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According to
WilliamsF1 Technical Director Sam Michael the launch of the 2006 FW28 will
take place in February next year.
 The
FW28 will see the team move from their current engine supplier BMW to that
of Cosworth. Plus the team has taken the decision to move from Michelin to
Bridgestone as their tyre supplier. These two moves will place considerable
demands on the team as they prepare for the 2006 season. There will also be
a variety of new components that will need to be tested including a new
gearbox. It is expected that the WilliamsF1 team will get their first
opportunity of testing the new engine and tyre combination in December 2005.
In an interview for Autosport Michael spoke of how the situation for the
team in their preparations for 2006 were not ideal. Michael said: "For the
first test we will have a new Cosworth, a new gearbox and new tyres, so a
hell of a lot of stuff that is new on the car. It won't be boring that's for
sure. It is not ideal.
"In an ideal world you would continue running a B-spec car or something that
you could do tyre testing on but we don't have that, we will have finished
our engine situation with BMW and that is what we have got."
In regard to the teams new Cosworth V8 engine Michael is confident that
Cosworth is working hard to make sure that when the teams takes to the test
track with the new engine that they will suffer the minimum of engine
related problems. This will assist them in working through their test
programme with Bridgestone.
Michael added:
"There will be plenty of breakdowns to solve, that's for sure, but we are
flat out on the dynos now to try to give ourselves the best preparation.
"All the way through November and December we will be in Spain testing with
Bridgestone, doing tyre testing but also we have a new gearbox and engine
package. I can see November and December being a bit of a groundhog day.
"We should sort it out in January and then our new car will be out in
February sometime." |
