Rhys Davies

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Rhys Davies
Nationality Flag of Australia svg.png Australian
Born 11th August 1978
Goulburn, NSW, Australia
Formula One
Debut Season 1999
Latest Season 2011
Current Team N/A
Car Number N/A
Former Teams Benetton, Williams, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, Sauber, Ferrari
Races 222 (222 starts)
Championships 1 (2000)
Victories 22
Podiums 53
Points 810
Pole Positions 36
Fastest Laps 20
First Race 1999 Australian Grand Prix
First Victory 1999 Monaco Grand Prix
Last Victory 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix II
Last Race 2011 Abu Dhabu Grand Prix II
Best Finish 1st (2000)
F1RWRS
Debut Season 2012
Latest Season 2016
Current Team Flag of the United Kingdom svg.png Jones Racing
Car Number 3
Former Teams Flag of Australia svg.png GRM
Flag of Australia svg.png Holden
Flag of Australia svg.png MRT
Races 77 (75 starts)
Championships 1
Victories 5
Podiums 20
Points 209
Pole Positions 6
Fastest Laps 8
First Race 2012 Bavarian Grand Prix
First Victory 2012 United States Grand Prix
Last Victory 2016 Belgian Grand Prix
Last Race 2016 Mexican Grand Prix (ongoing)
Best Finish 1st (2016)


Rhys Davies (born 11th August 1978 in Goulburn, NSW) is an Australian racing driver who is a multiple Formula One World Champion (at the time of his first he was the youngest at 22 years and 58 days until Daniel Melrose won in 2005) and current F1RWRS driver.


Early Racing Career

Helmet design

Born in Goulburn, Davies first got involved in motorsports at the fairly late age of 16, when he turned up for a track day at Wakefield Park. ATCC driver John Zimmer spotted Davies there and signed him to drive for his Australian Formula Ford team, ZimSport. Davies was immediately successful, finishing second in the 1994 season. ZimSport moved up to Australian Formula 3, and took Davies with them, where he won the 1995 and 1996 championships. In 1997, he was hired to take part in the International Formula 3000 championship with Draco Engineering, and finished a respectable 10th place. He managed to gain the attention of the Benetton F1 team, and became their test driver for 1998.

Formula One

1999

In 1999, he replaced Alexander Wurz as full time driver. He made his debut at the 1999 Australian Grand Prix, his home race, and finished 12th, while teammate Giancarlo Fisichella finished in 4th place. In the wet at Interlagos Davies would finish 7th, but problems at Imola saw him take 16th. At Monaco, Davies started from last on the grid, but took advantage of a first corner incident between Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard that involved most of the field to be third on the run up the hill. He passed Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher for the lead and held it to take his victory. However, after the race he and the team fell out after claims that Fisichella was always getting first choice on strategy, and when Davies was offered a spot at Williams to replace Ralf, he took the chance, and finished 7th at his first for the team at Silverstone. After Silverstone he scored points on three occasions and took two pole positions before he absolutely dominated the last 3 races on the season which gave the Australian third place in the championship and clear rookie of the year honours.

2000

BMW joined the Williams team for the 2000 and Davies entered the season as one of the championship favourites after his late season upturn last season. However the opening round in Australia proved to be a disappointment as he finished 7th and outside of the points. A second place finish and a win in the next two races in Brazil and San Marino put his championship tilt back on track. After a second poor race at the British Grand Prix where the team erred massively with the Australian's strategy he finished on the podium in the next 5 races including two more wins in Europe and Monaco, his second win at the principality in two years, which took him all the way to the top of the championship standings. A lean streak from Austria to Belgium where he only scored 4 points in 4 races threatened to deny Davies the championship and hand it over to teammate Ralf Schumacher but he responded magnificently by utterly dominating the last 4 races of the season which secured him his first world championship. At the time he was the youngest ever winner of Motorsport's greatest prize. He also set 12 fastest laps, the second most in a season, behind Chris Dagnall's 1991 effort.

