Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello to spearhead Williams into the new era
Feb.7 (Daniel Chalmers) The past decade was a very lean period for Williams, Formula 1’s second most successful team. They wasn’t any championship joy and only a handful of victories. They now haven’t won a race since Juan Pablo Montoya’s victory in 2004 Brazilian GP.
Williams looking to capitalise on reduced F1 budgets
However with the new resource restriction agreement in place, and the shift back towards private teams in F1 Williams could return to the fore, and be one of the teams to beat again.
The 2000s was an era where we saw an influx of manufacturers coming in and dominating the F1 landscape. Toyota , BMW, Honda and Renault all joined the F1 circus (three of whom have now left again of course).
This in turn saw the amount of money being spent going through the roof as the manufacturers tried to outdo each other. Also they poached talent from the small independents.
The independent teams found it incredibly tough to survive, and compete against the might and muscle of the manufacturers. Respected names such as Prost, Jordan, Minardi and Arrows fell by the wayside.
Frank Williams and Patrick Head at the helm of F1's purest racing team
Williams became the only true independent left on the grid i.e the only team that exists purely to race and nothing else. Over the last few years they have fought tooth and nail to not only try and compete with the big guns, but just to survive.
Williams’ recent lack of success has mainly been because they just don’t have the same amount of money to spend as the likes of Mclaren and Ferrari. They don’t have the same level of staff, or the same state of art facilities.
They came close to folding before 2009 but emergency cost cuts were agreed by FOTA (Formula One Team’s Association) in response to Honda’s withdrawal from the sport.
Frank Williams told the Daily Telegraph: “[Given] the financial pressure we are under, the consequent changes to the rules to reduce the cost of racing are a major benefit.”
Williams will be powered by Cosworth in 2010
The topic of cost cuts rumbled on in 2009 with the proposed budget cap almost splitting F1 into two. In the end an agreement was made between all the teams, and the resource restriction agreement was born.
As part of this agreement team numbers will be reduced to below 300. Less team members will be allowed to be taken to races along with other areas where expenditure will be vastly reduced
F1 cost reductions will benefit Williams greatly
Overall the cost of F1 will go down to around £80 million in 2010, and this will go down further to around £40 million in 2011. This is a far cry from hundreds of millions of pounds we have seen the biggest teams spending in the last few seasons. In 2008 Mclaren, Toyota, and Ferrari spent over 400 million dollars each. This was almost three times more than Williams spent.
This rule change will favour the teams who are already used to operating on a low budget, and don’t rely on large budget.
For the likes of Ferrari and Mclaren it’s going to be a monumental task to downsize, and maintain their competitiveness spending less money. They won’t be able to spend their way out of trouble anymore, or pour in some extra tens of millions of pounds to stay ahead in the title race.
Nigel Mansell in the nineties is part of Williams' legendary history
Due to the smaller scale of Williams, they don’t have anywhere near as a big job to downsize their team. They are also already used to operating on a lower budget. For this reason they have been dubbed the “team of the future”.
In 2009 they demonstrated how efficient a team they are, and how they make more use out of each million they spend. At the beginning of the season Williams had one of the top three cars.
Williams position in 7th place in the constructors championship wasn’t a fair reflection on their season. The main issue is that there was only car scoring points, as Kazuki Nakajima was never as quick as he needed to be.
If Nakajima had matched the amount of points that Nico Rosberg scored Williams would have been just two points shy of Mclaren in third. If you also consider some of the opportunities Rosberg wasted in the first few races of 2009 it could have been better still.
Rubens Barrichello at recent Valencia tests in the FW32
The job they did was even better considering the Toyota engine was 0.3 seconds slower than the pace setting Mercedes engine.
Under these new rules it will be more about the engineering talent within each team, as opposed to who can spend the most. The playing field will be levelled out. It’s going be about which teams are most efficient, make the best use of their cash and are most creative and innovative.
This means that Williams will once again be able to compete against the likes of Ferrari and Mclaren and potentially beat them just as they did in the 90s.
In 2010 they also have two new drivers. In Rubens Barrichello they have the most experienced man in F1 history. He proved in 2009 that if you give him a race winning car that he is still capable of winning races. The main thing for Williams that they get the brakes to his liking so that he can be quick from the start.
Nico Hulkenberg is being touted as "the next big thing" in Formula 1
In the other seat is GP2 champion Nico Hulkenberg who shows plenty of promise, and will no doubt benefit enormously from Barrichello’s experience.
So although it’s currently the likes of Mercedes and Mclaren who are the teams to beat Williams could well cause a few surprises in 2010.
One of key points will be how strong and reliable the Cosworth engine is. However Barrichello is optimistic over the engine and William’s chances in 2010:
“The dream to become world champion is closer than ever. [I am] feet on the ground working as hard as I can and working very hard for success.”
Rubens added about Cosworth: “You can see good signs at Cosworth as well – they are here not just to do well but also to win.”
Williams in 1980 Williams when they became a force in F1: (L to R) Frank Dernie designer, Patrick Head designer and Frank Williams team manager
And in 2011 and 2012 there is no reason Williams couldn’t start competing again for the title again.
The 2010s looks set to be a much stronger and positive decade than the 2000s was.
The biggest positive they can take from the most expensive period in F1 is that they have survived when others have fallen.
Could the 2010s see a return to the team’s success of the 90s? Don’t bet against it!
Williams may be the team that the likes of Hamilton, Alonso, and Vettel could be desperate to join in two or three years time.
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The Teams have to get back to the front, it’s what F1 is all about, the garagiste, although even the smallest team doesn’t compare to the amateurish flare of the older eras of F1.
I for one would love to see the little teams take it to the large ones, F1 Chassis’ should always be independent of manufacturers, and those should supply the engines.
as for expenditures, i think a limit has to be set, because without the limit, we will always see a team spending its way to the title, something most of its competitors can’t do. then the winner is the team with most money, not most talent, and definitely not the fastest…
[...] On Williams Return – God I hope so, I really do. Meta . Info Sunday 7 February , 2010 [...]
The Resource Restriction Agreement is a legally binding agreement between all the teams so anybody who breaks it will be in big trouble.
We are heading back to the level of spending which we saw in the 90s.
I agree to cut costs, but I think you are smoking your socks if you think expenditure will cap at 80 000000 pounds