bad for a driver who didn’t come from a wealthy background and had to fight tooth and nail for every opportunity.
Before the end of the 2021 season, Davidson, now 42, announced his retirement from professional racing. Shortly after he lifted the third-place trophy for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMP2 class, giving his career one final coat of gloss. After all, every professional would rather bow out from the podium than the doldrums.
Motor Sport: Let’s start with retirement. Where has this come from?
Anthony Davidson: “I think Le Mans was a big part of it. For the last few years, it’s been the only race on the calendar that stands out as being the most risky or dangerous. It’s like drivers going to IndyCar prepared to do the street tracks, but preferring to sit out the ovals. Le Mans became a bit like that for me. It’s a dangerous race, and I’ve seen great drivers like Allan Simonsen lose their lives to it, and that stays with you. I’ve also been damaged by it [Davidson broke his back during an airborne crash in 2012] so I know first-hand how things can go wrong there. I never think about the danger of any track, aside from Le Mans. And recently the danger has just become larger and larger in my mind.
“You also have to ask so much from yourself to get through it, drawing on physical and mental strength and I’ve found myself looking at that race on the calendar at the start of every year and dreading it rather than loving the thought of doing it. That makes it so hard to get into the right headspace. I also found that I was having to dig deeper to get into the wheel-to-wheel fights, mostly because the older you get the more you see the bigger picture. I’m from that generation where we started racing as eight-year-olds, against Jenson Button and Dan Wheldon and Justin Wilson… drivers who were serious competitors right from the word go. For me it’s been a long journey, 34 years trying to be the best. It started to take its toll and I stopped enjoying that intense competition.