2001

Becoming increasingly frustrated with the treatment he got from the Williams team Davies left for the McLaren team in 2001 replacing Scotsman David Coulthard. His championship defence got off to an average start with only 8 points from the opening 4 races despite a podium in Malaysia aswell as becoming the first Australian ever to score points at his home Grand Prix. A solid 2nd place at the Spanish Grand Prix followed by never say die drive at Austria to third place kick started his season campaign and by mid season he was leading solidly ahead of teammate Mika Hakkinen. Several poor performances from the defending champion however after France meant that by Hungary he had Hakkinen, Ralf Schumacher and the two Ferraris of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher breathing down his neck to try and wrestle the crown from the Australian but a win a Belgium, the 14th of his career, plus a second place finish at Indianapolis meant that he was back in the box seat for his second world championship. A podium finish at the season ending Japanese Grand Prix won Davies his second title but by no means was it a flawless season for the Australian.

2002

Many were now starting to compare Davies to Juan Manuel Fangio, if only for his tendency to switch teams time and time again but he had the results to back it up. As so it proved as Davies was signed on alongside Michael Schumacher at Ferrari for the 2002 season. The team was tipped to be strong contenders for the title, however relations between Schumacher and Davies were not good, because they argued over who deserved number 1 status within the team. Davies started the year by becoming the first Australian to score a podium at the Australian GP, starting from pole, and finishing 5th at Sepang. After Monaco, Davies had recorded two wins (one at Imola, delighting the Italian fans, and his fourth straight at Monaco) and 29 points, while Schumacher had 14 points and no wins. By this point, the situation at Ferrari had deteriorated rapidly, and Davies made a shock decision to leave the team and drive for Renault, alongside Jarno Trulli. The team, who Davies had debuted for as Benetton, had only scored 7 points, 4 of those from Trulli's podium at the A1-Ring. Davies' arrival boosted the spirits of the team, and Trulli repeated the feat in Canada, although Davies recorded his second career DNF (his first was at Austria two races before, although he was classified 15th). After that though, he would score in every race except for the US Grand Prix, where he finished 10th. This included podiums at the European, British, German, Hungarian and Japanese Grands Prix, and a win at the Italian Grand Prix, which caused riots amongst the tifosi. Trulli wouldn't score as many points, but he finished third at Italy, and won the following race in the USA. Davies' consistency over the final half of the season saw him sneak up the standings, with his win at Monza putting him into the lead. He held it after Indy, and 3rd at Suzuka gave him his third consecutive title, edging out Ralf Schumacher (once again) and McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen.

2003

Davies continued with Renault for 2003, but the car was a disappointment for him. He scored points almost everytime he finished (with the exception of a 12th at Silverstone), but only won three races, in Malaysia, Europe and Italy. All three were in the pouring rain, and Davies' only other podium and his best dry races was at Hockenheim. The Renault was a much more unreliable car than he was used to, with mechanical failures costing him victory at Monaco and podiums in Hungary, Spain and Japan. In the end, Davies had no hope of defending his title, only finishing 6th, but beating teammate Fernando Alonso.

2004

Davies left Renault for Toyota early in the off-season. Davies had a difficult year that he described as "strangely infuriating". Despite several good results, his Toyota was no match for Ferrari, and any chance he (or anyone else) had for a top 2 was for the Ferraris to have problems. The only time Davies matched their pace was at Monaco, where he followed Badoer and Schumacher all race, capitalising when they both crashed at La Rascasse. He had several other good races, such as San Marino, where he crashed during qualifying and fought through the field to 8th, and Hungary, his only front row start of the season.

F1RWRS Career

For 2012, Davies followed the footsteps of many of his fellow F1 drivers including Sammy Jones, Phoenix McAllister and Melrose into the F1RWRS where he was signed for the Holden Racing Team alongside another former F1 star in Frank Zimmer

