Williams: Technical challenges key to F1

Formula One must not abandon its core technical challenge in the move to reduce costs over the next few years, reckons Frank Williams.

With the teams and the FIA looking at ways to bring budgets under control to help see the sport through the worldwide economic crisis, Williams has expressed his belief that any rule changes should not rob the sport of the factors that have made it so popular.

In particular, he believes the idea of a standard specification car would be going too far - because it could lead to the unintended consequence of driving the best brains away from F1.

"We still want the very best drivers in the world racing the fastest single-seater cars in an F1 world championship," Williams said in an exclusive interview with this week's Autosport.

"If it's to be spec cars, why not just go and buy some IndyCars? Then I think you'd find all the talent and interest would pretty quickly drift away.

"There has to be a greater challenge than that, but nothing like as expensive as it has been. Max (Mosley) was absolutely right in bringing us down from 10 engines a race weekend, to two to one – totally right.

"And everything done on this new drive the teams are all with him. We're all very mindful of having our businesses stay in business. There is some disagreement over the precise menu of changes in some areas, total agreement in others. But please, not spec cars."

He added: "F1 attracts all these extraordinary people because of what it is. It features all these brilliant brains. People such as Ron Dennis, Max himself, Mario Theissen. In this building (the Williams factory) there are some very clever people, in all the F1 buildings. It's a fantastic collection of individuals that makes the world go around. I'd hate for that to be shattered.

"Because if the racing, financial and technical challenges aren't there such people will find something else more challenging. At the same time, the last people who want to drive themselves out of business are the team principals, so I'm sure it can all be achieved."

Williams has said he supports the initiatives being put in place by the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) and the FIA to help reduce costs.

And although he concedes life in F1 at the moment is a 'challenge' for his team, he is optimistic about the future of his outfit.

He says there are no doubts that sponsors currently committed to his team, including the under-fire banking group RBS, will fulfil their commitments.

"A contract is a contract," he explained. "Our existing contracts are okay, as with us and RBS. We have a major new contract (Philips) with one of our existing partners that you will see on the car soon.

"In the summer we had a very good run and I thought 'Crickey this is going well' and a lot of it goes forwards for the next few years. But now the market's pretty much moribund. It's very hard."

This week's Autosport carries the full-length interview with Frank Williams, where he talks about the shape of F1, the state of his team and how he can see a bright future amid the current financial uncertainty.

Rosberg ready to re-think future after ‘09

Clos concludes Williams test

Clos to test for Williams again

‘Frank TV,’ take two

Best-of-seven series a better test

Williams undecided on KERS debut

Williams are keeping an open mind about when they will introduce their unique Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) this season - with the team suspecting that bigger performance benefits will actually come from other areas of the car at the start of the campaign.

The Grove-based outfit are alone in choosing to develop their own fly-wheel system for this year, and have set up the Williams Hybrid Power company to bring the technology on tap.

Although reports this week, based on quotes from a Nico Rosberg interview published in Germany, suggested that the team would definitely not be using KERS until the Turkish Grand Prix in May, Williams have clarified that their German driver's comments were taken out of context.

In fact, Rosberg and the team are both well aware that no firm decision has been made about what their plans are for when KERS will be used. The only decision that has been made is that Williams will not run the system at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

After that, the team will monitor KERS progress carefully before deciding when it comes on board for a race. With so much performance still to be gained from a well-honed setup to cope with the new cars and slick tyres, the benefits of pursuing KERS will not be fully realised for a little while anyway.

A Williams spokesman told autosport.com: "The situation here is that we are working to bring the technology to the car but we are not going to race it in Melbourne.

"The rationale for this is that the greatest performance opportunities are currently in the weight distribution, balance and optimising set-up for the slick tyre. This is where we focus initially. We will introduce KERS as and when we have a system that can improve performance."

Although Williams' decision to develop their own system means it may take longer than an off-the-shelf manufacturer unit to be ready, it should bring more benefits in its potential later on.

Furthermore, it will also increase the chances of the technology spinning off into applications outside of racing – as the FIA has been keen to see.

The spokesman added: "As we are developing our own motor and our own energy storage system, it will take longer and be higher risk, but our approach offers a higher potential reward.

"It also means that the work we are doing for our Formula One programme is accelerating the introduction of this technology for other applications.

"In the medium term, this may prove to be the biggest contribution of KERS as the FIA and Williams hoped from the outset of the initiative. Naturally, the date for the introduction of our system to the car will be kept under review."

Williams' engine supplier Toyota have already announced that they will not be running KERS at the start of the season, while other manufacturers remain unsure about their plans.

