2010 team previews: Williams
Williams are one of the most famous and illustrious names in F1, having won 9 constructors’ championships and 7 drivers’ championships, since their first Grand Prix in 1978.
However in recent years they have drifted slowly down the grid, and sadly 2009 was no different, with them finishing the 7th best team.
For 2010 the British team have a completely new driver pairing and engine supplier to aid them in their bid to be competing for more than just points. Sam Michael, the team’s technical director is optimistic:
“It was our aim to ensure stability in our design team. We have now that for the past three years and it is now time for that group to deliver a front-running car. In 2010, we have all the elements in place, not just the chassis team, but engine and drivers, too. All of this means we should be capable of delivering at the front of the field – and that’s what we have to do.”
Sam Michael
Williams FW32
Rather than a development of last years car, the FW32 is a car built by the team from scratch, with a particular focus on maximising the car’s aerodynamic ability.
After 3 years using Toyota engines, Williams will be using Cosworth engines in 2010.
The FW32 covered a lot of ground during pre-season testing, with Nico Hulkenberg setting the fastest lap of the day on his final testing session before the season kicks off, though this was on a low fuel run.
Drivers
Rookie Nico Hulkenberg's F1 experience is in stark contrast to that of Rubens Barrichello - the most experienced F1 driver of all time.
We talked about the blend of youth and experience in the Red Bull team for 2010, but that is nothing in comparison to the experience gap in the Williams 2010 lineup.
The 37-year-old Brazilian Rubens Barrichello is already the most experienced F1 driver of all time, and is set to become the first driver to reach 300 Grand Prix entries and 300 starts, which should be achieved at the Japanese Grand Prix. Despite his age, he proved he still has pace last year at Brawn GP, where he put in some very strong race and qualifying performances. He climbed on to the top step of the podium twice.
In stark contrast to Barrichello’s experience is Nico Hulkenberg – a driver who is undoubtedly the most exciting young talent entering the sport this year. Hulkenberg has been successful in most of the series’ he has ever raced in, with the pinnacle being the GP2 champion in 2009, in which he demonstrated outstanding speed, tyre sensitivity and maturity. However, as we have seen with the likes of Nelson Piquet Jr and Romain Grosjean, good GP2 ability doesn’t always translate into good F1 ability.
F1 links 09/02/10
The Force India is set to be launched today! There will be more on the blog when the car is launched later today.
Links
The Art of F1: Is the era of sponsor-based liveries over?
Tom Bellingham, a guest poster over at The Art of F1 looks at if the era of sponsor-based liveries is over: “So it looks like the time of classic F1 liveries are over…. or is it? This year colour has come back into the sport with a bang, most noticeably with the new Renault. Many people wondered why Renault didn’t use black and yellow in the first place but of course, they went for team sponsors colours instead. It is a real shame it took the spy scandal, resulting in ING leaving the team, for Renault to go back to their classic colours. Just looking at the testing photos you can see how much the Renault stands out on track and I, like many others, think it looks brilliant.”
Motor Sport Musings: And the Next World Rally Champion is…
Dank tells us who he thinks will win the 2010 World Rally Championship: “The World Rally Championship season commences at Sweden this weekend, and with six titles under his belt already, is there anyone out there who can stop Sebastien Loeb, the undisputed king of modern rallying?”
William F1 Team: Golf adopts Formula One Technology in Unique Williams License Agreement
A press release from the Williams F1 team displaying details of the team’s new license agreement with Williams Sports, a US golf equipment company. Being a golfer myself, this is interesting stuff! “The purpose of the partnership is to inject Williams F1’s Formula One technology into the design and manufacture of Williams Sports’ golfing equipment. The initial areas of technical partnership are in the aerodynamic profiling of golf club shafts, ferrules and heads, and the application of composites and alloys materials science in club design.”
Comment of the day
Today’s comment of the day goes to james for his noting of the change in Kimi Raikkonen’s behaviour since moving to WRC, on my What F1 could learn from rallying post. Well done James!
“fantastic post,I agree in rallying far more freedom no silly politics and not be run by a dictator this is why kimi left f1 its a more relaxed enviornment,no politics teams get on well and the fans get to meet there heroes,since kimi has left f1 he has been a lot more relaxed and has been smiling a lot,f1 is losing touch with the fans in my opinion”
james
On the forum
Yesterday I launched An F1 Blog’s 2010 predictions league! It has an amazing prize if you win! All the details of the league are on the About page in the Predictions League section of the forum.
Pics of the day
Today’s pic of the day is of Norweigan WRC driver Petter Solberg demonstrating his new red & yellow livery. More on this livery here.