Complete Formula One Grand Prix results

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 WDC Points
1999 Mild Seven Benetton Playlife Benetton B199 Playlife FB01 AUS
9
BRA
7
SMR
16†
MON
1
ESP
8
CAN
Ret
FRA
7
5th 34
Winfield Williams Williams FW21 Supertec FB01 GBR
8
AUT
5
GER
Ret
HUN
13†
BEL
9
ITA
Ret
EUR
2
MAS
1
JPN
5
2000 BMW WilliamsF1 Team Williams FW22 BMW E41 AUS
7
BRA
2
SMR
1
GBR
13
ESP
2
EUR
1
MON
1
CAN
3
FRA
2
AUT
4
GER
9
HUN
18
BEL
6
ITA
1
USA
1
JPN
1
MAS
5
1st 88
2001 West McLaren Mercedes McLaren MP4-16 Mercedes FO110K AUS
6
MAS
2
BRA
6
SMR
9
ESP
2
AUT
3
MON
1
CAN
5
EUR
1
FRA
4
GBR
6
GER
6
HUN
4
BEL
1
ITA
16
USA
2
JPN
Ret
2nd 64
2002 Mild Seven Renault F1 Team Renault R202 Renault RS22 AUS
Ret
MAS
Ret
BRA
11
SMR
Ret
ESP
4
AUT
15†
MON
1
CAN
Ret
EUR
3
GBR
3
FRA
5
GER
3
HUN
2
BEL
13
ITA
1
USA
10
JPN
6
6th 44
2003 Mild Seven Renault F1 Team Renault R23 Renault RS23 AUS
3
MAS
4
BRA
13
SMR
5
ESP
Ret
AUT
Ret
MON
6
CAN
Ret
EUR
Ret
FRA
9
GBR
1
GER
3
HUN
6
ITA
Ret
USA
10
JPN
5
8th 41
2004 Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF104 Toyota RVX-04 AUS
6
MAS
7
BHR
Ret
SMR
5
ESP
2
MON
2
EUR
3
CAN
Ret
USA
1
FRA
2
GBR
Ret
GER
7
HUN
2
BEL
8
ITA
3
CHN
Ret
JPN
6
BRA
Ret
4th 69
2005 Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF105 Toyota RVX-05 AUS
6
MAS
3
BHR
Ret
SMR
4
ESP
8
MON
8
EUR
Ret
CAN
6
USA
5
FRA
7
GBR
3
GER
4
HUN
5
TUR
Ret
ITA
Ret
BEL
9
BRA
Ret
JPN
4
CHN
Ret
8th 45
2006 Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF106 Toyota RVX-06 BHR
Ret
MAS
8
AUS
3
SMR
Ret
EUR
12
ESP
6
MON
3
GBR
15
CAN
18
USA
7
FRA
5
GER
Ret
HUN
5
TUR
5
ITA
Ret
CHN
9
JPN
Ret
BRA
11
11th 30
2007 Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF107 Toyota RVX-07 AUS
14
MAS
9
BHR
11
ESP
Ret
MON CAN
10
USA
Ret
FRA
14
GBR
Ret
EUR
3
HUN
9
TUR
5
ITA
10
BEL
5
JPN
Ret
CHN
8
BRA
6
10th 18
2010 AT&T Williams Williams FW32 Honda RA005E BHR
1
17
BHR
2
Ret
USA
1
Ret
USA
2
Ret
JPN
1

4
JPN
2
15
AUS
1
13
AUS
2
6
TUR
1
8
TUR
2
6
EUR
1
10
EUR
2
9
MON
1
11
MON
2
9
GBR
1
12
GBR
2
7
IRE
1
9
IRE
2
10
GER
1
Ret
GER
2
10
ESP
1
1
ESP
2
21
ITA
1
EX
ITA
2
10
HUN
1
Ret
HUN
2
Ret
SIN
1
3
SIN
2
10
KOR
1
13
KOR
2
1
BRA
1
12
BRA
2
10
URU
1
Ret
URU
2
6
ABU
1
Ret
ABU
2
20
10th 124
2011 Sauber F1 Team Sauber C30 Ferrari 056 BHR
1
4
BHR
2
Ret
USA
1
7†
USA
2
Ret
JPN
1
Ret
JPN
2
Ret
KOR
1
2
KOR
2
Ret
TUR
1
Ret
TUR
2
11
ESP
1
EX
ESP
2
EX
MON
1
Ret
MON
2
3
GBR
1
Ret
GBR
2
Ret
IRE
1
12
IRE
2
Ret
EUR
1
6
5th 253
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Ferrari F150 Ferrari 056 EUR
2