‘Frank TV,’ take two

Ferrari still undecided on KERS debut

Hamilton 'more committed than ever'

Lewis Hamilton says he is more committed than ever before, as he faces the start of the season in which he will try to retain his crown.

The McLaren driver became Formula One's youngest ever champion last year and will start his title defence next month in Australia.

Hamilton admits having won the championship has not sunk in yet, but he claims he is working harder than ever in order to clinch another title.

"Winning the world championship in Brazil seems such a long time ago now - things move so fast in Formula One, even when you're not at the race track," Hamilton told the official Formula One website.

"To be honest, I don't really think of myself as world champion yet - I think that will finally sink in when I get to Melbourne for the first race - so I don't put any extra pressure on myself to live up to that.

"Obviously, becoming the champion does take some weight off your shoulders but I don't really look too closely at it: I'm just spending every moment focusing on 2009, improving my fitness, working with the team and testing the car. I'm more committed than ever."

The Briton, whose team boss Ron Dennis will be stepping down before the first race of the season, said he is not expecting any significant changes in the team despite Martin Whitmarsh taking over at the helm of the racing activities.

Hamilton expects the change, however, to be good for the team.

"I know Ron and Martin very well. And I'm sure that the change at the top of the team will only bring us benefits," said Hamilton.

"It will allow Ron to take a step back and concentrate on running the whole group, and it will also allow Martin to get fully involved in the Formula One team. But I don't think you'll see many big changes - there's not much that needs changing, after all.

"I know a lot of people will be watching Martin once we get to Australia, but he's a great bloke; really professional, a good laugh and totally committed. I know he'll do a fantastic job."

Hamilton: No dispute with Alonso

LA revitalized at Moyer’s expense

Hakkinen: Hamilton can be the greatest

Hamilton not thinking of Schumacher record

Homers hurt Dodgers in Game 1

USF1 project sets date for launch

The group behind the new USF1 team are set to officially launch the project on 24 February.

The announcement of their full plans is expected to take place on American television channel SPEED. USF1 founding partner Peter Windsor currently works for the broadcaster's Formula One coverage as a pit lane reporter.

In an interview with SPEED's website earlier this week, Windsor confirmed that 24 February was the likely date for an official announcement, and a countdown clock has now appeared on the team's website indicating that it will happen at 8am Eastern time (the time zone for USF1's likely North Carolina base) in ten days' time.

"Ken Anderson and I have been looking at the possibility of designing and building an F1 car in the USA for the past four years," Windsor told speedtv.com.

"So I guess the real surprise is that we were able to keep it quiet for so long.

"The news broke this week but the real announcement is going to be live on SPEED, potentially on February 24."

Although now established as a broadcaster and journalist, Windsor was formerly the team manager for the Williams F1 squad, while his partner Anderson worked for the Onyx and Ligier teams in the 1980s and is a successful engineer and designer in American motorsport.

MLB Network signs Vasgersian

Alvarez showcases talent for Bucs

American team planning F1 entry

McLaren confirm 2009 launch date

Webber confident he will be up to speed

Burns to take ‘Baseball’ to extra innings

Petrobras keen on future F1 return

Brazilian oil company Petrobras is keen to remain involved in Formula One in the future, despite deciding against a sponsorship deal with Honda this season.

Petrobras was set to switch its backing from the Williams team to Honda for 2009, but the latter manufacturer's decision to pull out of F1 meant that deal will not go ahead.

However Petrobras says it is still open to future opportunities in F1 as it believes the sport provides a valuable development opportunity.

"Petrobras clarifies that it is still interested in participating in Formula One," said a statement.

"The interest in partnering with a team remains, as long as it is possible to develop and provide high-quality and high-tech Petrobras fuels and lubricants.

"The purpose of Petrobras' Motor Sports Programme is to seek to provide company consumers with benefits, using auto racing as a product development lab. In this performance line, on account of its ties with technological progress, Formula One has always had a singular role."

Petrobras has also reiterated that it is not currently involved with Honda should efforts to keep the team alive succeed, and has again dismissed reports that it would provide personal sponsorship to potential Honda driver Bruno Senna.

"The company clarifies it does not have an agreement signed with Honda, or with a future team yet to be formed, for the 2009 Formula One season," it said.

"It also reiterates that pursuant to the guidelines set forth by the Petrobras Motor Sport Programme, it does not endorse individual drivers."

Meet Koufax, the band

Brawn and Fry ‘committed’ to save team

Senna under no illusions about Honda

Bruno Senna says he would have no qualms about making his debut with Honda Racing should the team survive, even though he would potentially arrive at the Australian Grand Prix with no testing in the new car.

