Skip to main content

Team Willy!

Image
By

Williams sort-of launched their new car the same day as Ferrari, but suffered from a very British attack of not wanting to make a big show of it, so no journalists were in attendance, except for a scamp from Autosport who snapped this picture.

I'm always excited by a new Williams car, and that's a tidy motor - notably different to the Ferrari and McLaren too. I love the Williams team, although I've never been quite sure why. Maybe it was because they were successful when I was first getting into F1. Maybe it's their very British nature - so much more down to earth that Mclaren. Maybe it's Frank & Patrick's no-nonsense approach and refusal to pander to their driver's egos. Maybe it's because they're from Oxfordshire, the county I grew up in. Maybe it's because they ran Damon Hill, who's still my favourite all time driver.

Grumpy F1 pre-season preview? Oh, go on then....

Williams haven't won a thing for quite a few years now after much success in the 80's and 90's. Occasional promising results have too often been scuppered by driver or tactical errors. They're still canny though, and capable of thinking up something no-one else has. I really hope they can for 2010. Rosberg & Nakajima did well last year, but they've replaced Nico with... Nico (Hulkenberg). And Kaz with the longest-toothed F1 driver of all time, Barrichello. Rubens is good, make no doubts, and Nico... well, we'll have to wait and see.

Barrichello doesn't seem to get lucky. In fact, if it wasn't for bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all. Last year with Brawn he finally had a shot for the title without team orders...and still got beaten. He can be great some days and a bit pants on others. I hope he gets the chance to mix it with the kind of company he got used to last year, and doesn't wind up battling Lotuses and, er, Virgins. Ooh, hang on - we'll have to think about what we call that team carefully, won't we...

Hulkenberg? If I'd done some research, I might be able to tell you how he'd got on pre-F1. Shockingly, I have - he was GP2 champ last year, so he'd good. How will he cope in F1 with the teensy bit of testing you're allowed nowadays though?

(NP The Excellent '86 album, titled and by They Might Be Giants)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Malaysian Grand Prix - Vettel hot, but not bothered

By
Malaysia. It's always hot, and it always rains. Except the 2nd part is no longer true (unless you count the drizzly bit around lap 14). Saturday's qualifying session had highlighted the fact that Red Bull and McLaren seemed well matched on pace, but also that Ferrari were struggling. Whilst Vettel bagged another pole, followed by Hamilton, Webber and Button, Alonso was only 5th, and Massa 7th, with Nick Heidfeld an excellent 6th on the grid between the two red cars. At this point, I would like to break momentarily for a small rant: How many times do I have to say Heidfeld is good? Why wasn't he given a top drive years ago? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! ARE YOU BLIND!!!?? Ahem. The Hispanias somehow managed to a) turn up b) remember to bring cars c) get both of them on the track d) actually get both of them within 107%. Pretty remarkable really. Oh, and it didn't rain. Race day looked a more likely candidate for a drop of the wet stuff. The start was exciting, with...
5 comments
Read more

Suffering from natural obsolescence

By
You know you’re getting old when it dawns on you that you’re outliving technological breakthroughs. You know the sort of thing – something revolutionary, that heralds a seismic shift it the way the modern world operates. Clever, time-saving, breathtaking and life-changing (and featuring a circuit board). It’s the future, baby! Until it isn’t any more. I got to pondering this when we laughed heartily in the office about someone asking if our camcorder used “tape”. Tape? Get with the times, Daddy-o! If it ain’t digital then for-get-it! I then attempted to explain to an impossibly young colleague that video tape in a camcorder was indeed once a “thing”, requiring the carrying of something the size of a briefcase around on your shoulder, containing batteries normally reserved for a bus, and a start-up time from pressing ‘Record’ so lengthy, couples were already getting divorced by the time it was ready to record them saying “I do”. After explaining what tape was, I realised I’d ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Faking it for real

By
As Donald “I’m really great, everybody says so” Trump is so fond of pointing out, there is a lot of fake news around nowadays. Honest. Your friends at Facebook think so too, and have recently been publishing their top tips for spotting false news – by placing them as ads in newspapers. Considering they came in for considerable criticism themselves, that’s like shouting “Squirrel!” and pointing at a tree whilst you hastily kick away the prize begonias you just trampled. To help you make sense of this (and because I’m a caring person), I thought I’d run you through their suggestions and help to explain them for you. I know. I’m lovely. 1. Be sceptical of headlines READING THIS ARTICLE WILL IMPROVE YOUR SEX LIFE!!! And explain that catchy headlines, or stuff all in capitals might be a bit iffy. 2. Look closely at the URL You can find out more about this at www.wowyouregullible.com if you want to understand how phony web addresses are a sure sign of dodgyness. 3. Investigate...
Post a Comment
Read more