SEPTEMBER 30, 2006

Williams building up aero department

The Williams team is moving to improve its weakness this year with a major recruitment in the aerodynamics department, expanding Loic Bigois's team with the addition of Renault F1's Jon Tomlinson, who has been working in recent years with the aerodynamic team at Enstone. It is not clear when he will join the team but the team is confident that it will help to improve an area which has been a weakness in recent years.

The recruitment is good news for the team which has been having a tough time this year and is current seen to be struggling with just a few points. However in F1 perceptions are important and although performance has to some extent tailed off as the manufacturer teams have sorted out their V8 engines, the team did have a strong start to the year and but for reliability problems (admittedly a big weakness) Williams could have had as many as 50 points in the Constructors' World Championship. That would have put Williams fourth or fifth in the championship and perceptions would have completely changed as that would have been a very good effort against the big manufacturer teams.

This is obviously very frustrating for the team but at the same time an indication that the desire to win races has not for one minute gone away and that Williams is intending to be a big player again when the new relationship begins with Toyota in 2007.