AT&T Williams F1 Toyota

Nico Rosberg (GER)
Alexander Wurz (AUT)

Williams
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1 (Wurz – 1)
Poles: 0
Points: 13 (Rosberg – 5, Wurz – 8)

TPL Rating: 7 out of 10

After a poor season in 2006, where the team had their worst season in 18 years, Williams re-grouped and started from scratch for this season. Out went Mark Webber and the Cosworth engines, in came test driver Alexander Wurz, promoted to a race seat, and Toyota engines. They also secured major sponsorship from AT&T and Levono, filling in a huge gap in the budget that was missing last year. And it has shown an improvement so far, with the team regular challengers for points and so far looking better than the works Toyota team who use the same engine.

Nico Rosberg has looked like a new driver this season. After winning the GP2 crown in 2005, he started last season well before tailing off. But there looks to be no sign of the same happening this season. Despite having only scored at two races so far, he has looked fast especially in qualifying where has regularly made the top 10. If he can continue to improve then a regular point-scoring finish isn't beyond him and possibily a first podium.

Alexander Wurz returned to F1 racing as a full-time driver for the first time since 2000, although he drove one race for McLaren in 2005. And his rustiness showed at the start of the season with a series of poor drives in the first few races. But he began picking up the F1 habit again, and after scoring his first points of the season in Monaco, he went one better and scored a podium next time out in Canada, abeit with some luck. His qualifying has been his major let-down so far, having never made the shoot-out, and should he improve this in the second half of the season then he could be challening Rosberg more often.


Do you agree with this? Rate the team and have your say

I see the problem as coming from the engine, for a start. People say that they should have been propelled up to 3rd overall by the engine homologation. Er, how? Their engine was the highest-revving last season, supposedly, and when has the Toyota engine ever been one of the top few? They are where they are because of money. I don't think it is just coincidence that their decline has happened as more manufacturers have come in, who are spending more than them.

But if ever there was a case of points not telling the whole story, it is Williams. IMO Wurz should be out of Williams at the end of the season regardless of that lucky podium. And if Rosberg can find a better team to go to sometime soon, he should probably do so, because he is good enough. It was important for him to focus over the winter on raising his game, and he certainly has. He only has 5 points but he has driven a lot better than that points tally would suggest.

I'd give them a 6. It's been a small improvement on last year, but still not what you really want to see from a name like Williams. Hopefully they make a bigger step forward next year.

For the drivers I'd disagree with you here Chris, Wurz's main problem hasn't been his race pace which has actually been better than Rosberg, but getting to terms with the qualifying so as to be able to put his car high enough up the grid so that he isn't stuck behind the traffic throughout the race and can actually challenge Rosberg.

Rosberg has driven well and probably should be ahead of Wurz as Wurz's podium was somewhat lucky, but the actually gap over the long runs is not that great.

If Williams can get a decent, proven driver to replace Wurz, maybe they should do it. But there are none of those available as far as I know and I wouldn't take the risk of putting an untested youngster with potential, such as Piquet or Sutil, in the car. Rosberg provides that element, they need someone with experience in the other car.

How has Wurz's race pace been better?

I should have inserted 'at times'. It hasn't always been better necessarily, but the gap at most races is a lot smaller in the race than it is in quali in terms of best laps. In a few races, eg. Bahrain, & Monaco Wurz was just plain quicker in the race. And while his podium in Canada was somewhat lucky, he also drove well in conserving his tyres and as pretty much the fastest man on the track by the end of that race.