How would you compare Davidson's to McNish's debuts?

[Valve Bounce]

After all the hype surrounding Ant's first race, and the lesser hype surrounding Alan's in the new Toyota, how would you rate Davidson's first race performance compared with McMish's?
Was Ant more impressive?

Valve

[f1manoz]

Well, to be fair, McNish's debut lasted all of about one corner as he was swept up in the first corner melee. But since then he's been consistent and has always been close to Salo's times.

Davidson was impressive, but he was over-hyped to the extreme. He seems capable however.

[Raven]

Ant had the more impressive debut.

Come on, it was his first time behind the wheel of a Minardi. New team, car, tyres, engineer, new everything! It's also common knowledge the #1 Minardi driver (Webber) is the main focus while the #2 has to make do with whats left. All things considered AD exceeded expectation.
AM on the other hand had the whole winter to prepare & test the Toyota, plus a whole previous year to gell with his engineers.

[Jukebox]

Can't make a comparison yet Valve....it's only his first actual race although he had full race simulation experience before as a test driver.

[Kex]

McNish was an innocent victim of the crash in Melbourne. So lets say the next race was his 'debut' (Malaysia) where he finished seventh.

Davidson didn't really do anything to catch my eye apart from being over-courteous to the leaders. Then again it was probably the wrong team to make your Grand Prix debut with.

But I'll have to say McNish.

[Mr V]

I think the difference is that McNish knows that he's only got one season to impress, ANT on the other hand was put in a car that he wasn't really expected to do alot with, just getting it on the grid was seen as an acheivement considering that Yoong couldn't do it. ANT's got time on his side, where as, unfortunatley the Nish hasn't!

[freud]

I would say "about the same".

[av8rirl]

Theres too many factors involved to be able to make a vote: McNish had a lot of testing, knew the team and engineers, was involved in first corner incident, etc... while on the other hand AD didn't know the team, had never driven the car, never driven the track, etc...

The only thing that disappointed me about AD was how over-corteous he was to the Ferraris. He probably should have just kept his line and let them go around or wait until the next corner (I think Brundle said the same). Also when he was interviewed afterwards he seemed to take the blame for Button going out. Button has plenty of experience and shouldn't have gone out the way he did (even though he's kicking Trulli's ar$e). Lets hope that AD realises for Spa that he fully deserves to be there and doesn't need to bow to the others.

In conclusion, you can't really tell which was better because they both could have had better days (and thats with no disrespect to anyone).

[SILVERS95]

They was more pressure on AD to impress quickly . So i think Davidson has the better debut weekend.

[Rennen]

Not a fair comparison at all! What are you like?

McNish was testing the Toyota for a full year, and is a seasoned racing driver with years of experience, a veteran of Le Mans, not to mention numerous International wins under his belt in front of the Worlds media.

Antthony might have done a lot of miles testing in a BAR, he would have loved to have done a GP in the car he knew inside out! Also remember he has only two seasons of car racing behind him in Formula Ford and F3.

He had never driven the Minardi before that first practice, and had never ever done a pit stop before the first one in the race! They dont rush about in testing or use a refuelling rig! (Button was given a day of testing pit stops before his debut) McNish would have and is a past master at it from several Le Mans 24 hour races!

[Sato san]

i thought Ant's engineer made a great remark on his radio to Ant after the first pit stop.....Ant kept his head and had a good pit stop which must have been very nerve wrecking mid way through his debut GP...and the engineer calmly came on the radio and said " well done Anthony , there you go nothing to it really ".....i remember thinking ..i bet Ant didnt think that !

[Uncle]

i thought ants start was slow untill i found that being last on the grid means all the pre start procedure must be done on the hurry up as the grid is ready to go plus that dirty side was really bad back there.i also didnt realise how important that drinks bottle was.hope he thanked the mashall for drinking all his tea at the end!

[Sato san]

i may be wrong , but i thought he had a slow start on purpose , so he didnt get caught up in anyone elses incident . After all, he really needed the mileage in race trim .

but i may be completely wrong .

[Wrex]

Sato San, I believe that is a standard Minardi race plan.

With so many 1st corner crashes (and starting from the back anyway) I was always under the impression that they were instructed to 'hang back' a little at the start.

Sure did work for them in Melbourne.

[Sato san]

Wrex , thats true , Melbourne worked a treat for them . It would make sense for them to do that i suppose , Normally at the starts im looking at the front and midfield , so ive never really noticed what the Minardi's do , but at the last race , i really kept a good eye on Davidson and he seemed to start about 1 second after red lights went out ..

seems a good plan then .