Formula One news

Exclusive: Williams keeping a watching brief

Sir Frank Williams is cautious towards predicting which teams will be the main contenders for the new season. Founder of the team in 1967, Sir Frank spoke to GPUpdate.net on Monday at the launch of the new-look Formula Two championship at Brands Hatch.

Results in testing could well be disguising the true performance of the cars in 2009, even more so perhaps than others years, not least due to the changable weather conditions at tests so far coupled with new regulations limiting the freedom of the aerodynamisists.

"I think it's going okay," Sir Frank reported to GPUpdate.net, "but everybody is hiding their best efforts." Regulations this year should allow cars to follow each other more easier through corners, thus resulting in greater opportunities to overtake - something which received high praise yesterday from the team's technical director, Sam Michael.

Williams only stressed however that even the smallest of design differences can have a large affect on the track; when quizzed as to which of the teams appears to have the best ability to follow others on the track Sir Frank replied: "No idea. I haven't seen everybody else's car. It depends so much on the cars."

In 2009 the team will be looking to improve on their less than impressive results of recent times; the Grove-based squad dropped from fourth in the final standings of 2007 to eighth last year, with best results of two podium finishes for German Nico Rosberg in Australia and Singapore.

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