Friday Report – Williams can only cry over his fate

Williams is not satisfied with its first day of the year 2008. On this Friday, the English team experienced major mechanical and logistical problems that prevented both FW30 cars of Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima from running during the first free practice session. The situation improved during the second session, although Rosberg was not able to complete many laps.

Nico Rosberg – No time and 8th:

The team had a rather difficult start to the season today. I didn’t have the chance to drive in the first session, and in the second, my differential wasn’t working… So it was very difficult to drive and therefore to draw conclusions from this day.

« Nevertheless, we learned some essential information, but we need to make up for lost time today with good progress tomorrow. That said, I think we have a good foundation and we haven’t seen the best of our car yet. »

Kazuki Nakajima – 21st and 16th:

This morning, I was very pessimistic and very disappointed to have wasted time… I don’t know the track very well, despite my limited experience here, it was looking bad…

« But this afternoon, we managed to complete the entire program and I was able to learn a lot about the Albert Park circuit. The next task will be to check the data collected tonight, to see where I can improve. » Concluded the Japanese driver.

Sam Michael – Technical Director

« We had a reliability issue with the gearbox on both cars in the morning which prevented us from running. Fortunately, we were able to solve the issue to be ready for the second practice session before having another problem, this time only with Rosberg’s car with his differential. »

« We knew what the problem was, and we know it won’t happen again tomorrow, but we couldn’t afford to take time during the session to fix it [the differential, ultimately hindering Nico Rosberg]. Everything will be ready for tomorrow. »