11-Jan-08: Williams FW30 Not Appearing Anytime Soon
January 11, 2008 by Christine
Filed under Daily F1 News
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Today is the 11th January, I’m Christine and this is F1 Minute.
After deciding not to have a press launch for their 2008 car, Williams are now pushing back its track debut as well. The new machinery was supposed to be on the tarmac at Jerez next week, but Williams have decided to bring the old FW29 rather than the new 30. Technical director Sam Michael said they had always known the schedule was pushing it, and he would rather not rush things with the new car.
Ferrari have finally pinpointed exactly what Michael Schumacher’s role is within the team, after a season of being rather vague. He will be in charge of car development for Gestione Sportiva – which is the motorsport section of Ferrari. He’ll still continue to test for the team, and says the 2008 car looks promising but he has no schedule of when he’ll get behind the wheel.
And finally, after talking up the team non-stop with big budgets, advertising and a top notch driver line-up event, Vijay Mallya has warned his home country of India not to expect too much from the team in their first year. Talk about mixed signals.
That’s it for this week, have a great weekend and join me on Monday for another F1 Minute.
Arjun on Sat, 12th Jan 2008 05:15
I was at the press conference where Mallya announced the driver line-up. He definitely didn’t sound too confident of even being a mid-field runner! Though the budget up is claimed to be another $50mn.
Christine on Sat, 12th Jan 2008 08:26
That’s interesting, because everything I’ve read or heard up until this point has been all positive, we’re no longer going to be a back marker, watch this space, kind of thing.
It looks Mallya is starting to see exactly what it is he’s taken on, and reality is sinking in.
But that doesn’t mean he can’t get the team up there, it is possible, it’s just that it wouldn’t happen instantly.
Arjun on Sat, 12th Jan 2008 08:48
True, and like all that Formula 1 has become these days, what with the wind-tunnels, etc. no team can expect to get instant results. Still, Renault came out of almost nowhere in 2005 and Super Aguri have already shown what they’re capable of. I think the more business minded the proposition becomes (read Toyota) the longer time it takes for any considerable results to show.
But I have faith in Mallya. His Kingfisher Airlines took all of about a year to become a frontrunner in Indian airspace. I only hope he’s not too conservative in his thinking when it comes to F1.
Praveen on Sat, 12th Jan 2008 14:12
It’s curious to hear Mallya’s disregard for Narain Karthikeyan. In spite of his promising results in the early years of his career in Formula Asia and British Formula 3 Narain has undoubtedly fallen out with fans including me, thanks to his poor showing in all the series he’s competed in ever since (the A1GP victory is an exception, let’s hope it’s a sign of things turning for the better.). Narain has largely his own attitude to blame. He’s got talent but not the mindset to hone it. Even then, considering Mallya sponsored Narain through much of his early career his words were a bit cruel. Expect Narain to react to this. It’s a new war!
Vittorio84 on Sat, 12th Jan 2008 17:18
I hove FW30 will be competitive. It would be very interesting to see Rosberg fighting with top-drivers
Christine on Sat, 12th Jan 2008 19:10
Rosberg definitely deserves the chance to shine – everyone is always saying how much potential he has, so it must be his turn to be able to show it.
me on Mon, 14th Jan 2008 11:18
i suspect he was getting itchy feet waiting for toyota to achieve anything, he learnt the ropes with them and now he’s gonna to show them how it’s done.
cool! didn’t realise. must keep a close eye on that in the future.