Blast from the past
The very successful Red Bull RB5 was launched on this day last year in Jerez. This is an image of Sebastian Vettel sat in the garage during the car’s debut test. The car was arguably the best designed of 2009, and many of the features have inspired the cars which will be sat on the grid this year.
For those who didn’t recognise Seb Vettel’s helmet in this image when I posted a clue to today’s blast from the past pic of the day on Twitter, this is the helmet he used for the opening races of the season. It is known as the ‘disco’ helmet.
Williams FW32 debuts (Gallery)
We have seen the spy photograph and video, but for the first time today the Williams has been officially unveiled.
There are numerous changes from last year’s car. The nose is higher than last year, the front wing has been revised, and there are new sidepods. Undoubtedly the most interesting new feature seems to be a new type of engine air intake, one smaller one behind the other.
Gallery
Images (C) Williams / LAT
Williams FW32 Spy footage! (Video)
Amateur footage of the Williams FW32 has been recorded and placed on Youtube. The spy footage was tweeted by Rubens Barrichello who said: “Someone caught illegal footage of my car while at Silverstone.” Autosport also took a spy photo at the Silverstone maiden run.
Bottas named as Williams test driver
The AT&T Williams team today confirmed the appointment of Valtteri Bottas as its official test driver.
Valtteri, a 20-year old from Nastola, Finland, will take up the role vacated by Nico Hulkenberg as he steps up as a team race driver. Having begun karting at the age of six, Bottas has a strong record of success with seven years in the Finnish national squad. In 2006, he concluded his karting career by winning the WSK International Series Formula A, Finnish Formula A and Finnish ICA. In 2007, he moved to Formula Renault where, in 2008, he won both the Eurocup and NEC championships with 17 wins and 22 podiums from 28 starts. In 2009, he graduated to Formula 3 with ART and was the highest placed rookie, finishing third in the championship with six second place finishes and two pole positions in the 10-round Euroseries Championship. He also won the F3 Masters last year.
On his appointment, AT&T Williams Team Principal Frank Williams said, “Valtterri’s CV is very impressive, with a long list of success in the right junior formulae. We hope that the role of official test driver in our squad will provide him with another step in his development. We wish him all the best in the Formula Three Euroseries this season.”
Valtteri said, “This is a great way to start 2010. I am very honoured to have been selected by a team as prestigious as AT&T Williams, one of the most significant names in the sport. This is an important step in my career but now the real work starts to get to the top. I am sure I will learn a lot with the team and I trust that together we will achieve great results for the years to come. This opportunity gives me even more positive energy to improve as a driver and achieve my future targets as my ultimate goal will be to become Formula One World Champion one day. I take the opportunity to thank Sir Frank Williams and the senior management of the team and also to thank my management and my sponsors for all their work and support so far.”
Will any 2010 liveries live up to these? (Gallery)
The 2010 season has been kicked off with Ferrari’s F10 being unveiled. There has been a lot of talk about design but also the livery which looks good but frankly it could be mistaken for Team Santander now.
Liveries are always a big focus for fans and can repulse us or make us fall in love. So while we are anticipating the new car uniforms hear is a selection from the past, ones which made us weak at the knees and some that just made us ill…
This is a love/hate livery for many. The Malboro sponsored car (with the additional major sponsors of Shell, Agip, FIAT, Goodyear and Pioneer) had enough red to show the world it was Ferrari but the additional black wings matched the tyres and made the car look so smooth. It may have been beautiful but for the majority of the red and black Ferrari era, the cars were poor. The sponsors did just look like bumper stickers mind.
The red Ferrari of Gilles Villeneuve battling Arnoux’s Renault became an iconic image from a breathtaking on track battle. The other plus side was both cars were beautiful and their striking liveries helped create an image of utmost power.
Jaguar’s rendezvous with F1 back at the beginning of the noughties has faded from minds quickly and hardly surprising when you look at the results. The livery however must never be forgotten and the R2 was weak-at-the-knees beautiful.
Back in the 80s Williams didn’t just have the famous Mansell-Piquet rivalry making everyone watch their cars but the Canon sponsorship. It was a famous relationship which made the car a beauty, a tough task when the 80s were extremely competitive when it came down to aesthetics.
For me, I’m surprised it took so long for the Toyota to catch alight. It wasn’t that the livery was ugly, it’s that it was boring. It had very little soul or passion and give me a month and I’ll have forgotten it completely.
