BAR supporting Davidson

BAR test driver Anthony Davidson's future is not threatened by the addition of Takuma Sato to the team according to boss David Richards. With Sato rejoining BAR as test driver for next year -- and with future options as race driver -- rumour started that Davidson could be on rocky ground. However, Richards was adamant that Anthony has the full support of the team and is doing his best to find him a race drive for 2003.

"We are very supportive of Anthony, he has a long-term agreement with the team," he told Autosport. "We have been trying to place him in a race seat for next season. Those options are, to my knowledge, still open, and I'm meeting Anthony later this week to talk it through with him. But if those options don't come to fruition, there will always be a testing role for him back with us at BAR. There is enough work for them, that's for sure."

Davidson got his F1 chance this year when he filled in at Minardi in place of Alex Yoong for two races. He has also been linked with Jordan but said he refuses to be a 'pay driver'. Jordan is looking for a driver who can bring some financial backing to the deal but Davidson has said wants to gain a drive on his own merit and talent, not by having to pay for it.

An understandable ambition but an impractical one -- with teams struggling to survive, a hefty bank balance is increasingly a requirement to gain a race seat. Jordan and Minardi have made no bones about the fact that money talks just as loud as talent these days and new Minardi signing Justin Wilson took the novel step of selling shares in his future to generate the reported ?2million he needed to win his seat.

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