What Now for Takuma Sato and Antony Davidson?

With the news that Super Aguri have withdrawn from Formula 1 its very sad for the sport but lets focus on the two drivers which are now left without a seat in Istanbul.

Both will be desperately frustrated not to be on the track this weekend in Turkey. So what is next for them? Are their futures bright still?

I think they are both great drivers with alot to offer and I don't think it will be very long until they find employment elsewhere. Something that goes in their favour is that there are drivers under pressure at Toyota(Glock), Williams(Nakajima), Renault(Piquet Jnr) and Force India(Sutil in his 2nd season) at the moment so there could even be potential free spots there. Rumour has it that Davidson was on the shortlist for the drive at Williams which Nakajima got. Along with these rookies under pressure Barrichello and Coulthard could very well be in their last seasons of racing. So with this in mind there are free spots which could become available soon even during this season or by 2009. The other factor in their favour is that I don't think all the spare drives will go to current GP2 drivers, alot of them will need alot of grooming, despite their speed they remain a bit irratic. I think the winner of the series will get a drive however it remains likely the others will be summoned testing duties to begin with,maybe even continue for another year of GP2. This ssuggests there will be places for them and if I as a midfield team boss were offered a Sato or a Davidson it would be a good offer.

Sato's nationaltiy will give him a helping hand and he is now an improved overall package driving wise so I wouldn't rule out Sato returning to Honda and Toyota could be interested if a slot becomes free there, its far from certain that the same driver line-up will exist there next season. Sato has done himself alot of favours during his time at Super Aguri, he is faster and less irratic, a more accomplished driver.

For Davidson I think it will be a little bit harder to find a seat, his best bet for race seat is like Sato Honda, the pair could well be battling for the seat next season in fact, if Williams decide that Nakajima isn't the right option for them then Frank Williams might renew his interest in him. Davidson still has a great reputation as a test driver of course and is up there with Wurz and De La Rosa in this role so he would be a great asset in that respect, for any team. I think he will get 4 or 5 offers and he will then need to decide which of the offers he receives is the most likely bet to land him a race seat furthur down the line if he doesn't get an offer of a race seat before then. Before the season it was rumoured he had an offer to be the BMW Sauber test driver, probably a chance he shouldn't have turned down but hindsight is a great thing, the racer inside him wanted to go racing and that is fair enough. At BMW Sauber a race seat in the future certainly wasn't guaranteed.

Davidson had a great year in 2007 once he got used to racing after years of testing behind him, he was as expected a little rusty at first, in the second half of the season he was very fast indeed. He didn't get any luck which could have earnt him points but he did alot of good drives that went un-noticed, for example he was on for a podium potentially at Montreal had it not been for that pesky beaver. His quali lap in Istanbul was supreme as were his performances in Indy and Monzo amongst other places.

So for the next couple of weeks life will be very hard to take for Sato and Davidson but its not the end of the world for them, bearing all the above in mind I predict that their manager's phones will be red hot. They both did a supreme job for Aguri and should be proud of how well each them progressed. They both leave the team as much better propositions for any team on the grid than they were before they drove for Aguri.

If I was asked to predict where I personnally think the pair will end up?

I think Sato will land the Honda seat next season alongside Jenson Button, I don't think Rubens has long left, he isn't performing badly by any means but I can't see him at Honda in 2009. Japan will be up in arms now about Sato not being in F1 anymore so that will contribute to the decision, I doubt Honda will be able to attract any of the front runners yet, their main hopes rest on Button and Sato is now a good much better than when he last drove for the team.

Davidson on the other hand I think will end up at Force India, I think Sutil is under immense pressure and he is a few races away from being shown the axe and for the rest of the season Davidson would be a great option, he is young yet experienced and will bring alot to the team. It would be the best solution for both parties.

I say best of luck to the pair of them.