Filed under: Motorsports
Williams FW30 breaks through the fog
click above for more high-res pics of the Williams FW30
Things have gotten a bit foggy over at Williams F1. The once front-running, championship-winning grand prix team has landed on tough times. This year the team opted against holding a glitzy unveiling event like those held recently by Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota and BMW Sauber, and instead focused its energies on developing its new car, the FW30. It seemed like a strange choice for the team that will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and during the season will mark its 500th grand prix and 50,000th racing lap.
But while the team isn't holding an official unveiling, it has whipped up six special paint schemes to celebrate its milestones this year. (We doubt any of them will be as cool as Aston Martin's new-old Gulf livery, but hopefully they'll be better than Honda's tree-hugging paint scheme.) The first time the motorsport press got a glimpse of the new FW30 was yesterday at the Valencia track where the new car was being put through its paces.
Renault was also supposed to take out the R28, the new chariot it has developed for returning former champion Fernando Alonso, but the fog kept them indoors. Honda is scheduled to unveil its new car later this week, as well. Williams, for its part, is hoping the new FW30, powered under contract by Toyota and driven by Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima, will perform and be reliable enough to get it back on the track to its former winning form.
[Source: Autosport, Photo by DIEGO TUSON/AFP/Getty]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
nick 10:58AM (1/22/2008)
Guys, no one in the US watches F1. I haven't figured out yet why this site is obsessed about it. It's the only motor sport that you can only pass in the pits.
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Blake 11:20AM (1/22/2008)
These are the types of comments that should be kept to oneself.
It's only one of the most, if not the most technologically advanced motor sport on the face of the Earth.
nick 11:23AM (1/22/2008)
Yup, it's so advanced, you can't pass... If they backed off the aerodynamic requirements, cars could pass, but people would die.. I guess it's not so advanced after all?
overengineered 12:07PM (1/22/2008)
Well, no overtake every 10 seconds, but beautiful and breathtaking overtakes instead of the nascar-passings.
And nick, it's the typical american view. Football (soccer) sucks because at the end it could be only 0:0 and no winner, F1 sucks because you don't see a great move every second... You lost the focus on the sport, because everyone is focusing on action - but I see the end of the light: ALMS is getting popular and popular. I see a light ;-)
zmf001 12:19PM (1/22/2008)
Thank you nick. It is people like you who make it impossible for me to even watch half the F1 season on cable TV. If you have actually watched (and understood) F1 races you would see that the best part is when the driver, team, and pit strategy all work together to win the race.
geo.stewart 12:37PM (1/22/2008)
Well, the rest of the world is interested in F1.
But like you, I am not interested in a 'sport' where the only passing is in the pits. The reference above to 'team sport' is blasted out of the water by this fact.
The plain truth is that the driver is out of the equation in this series. Its all about the car and the pits.
NASCAR is just about the polar opposite. the car is barbaric, drivers are important, pit strategy helps but not all important, and lastly, the drivers are approachable. yeah, its as crude a sport as football is seen but that adds to the entertainment factor.
I am glad ALMS is taking off though as it has the chance to offer the best of both worlds and take the lead as a sport and aa form of entertainment.
LX builder 11:09AM (1/22/2008)
F-1 has not been relevent to anyone since the late 80's early 90's. Unless of course you are into high speed parade laps, or you just want to be seen at a "trendy" event
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Raghu 12:00PM (1/22/2008)
Yep, not relevant at all with a billion viewers per race...
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns00996.html
http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/887837386__22_02_2000_F1_TV_Figures.pdf
inCore 11:15AM (1/22/2008)
Yes, because driving around in an oval is so much more interesting.
*cough* Nascar *cough*
America's second most viewed sport in TV, right after the NFL.
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Gooch 11:44AM (1/22/2008)
Nick, plenty of people watch F1 in the US -- ex-pats, people who want to watch something other than the good ol' boy show, people who are turned off by the bombastic athletes participating in American stick-and-ball sports and people who simply like watching these magnificent cars go around some of the most historic tracks in racing. Personally, I got into F1 back in the 1970s, watching the Monaco GP on ABC's Wide World of Sports with my dad. I fell out of it for a while, but got back into it in the late 80s when Senna ascended. My attention has never wavered since then.
