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Linksheaven 2006 F1 Preview: WilliamsF1

March 4th, 2006

1st annual linksheaven.com

formula 1 preview - 2006

WilliamsF1

Team

Williams F1 Team

Nationality

Great Britain

Engine

Cosworth V-8

Tires

Bridgestone

Team Principal

Frank Williams

Team Website

www.williamsf1.com

Sponsors

RBS, Accenture, Allianz, Battery

2005 Results

Driver’s	10th
Constructors	5th

Drivers

Driver

Mark Webber

Nationality

Austraila

2005 Results

10th

Website

www.markwebber.com

Driver

Nico Rosberg

Nationality

Germany

2005 Results

1st, GP2 Series

Website

www.nico-rosberg.de/

third

Driver

Alexander Wurz

Nationality

Austria

2005 Results

McLaren Test Driver

Website

None

test

Driver

Narain Karthikeyan

Nationality

India

2005 Results

18th

Website

www.narainracing.com

2006 Outlook

Ferrari took much of the attention last year, as the team that fell the furthest from grace, but the reality of it is, that Williams package had nearly as far a fall. Another near unanswerable question of what exactly went wrong? Williams where plagued by massive problems with their chassis on both the aerodynamic and mechanical side. Not helping matters was an early season falling out with then engine supplier BMW, which led to a lack of support from the manufacturer and a lot of public mudslinging. The team just sort of collapsed on itself and massive changes on the technical side ensued. 
A switch from Michelin to Bridgestone as well as a switch from a BMW 3 Liter V10 to a Cosworth 2.4 Liter V8 was among the key off-season changes. A newer technical staff had finally had some time to settle in and start over with the pieces left from the fallout of last years’ off-season. Without a race winning pilot or his ego on the team, the team had much more focus to put into the technical package, and while not really a car given much attention; the FW28 has easily crept up into the mix for the top 3 cars or so in the winter testing. It’s reliable, and the aerodynamics are reportedly a big improvement balance wise over the FW27. The car has consistently been among the fastest cars, and on occasion led a day’s activity. They have had some periods of running towards the back, but the laps pile up and they always end up with some solid times. 
Cosworth is arguably best suited to build a reliable and powerful small displacement V8, now being the spec choice for the Champ car series, having their engines designed to last upwards of 3000 km before a scheduled change. Cosworth also built a competitive IRL V8 for Chevrolet when their own engine was a failure and they needed to rebuild their campaign (Chevrolet pulled the plug last year). So far that seems to be having some impact for them, as the new 2.4 Liter V8 unit in the back of the FW28 is running reliably and with a reasonable level of power. Cosworth had the engine up and running as early as anyone else, and the engine is surprising many, including Williams. 
Last season’s Williams driver combo was Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld. Webber had just moved to Williams and was seen as the second coming, quite frankly. He had performed miracles in qualifying at Jaguar and was seen as the perfect Williams driver. Still is in fact. Heidfeld had only barely got a drive and was seen as lucky that the engine manufacturer (BMW) liked his nationality, as Frank favored Pizzonia. Anyway, Heidfeld got the nod. As it turns out, Heidfeld didn’t last the season, and Pizzonia got the last 5 races. By that stage Heidfeld had signed with BMW for the new BMW team that was taking over Sauber. He had done enough to outpoint Webber in the WDC. He lost 9-5 in qualifying to the Aussie and Pizzonia lost 5-0. Heidfeld beat Webber 7-6 in finishes where Webber beat Pizzonia 4-1.
This season sees the son of former champion Keke joining the ranks. Nico Rosberg was fast-tracked to F1 by Frank because it was painfully obvious that he would end up there eventually. Also, just in case he was as good as his father, Frank couldn’t risk letting him end up somewhere else before taking a close look for himself. The stories goes that Nico Rosberg scored higher than anyone else in the history of Williams F1 in their multiple choice entrants exam. Well-done kid! Nico has looked quick in testing although Webber seems to have the edge on him, to be expected. If Rosberg’s debut year can be as impressive as Button’s was for Williams then Frank will be very happy. Having said that, expect Webber to comfortably beat his young upstart though.
The company’s lack of budget, and Williams’ possible switch to another manufacturer after 2006, may keep things from running smoothly for all that long. But if the situation stays on pace, Williams may have a better contender than most would have thought.

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1 Comment Add your own

1. John E Thelin | March 5th, 2006 at 1:09 am

Now spell checked for greater reading pleasure!>/i>

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Linksheaven 2006 F1 Preview: WilliamsF1

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