5
GER
1

1
GER
2

Ret
HUN
1

1
HUN
2

1
ITA
1

1
ITA
2
Ret
URU
1
INJ
URU
2
INJ
BRA
1

Ret
BRA
2
1
SIN
1
2
SIN
2
4
IND
1
Ret
IND
2
2
ABU
1

16
ABU
2

4

F1RWRS Results

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 DC Pts
2012 NAB-Holden Racing Team Holden HRT-002 Holden HSV LS3B BAV
DNPQ
SAX
4
GER
10
LUX
5
BEL
4
NED
2
GBR
Ret
KEN
EX
ENG
EX
TAS
7
SUR
5
NSW
6
AUS
Ret
CHN
9
USA
1
500
23
5th 51
2013 Holden F1RWRS Racing Team Holden HRT-003 Holden HSV L12-1 TAS
4
AUS
2
MEX
5
USA
4
MON
4
FRA
2
GBR
Ret
GER
4
NED
Ret
BEL
6
POR
10
MED
Ret
BRA
7
4th 31
Garry Rogers Motorsport ZimSport GRM1 Holden HSV L12-1 MAC
3
CHN
16
JPN
14
2014 Holden F1RWRS Racing Team Holden HRT-004 Holden HSV L12-2 TAS
15*
AUS
Ret
BRA
4
MEX
12
USA
Ret
MON
Ret
FRA
6
GBR
Ret
GER
15
BEL
Ret
ITA
13
MED
Ret
SEA
Ret
MAC
Ret
18th 4
Virgin Melrose Racing Team MRT M5 BMW P89 CHN
Ret
JPN
DNQ
2015 Virgin Melrose Racing Team MRT M6 BMW P90 TAS
1
AUS
1
MED
10*
MON
4
MEX
5*
USA
Ret
CAN
Ret
GBR
17*
GER
13
BEL
Ret
AUT
2
ITA
3
2nd 48
Castrol Jones Racing Jones 105 Ford Zetec XR8A SEA
Ret
CHN
1
JPN
5
BRA
6
2016 Castrol Jones Ford Team Jones 107 Ford Zetec XR8B AUS
5
NSW
4
GBR
3
ITA
2
AUT
2
CAN
Ret
USS
4
USN
2
GER
2
SEA
3
MON
2
BEL
1
MEX
3
ARG
3
CHN
5
JPN
Ret
1st 75

Career Summary

Year Series Team Position
1994 Australian Formula Ford ZimSport 2nd
1995 Australian Formula 3 ZimSport 1st
1996 Australian Formula 3 ZimSport 1st
1997 International Formula 3000 Draco Engineering 10th
1998 International Formula 3000 Super Nova Racing 3rd
1999 Formula One Benetton Formula 5th
WilliamsF1
2000 Formula One BMW Williams 1st
Shell Championship Series McDougall Motorsport 30th
2001 Formula One McLaren Mercedes 2nd
V8 Supercar Championship Series Perkins Engineering 63rd
2002 Formula One Renault F1 6th
2003 Formula One Renault F1 8th
2004 Formula One Toyota F1 4th
2005 Formula One Toyota F1 8th
2006 Formula One Toyota F1 11th
2007 Formula One Toyota F1 10th
2008 V8 Supercars Championship Series Holden Racing Team 3rd
2009 V8 Supercars Championship Series Holden Racing Team 3rd
2010 Formula One WilliamsF1 10th
V8 Supercars Championship Series Walkinshaw Racing 39th
2011 Formula One Sauber F1 5th
Scuderia Ferrari
2012 F1RWRS Holden Racing Team 5th
2013 F1RWRS Holden Racing Team 4th
Garry Rogers Motorsport
2014 F1RWRS Holden Racing Team 18th
Melrose Racing Team
2015 F1RWRS Melrose Racing Team 2nd
Jones Racing
2016 F1RWRS Jones Racing 1st
Sporting Accolades
Preceded by:
Mark Dagnall
2013-2015
F1RWRS Champion
2016
Succeeded by:
Thomas De Bock
2017