The R29 generally made fans cry in pain once their eyes saw but I thought it was one of the most beautiful cars ever. It was made better when ING left which was probably the only good to come of the Singapore scandal. It was loud but for me it worked. It was certainly a marmite car.
Another 2009 car up, here is the mp4-24. Perhaps the shape made it that much worse but McLaren has never looked good with the Vodafone sponsorship. The red and silver just don’t go. I miss the pre-06 black and silver which made the team’s car appear sleek and like an assassin.
The Honda earth car. From a distance it looked messy and just a resounding ‘no’ from me. It had plenty of fans however.
Whenever anyone thinks of Senna it is because he is now a driving legend but the other major achievement he had is that almost every F1 car he drove was beautiful. Maybe the man maketh the car but all the liveries look pretty, damn smart so here they are:
Williams recent cars have been pretty dull. They are smart but corporate, this however is a cracker. There is just the right amount of white (even the Rothmans’ labels look good) and a nice bit of gold to give the car some character. This car will probably always be associated with Imola 94 but it deserves a mention for being a work of art.
If Mclaren want their own livery once the break with Mercedes is completely then they should go back to something like this. A lot of people have been chanting for an orange colour scheme but that just sounds scary. The red and white worked perfectly together so please go back to this Mclaren.
We end on a high with the best of them all. Whenever the word ‘livery’ is mentioned this will always spring to mind for 90% of people. JPS teamed up with Lotus in the 70s and then the 80s and both times the results were stunning. The cars oozed coolness and were the sexiest F1 car ever. The striking black and gold was the quintessential colour scheme. No livery even comes close today, they aren’t even in the same universe.
Which liveries do you like? Drop us a comment below!
2010 Williams spied by Autosport
The 2010 Williams FW32 has been caught in a spy shot by motorsport publication Autosport, at its first shakedown run ahead of a maiden test at Valencia next week with F1 rookie Nico Hulkenberg at the wheel.
Sam Michael, the Williams technical director, told Autosport:
“The FW32 is a clean-sheet design from front to back,” he said. “It’s pretty much brand new from an aerodynamic point of view.
“The fact that we had a consistent car across all of the tracks in 2009, and wiped out a lot of the vices that we had in the previous car, gives us confidence.”
Williams F1 renews association with MAN trucks
Oxford, UK. 19 January, 2010. The AT&T Williams team today confirmed that it had renewed its association with MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd as an official supplier of the race team. Since 2006, MAN power has been the driving force behind the team’s intensive road logistics programme that sees 35 tonnes of freight delivered every fortnight to the nine European destinations that form the backbone of the Formula One calendar.
The high level of dependency on reliability and dependability has been built around the 11 MAN tractor units and one rigid truck that constitute the AT&T Williams fleet. Each truck travels around 180,000km per year, but despite the demanding mileage, the race calendar provides no leeway for anything less than 100% precision on the punctual arrival of race cars, garage equipment and motorhomes in order to set up the team’s remote field operation at each Grand Prix.
Vehicle Telematics is also an area in which both Williams F1 and MAN are working. Telematics technology within both the haulage industry and Formula One share a great many synergies, providing plenty of scope for further development of driver training.
Commenting on the renewed agreement, Des Evans, MAN’s Head of Business Development, Truck Sales, Northern Europe said:
“MAN is naturally delighted to have reaffirmed its partnership with the AT&T Williams team which, again, sees us in direct support of one of Formula One’s most illustrious names. In these tough economic times, the truck industry continues to struggle, and MAN has been forced into some tough decisions. is very much part of a strategy of worldwide expansion.”
The AT&T Williams Team Principal, Frank Williams said:
“We are very grateful to MAN, not just for their continued support, but for providing a superior solution that we can rely on and around which we manage a complex logistical programme for all European races.”
Video: Farewell to BMW
November’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was of course the last time BMW will participate in F1, after they took the decision to pull out of the sport and sell the team to Peter Sauber.
Although the BMW Sauber team was formed in 2005, BMW have been in F1 long before then, supplying engines in the 80’s before forging winning partnerships with the BMW WilliamsF1 team in the 90’s.
This video shows the final 10 years of BMW in F1 from BMW Williams, to BMW Sauber.
Wurz in USF1 rethink
Former Williams driver Alex Wurz may have had a change of heart over a possible drive with the USF1 Grand Prix team.
Wurz had previously ruled out a return to F1 racing in 2010, but now he is saying only USF1 could tempt him with a drive.
On USF1, he said it is the “only team” he is interested in, adding:
“That’s because of the people, like the sponsor Chad Hurley, one of the new generation who are changing our world completely. It would be attractive to cooperate with people like that.”