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**hexniks** · 08-08-2009, 03:51 PM

I never thought about that in relation to Damon. It explains his career path quite a bit I suppose.

Although McNish got his first F1 drive in 2002, didn't he test with some adequate-good team in the mid 90's (Sauber, Benetton??) If so, why did it take so long before he got a full time drive?

Very good question, it's true that Allan did a fair old bit of testing for McLaren around 1990-1992 and then for Benetton in 1995. I think it was the case that he never got a break at that time to get a race seat in F1 even though he was highly rated as a tester. He was competitive in F3000 but with F1 not happening he went Sportscar racing, something which he continues to do to the present day. His F1 chance finally came due to his association with Toyota when they were sportscar racing in the late 90's / early 00's, they moved up to F1 and took Allan with them. In the end he only did a single season of racing though remained in F1 for another season as a test driver, notably being Renault's 3rd driver when Renault signed up to the Friday testing agreement in 2003 which allowed for 3 drivers to run on the Friday morning session.

08-08-2009, 03:51 PM	#20
hexniks Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 581 Senior Member	I never thought about that in relation to Damon. It explains his career path quite a bit I suppose. Although McNish got his first F1 drive in 2002, didn't he test with some adequate-good team in the mid 90's (Sauber, Benetton??) If so, why did it take so long before he got a full time drive? Very good question, it's true that Allan did a fair old bit of testing for McLaren around 1990-1992 and then for Benetton in 1995. I think it was the case that he never got a break at that time to get a race seat in F1 even though he was highly rated as a tester. He was competitive in F3000 but with F1 not happening he went Sportscar racing, something which he continues to do to the present day. His F1 chance finally came due to his association with Toyota when they were sportscar racing in the late 90's / early 00's, they moved up to F1 and took Allan with them. In the end he only did a single season of racing though remained in F1 for another season as a test driver, notably being Renault's 3rd driver when Renault signed up to the Friday testing agreement in 2003 which allowed for 3 drivers to run on the Friday morning session.
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