The Brazilian was being evaluated by Honda before the manufacturer pulled out of Formula One and put its team up for sale, and has been strongly linked to a drive alongside Jenson Button if a management buy-out succeeds.

Although the team have yet to secure a deal to either guarantee their future or sign Senna, the former GP2 front-runner is now pinning all his hopes on Honda.

He said he was under no illusions about the scale of the task he would face if he joined them.

"It would certainly be a big challenge: I think no driver in the last few years has had his F1 debut with so little testing mileage," Senna told Autosprint. "However, it's always better to be in F1, even under difficult conditions, than to be out of it. To race in GP2 for another season would have been useless for me.

"It would be a difficult debut, I know, but initially there won't be big pressure or expectations, because at the moment no-one considers the ex-Honda squad a top team.

"So the pressure would be less and I'll eventually adapt in a quicker and easier way. At least I can say I know the (Melbourne) track, having already raced and won there in Australian F3."

Senna is adamant that he cannot afford to miss out on any F1 opportunities - even if the car was not competitive.

"To race in F1 you need to grab all chances with both hands, even when they look very difficult, because you may get no more of them after that," he said.

He admitted that he would be unlikely to get much - if any - testing before Melbourne if he joined Honda, but is confident that the team will be well-prepared.

"Let's just say that, if before the Australian GP I managed to run for at least three, four days, doing about 1,200 kms, then that'd be a dream," said Senna.

"Since Honda announced its retirement, the team have carried on working. Maybe not as intensively as they would have had Honda kept going, but the technicians have nevertheless carried on with the project of the new car according to schedule."

Senna added that he no longer had any links to Toro Rosso, who had previously been considered a likely team for the Brazilian due to his close ties with former co-owner Gerhard Berger.

"During the winter, when talks were ongoing, I got the impression that Toro Rosso were more interested in surviving rather than building something important for the future," he said.

"I was disappointed with their way of dealing: they were only interested in the budget, while before committing I wanted to test in order to get to know and evaluate the car and the team, to see if there was chemistry between us.

"Talks progressively died out after Berger left the team. At that point, without him, my interest in racing for that team went down to zero completely."

MLB Network signs Vasgersian

Meet Koufax, the band

Senna: Debut was a ‘big moment’

Renault insist R29 will be on the pace

Renault technical director Bob Bell says his team are happy with the performance of the R29 so far despite some underwhelming times in testing.

The new Renault has been near the bottom of the timesheets at most tests so far, but Bell believes that yesterday's result at Jerez - where Fernando Alonso was second-best amongst the 2009 cars and 0.2 seconds slower than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton - was more representative.

"It's still very early days, but I'm becoming increasingly more satisfied with the performance of the car," said Bell.

"Obviously the Portimao test was a disappointment to us as we only had one dry day and although the car ran well from a reliability point of view, we still had lots of unanswered performance-related questions.

"It's true that we didn't look great at that first test, but that was not really a surprise to us as we simply got the car out with an interim set of bodywork so that we could get miles on it, evaluate reliability and get the KERS system up and running. So we didn't really expect to be that competitive, especially as we were learning about the set-up that is needed for this new generation of cars.

"Since then we've put a lot of things right at the Jerez test and I think we've made good progress. Overall I'm encouraged by what we've seen so far.

"From what we've seen in Jerez this week, I don't feel there are any fundamental problems with the car: it's well balanced and is responding well to changes. We're lacking a bit of grip, which is the same for everybody, but that will improve as we fit new parts to the car and continue our development up to the first race.

"Overall I feel we're on course to deliver a good performance in Melbourne."

The distinctive nose section of the R29 has attracted particular comment since the car's unveiling, but Bell said the fact that they had followed different ideas to their rivals did not mean that Renault had got their design wrong.

"With new regulations this year, all the teams have gone away to develop behind closed doors and so it's no surprise that you end up with as many different solutions as there are teams," he said.

"All we can do is be sure that we've done the best job we can and accept that to begin with the cars will look very different. So far I've not seen anything on our competitors' cars that is particularly worrying for us or makes me think we've taken a fundamentally wrong direction."

Renault have now decided to cancel a planned private test in Barcelona next week in favour of running at the Spanish Grand Prix venue in the week before Melbourne - a decision that Bell is very happy with.

"It may be more difficult from a logistical point of view because we've got to get the car to Melbourne the following week, but it buys us more development time to get new components onto the car and tested prior to Melbourne," he said.

"It was something that we had in our minds as a possibility and I think it's a very worthwhile decision."

Hamilton sets 2009 cars pace at Jerez

Q and A with Renault’s Bob Bell

Phillies match pitching with power

Best-of-seven series a better test