Alternate F1 - The Current Era (2010 season)

RejectSport wrote:

JJD is back!

As the F1 circus now enters it's final meeting of the 2010 season, a new face will again greet the paddock, though perhaps not an unfamiliar one. James James Davies, former LifeGP champion and F1RGP2C star, who retired at the end of the 2008 racing season, will make his Formula 1 debut for Mercedes at Abu Dhabi. At the age of 35, Davies is perhaps a touch older than most F1 debutants, though the man he is replacing, Helio Castroneves, also recently made his debut at the same age.

Said Davies of his recent return to racing, "Well, I was enjoying my retirement, but watching Castroneves and Raikkonen waste one of the best cars on the grid, I figured I might as well throw my hat in and show them how to actually race. I still have a few contacts with Mercedes from back in my F1RGP2C days, so it was pretty easy to get talking to Ross [Brawn]; after a couple days we agreed that I'd be in the car here, and here I am."

When asked of the level of performance he expected, Davies replied, "I'm gonna be frank here; it's gonna be hard to just up and guess where I'll shake out. I'm the best there is, let's not forget that, but the Mercedes was designed with Daniel Melrose in mind, and we have quite different driving styles. I won't have turned a wheel in the thing until the first practice session, but I'd not be surprised if I was around about Melrose's pace by the end of the weekend."

Davies has been rumoured to be one of the drivers in the frame for a Mercedes race seat for next year, alongside Castroneves and Force India driver Adrian Sutil. The rumours also suggest that HRT's Nathan McKane, who has wowed pundits all year with his speed, has all but sewn up a Mercedes race seat for himself. When confronted with the rumours, however, Davies shrugged them off, saying, "I haven't talked to anyone about 2011. Far as I'm concerned, this weekend is just a one-off for me, and I'll heading back to my well-earned retirement manor. You guys probably know more than I do. I'm not gonna rule it out though, depending on how me and the team gel, it could happen."