Williams (F1 Preview)

It’s been a long time since Williams has felt the taste of success. In fact we have to go back to 2004 to see the last win from the team, which happened at Interlagos, by the hand of Pablo Montoya.

The team probably reached the lowest they could get last season only finishing ahead of the newer teams in the field, only managing to score 5 points in the 18 races.

With many changes for 2012 in terms of technical team, Williams is definitely here to try and recover from its coma, and the winter testing, maybe the FW34 may get the team out of the back of the midfield teams.

The driver lineup for 2012 saw Williams shutting the door on the most experienced F1 driver, Rubens Barrichello. Still they went for another Brazilian driver to substitute him, Bruno Senna.

Williams has a new technical director Mike Coughlan, and the team claims that the 2012 car shares less than 5% of the components with last year's car. Unlike some of the teams like Red Bull who are claiming that their car's are evolutionary, Williams has created a totally new design.

The car applies to the rules changes so the nose is lower and there is no blown exhaust diffuser. The team is also using Renault engines this season for the first time since 1997. The team did not go into any other specifics about the changes on the new car.

Quotes:

Pastor Maldonado

“I'm happy to be racing again with Williams. I have faith in the FW34 and the Renault engine and so have high hopes for the races ahead. It will be very important that we develop the car from the start of the season to the end. Now that I have a year’s experience, I can help in that area much more now. As we start a new year, it's an exciting moment for my country Venezuela and I hope we can give them some good results to thank them for their continued support. We have many new components in the team so we will need to be focussed and work together well so that we may be stronger every day. I wish everyone in the team the best for the year and welcome Renault and Bruno.”

Bruno Senna

“I’m very excited to be back in action with the Williams F1 Team in Jerez. This is my ever first pre-season testing programme since I started in Formula One two years ago. I’m really motivated and looking forward to working hard and with everyone in the team. I hope we have a successful month testing and developing the car so we arrive in Melbourne as well prepared as possible.”