Davison "Brave" for Leaving FPR
Will Davison feels stepping out of FPR next season is a brave move many would shy away from.
After finishing third in the Championship – the first driver home outside of Red Bull Racing Australia – Davison admitted beating Jamie Whincup was the ultimate challenge in V8 Supercars.
One he hopes to rise to at his new home. It is expected the team will be announced in early January.
“My new venture, I don’t know how long it’ll take but I think the potential is there to be great,” he told v8supercars.com.au.
“I’ll be trying to do something not a lot of people are brave enough to do when they’re in big teams like this – I’m going for it.”
Clearly, Davison hopes to be the one to topple his long-time mate Whincup, who has been the class of the field for many years.
“I’m frustrated because they’re the best and they deserve it,” Davison said of RBRA and their title chase.
“It’s just going to take someone to step up and beat them, so that’s the ultimate challenge.
“I want them to be around so we can beat the best. It’s certainly an exciting challenge.”
It was difficult for the gun driver to pinpoint his feelings on Sunday evening in Sydney, his final race with the team he’s called home for the past three seasons.
“Mixed emotions – at the end of the day it was a very exciting finish for me because of the weird inter-team war going on at the end,” he said, having to pull a risky move on his brother Alex to seal third in the standings.
“FPR has been a really good place for me – I’ve got some really good relationships and some really fond memories. I’m really glad we’re all on good terms and there’s a lot of mutual respect with team members that gave me the opportunity to win a lot of amazing races over the last few years.
“I definitely don’t take that for granted, the support FPR has given me.
“But this is an exciting new chapter for me in my career – you feel like a kid going to your first day of school… It’s rejuvenating and I’m excited by the prospect of where I’m going, and the potential.
“It’s nerve-wracking stepping out of your comfort zone and into the unknown.”
Davison knows what it’s like starting with a new team, having raced at Dick Johnson Racing from 2006-08, Holden Racing Team from 2009-10 and FPR since 2011. He also understands the intensity of running head to head with Whincup for the Championship.
His closest crack at the title was back in 2009 with HRT. It was down to the two, but a bad run in the penultimate event at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth for Davison – and a race win for Whincup – widened the gap to 186 points, which proved an unbridgeable margin.
Whincup won his second title that year. Of the last six years he has only been trumped once, by James Courtney in 2010, and the 2013 Championship gave him the hat-trick he was denied that year.
Whincup’s victory at the Sydney NMRA Motoring & Services 500 is now etched in history, making him just the fourth Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercars driver to earn five Championships. He stands alongside Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan, Dick Johnson and Mark Skaife and could be considered the best of all time, given the closeness of today’s competition.
“It’s pretty surreal really,” Davison said of Whincup’s record achievement.
“He deserves it. The people in the know give him the respect, but it’s all happened in such a short space I don’t think people fully grasp what he’s done in a short space of time.
“It’s seriously phenomenal what he and Triple Eight have done, really. I’m proud of him.”