Certainly, it could be better, because I remember when it was the pinnacle of technology (the Williams FW-14B, the car Mansell won his championship with, was probably one of the most advanced racing cars ever, with semi-auto gearbox, active suspension, traction control and anti-lock brakes). I understand that people don't like it because it is a sport populated by people with names most Americans have trouble pronouncing (it is brutal to hear anyone other than Bob Varsha, David Hobbs or Steve Matchett try to say "Felipe" or "Raikkonen"). It IS a parade nowadays, but it is also darn near a spec series. If the FIA would just allocate a certain amount of fuel for the race weekend then let these guys develop what they want, you'd see the technical innovation, passing and great racing that was the norm when the legends of the sport were driving.
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nick 12:06PM (1/22/2008)
You just summed up why F1 doesn't work in the US. We don't want all the technology. Is it car vs car or driver vs driver? Nascar has a great balance unlike auto blog which is obsessed with F1 coverage that only a handful on here care about.
LX builder 12:13PM (1/22/2008)
Gooch Your comments are why I can't watch anymore. It is a spec series now, as is NASCAR and that is why they are losing their fans also. I miss the days of Senna, Prost, and Mansell. As a Canadian, Villeneuve kept me watching in the early 90's, ...but otherwise F-1 died for me when Senna passed.
Gooch 2:50PM (1/22/2008)
I guess I have blind faith that the FIA will see the error of its ways in regulating the sport to death, but with Bernie counting all the dollars he's making, it's just not bloody likely.
I will try to wait it out. These things run in cycles... I hope.
Gooch 11:47AM (1/22/2008)
And I said all that to say I hope Williams comes back to its old form -- they certainly have the drivers to do so! Rosberg is going to be amazing and there might be a world championship in his future.
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Cameron 12:31PM (1/22/2008)
I'd rather see one or two AMAZING passes per race that only 0.00000001% of all humans have the mental, physical, and testicular fortitude to execute, than to watch lap after lap of anything on an oval, even if there is plenty of passing.
You realize the reaction times needed by Alonso, Hamilton, and M. Schumacher are on par with pilots flying fighter jets, right? You either have it or you don't. Break concentration in a nascar stock car? Oh, you're into the wall or trading paint with your peers, maybe you spin out at worst. Your pit crew hammers out your body work and you get back out on the track. Ask Robert Kubica what happens when you break concentration for even a fraction of a second in an F1 car. You hit the wall, 75Gs on impact, and F1 cars are amazing enough for him to walk away with a sprained ankle and bruised ego. I don't think a nascar stock car could take a 75G impact at 175+ mph and let the driver walk away with a sprained ankle.
Many F1 drivers are in good enough shape to run marathons, and several do consistently. I don't think there is a single driver in nascar in good enough shape to run ONE mile, let alone 26.
Any faster in an F1 car and they're going to start needing G suits to push blood to their heads during 4-5G peak turns.
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Eric 12:35PM (1/22/2008)
Montoya? Scott Speed? I bet they could run a mile. ;)
nick 1:41PM (1/22/2008)
My buddy Andy flies the AC 130 gun ship in Iraq for the Chairforce but couldn't drive my 5.0 stick shift. Go figure.. Btw, he wears his ipod on missions.
Here is what f1 should do. Work with Nascar, do a Saturday race before the nascar sun race at the same track in the infield with stripped down F1 cars. No bs nanny crap, and limited down force so you can pass. I think if they did this, it could work.
overengineered 2:40PM (1/22/2008)
"do a Saturday race before the nascar sun race at the same track in the infield with stripped down F1 cars. No bs nanny crap, and limited down force so you can pass."
nick, you are hilarious ... stupid xD
Eric 12:33PM (1/22/2008)
Why does everyone knock Honda's colors? It was kind of nice to see a car that didn't have the same flat colors covered-with-sponsors look. A little out of place in F1 maybe, but interesting. Red Bull's livery at Silverstone was a cool change from the norm too.
-another F1 fan in the USA
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geo.stewart 12:45PM (1/22/2008)
gee, I have seen NASCAR vehicles hit the wall at 200mph, have seen them flip so many times you lose count, and watched the guys walk away afterwards. so yeah, i think they can take it.
also, your beloved F1 drivers dont have the reaction speeds; its the engineering in the cars. and I'll grant there is enough technology in the cars to fill a fighter jet but the race is still a yawn.
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