Q&A: Patrick Head - EXCLUSIVE.

by Russell Atkins

Williams endured its worst Formula One season in almost three decades last year, collecting a grand total of 11 points and racking up a similar number of mechanically-contributed retirements. Patrick Head is adamant the same will not be allowed to happen again.

The Grove-based outfit's respected Director of Engineering has helped lead the squad to as many as 16 world titles in its 31-year history in the top flight, so what happened in 2006 was painful indeed. He is convinced, however, measures and changes that have been put in place over the winter months will see a far more representative showing in 2007...

Q:
Patrick, first of all how are you looking forward to the season ahead?

Patrick Head:
Very much so. Obviously we have got a lot of work to do before that both in terms of developing and optimising our car and bringing more performance to it, which every team will do before the start of the season, and we have taken some big steps forward aerodynamically along with many other aspects of the car. We also have a new relationship with Toyota and a completely new transmission based on a different principle to that which we used last year, so there is lots to look forward to and a lot of changes in other teams too. It should be a good year.

Q:
Last year brought a lot of pain for Williams, especially on the reliability front. Is that where the main focus of work has been over the winter months?

PH:
Not just there. Of our sins in 2006 I think the lack of reliability was by far the biggest, so obviously we've been working on that. It isn't just down to engineering though - it's also down to all the systems and the procedures that take place within the factory, the structure of the organisation and so forth. There's a lot of attention being put towards that, but equally there's no point in being reliable if you are on the last row of the grid and droning around at the back, so we have obviously put a lot of attention on raising our performance too.

Q:
How is the relationship with Toyota developing so far?

PH:
Very well. We work closely with them in the installation of the engine in the car and in optimising its performance and that of the induction systems and cooling systems and all that sort of thing. The transmission is a joint project too. That side is working very well, but when the lights change and we go racing then we are racing each other.

Q:
On the driving front, Nico Rosberg had a stunning debut in Formula One last year then seemed to struggle a little bit more as the season wore on, mainly through lack of experience. What do you expect of him in 2007?

PH:
He had some very good races last year that didn't show in the results because our car let him down when he was in good points-scoring positions quite a few times, but this year I think Nico has to really establish his place in Formula One. He knows that, and we just hope on our side that we have worked well enough to correct both the reliability and performance of the car so we can give him the tools with which he can show what he can do.

Q:
Alex Wurz has been testing for a long time now, but hasn't actually raced consistently for seven years. How difficult do you think it will be for him to get back into the racing groove again after so long away from it?

PH:
I don't think it will take too long. I think he is really looking forward to it. He showed us last year on the track both in testing and running on Fridays, when I'm told he came out as the top Friday driver ahead of Anthony Davidson in the Honda, that there's no lack of speed there. Again, I just hope we have produced a good-enough car so that Alex can re-establish himself as a regular driver in Formula One.

Q:
He is particularly renowned on the technical side too, isn't he?

PH:
He is very strong there, with lots of experience and very calm with good judgment both about the car and the tyres. He also gets on very well with the engineers, so he is a very good asset to us.

Q:
Talking about tyres, a lot of the drivers before Christmas complained they were having difficulty adjusting to Bridgestone's new Potenza rubber. How have you found the 2007-spec tyres so far?

PH:
For us there have been no problems, because they actually bear some similarities to the tyres Bridgestone used towards the end of 2005, which we ran on back then and occasionally in the early part of 2006 before the season started. That means we already know quite a bit about the way they work, albeit I don't think that really gives us any great advantage. It's been shown in recent years that teams have been able to swap quite successfully from one tyre manufacturer to another and only take a matter of a few weeks to catch up.

Q:
So you don't think there will be any initial advantages for teams such as yourselves that were on Bridgestones last year?

PH:
No, I don't think so, in a way disappointingly but of course it's a corollary of having a single-tyre supplier that the top engineers you worked with have gone off to develop tyres for racing motorbikes and so on. Basically we have got a new engineer we are now working with, and it's almost like starting a new relationship.

Q:
With all that taken into account and with what you have seen over the winter months and of the FW29 so far, how confident are you of turning Williams' fortunes around this year?

PH:
It will be a great difficulty for us if we don't, but there's a fierce determination here to do so. As I explained we have made many changes, not just technically on the car but also in the organisation, personnel and internal structures. I would be more than disappointed if that didn't make a very big difference, but I'm very confident it will.

Q:
Have you set any particular objectives for the campaign?

PH:
The only one I'm prepared to talk about is on the reliability side where we want to achieve levels at least as good as Renault and Ferrari achieved last year. They were the only truly reliable teams, and they both finished 32 races out of 34 starts. We want to be at least as reliable as that.

Q:
Finally, Frank Williams has already made his position very clear on the customer car row that is engulfing Super Aguri and Toro Rosso. What is your view on the subject?

PH:
I have to say first of all I have no idea about what they are going to run. Both those teams have adamantly stated they will be running independent cars which they have designed and constructed themselves and whose IP they own, but we are racing in 2007 under the contract of the 1998 Concorde Agreement. That is very clear in stating what is required of each team entering the constructors' championship - that they should be a constructor - so we will have to see.