Williams Pleased With Fw22.

Although rain and snow blighted last week's Barcelona test, the Williams team reports that it is pleased with initial impressions of its new FW22 chassis.


The Grove outfit officially launched the car at the Spanish circuit last Monday, and has attempted to run it there ever since, only to be thwarted by a combination of the elements and teething troubles. Both Ralf Schumacher and new team-mate Jenson Button experienced the car but, despite it showing early promise, the team was frustrated at not being able to complete the programme it had hoped for.


"It is difficult to complete a scheduled programme with rain and two days of snow," sighed BMW's Dr Werner Laurenz, "We have experienced several electronic problems - which are normal given the infancy of this new package - but, nonetheless, managed more than 100 laps on the third day and gathered some valuable feedback."


Both Schumacher and BMW motorsport boss Gerhard Berger admitted to being optimistic about the new car, in spite of its limited running, but acknowledged that there was much to be done in order to make it competitive with teams which had been testing throughout January.


New boy Button spent most of his first week as a fully-fledged member of the Williams set-up pounding around in the updated FW21B, and was pleased simply to have been given the chance to increase his familiarity with the team, and F1 in general.


"I have gained a lot of valuable experience over the past few days," the youngster said, "The mileage accumulated so far has been promising - and has certainly helped my fitness level! I have an intense fitness regime to work with over the next seven days, and I am looking forward to the next test."


Williams heads to South Africa in search of good weather and decent track time early next month, but it is one circuit where Button will have no help in learning the layout. It has been revealed this week that the 20-year old will be given reels of in-car television footage to help him learn the tracks he has not visited before, in an attempt to speed up his development as an F1 driver, and enable him to back Schumacher in the hunt for the constructors' championship.