2008 Bahrain GP preview: Williams

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One double points finish, one nightmare race. Just how quick are Williams?

The Bahrain Grand Prix should give us some answers.

Nico Rosberg made his F1 debut at Bahrain two years ago and, after a blunder at the first corner, moved smartly through the field to finish an excellent seventh, claiming fastest lap on the way.

It’s not the first time he’s shined at the desert track – in 2005 back-to-back victories in the GP2 season finale saw him snatch the championship from Heikki Kovalainen.

He should be in the hunt for a strong points finish this weekend but the team’s surprisingly poor performance at Sepang makes it hard to judge just how quick they will be:

AUS Q AUS R MAL Q MAL R
Nico Rosberg 7 3 16 14
Kazuki Nakajima 13 6 22* 17

*penalty

In pre-season testing Williams looked to be in the hunt with BMW and Red Bull. Nico Rosberg had a close race with Nick Heidfeld in Melbourne and lost what would have been second place when the pair swapped places during their pit stops.

It’s hard to tell at this stage whether the team’s problems at Sepang were just a one-off or the signs of a weakness in the FW30 that will continue to dog them. Publicly the team said it was struggling to get grip on the resurfaced Sepang circuit – but this was not a complaint many other teams registered.

Having said that Rosberg’s race would have been better but for his collision with Timo Glock on the first lap.

Tomorrow’s practice session will give us the first clue whether Sepang was a blip in performance for the team or the beginning of a downward trend. How do you think Williams will fare in Bahrain?

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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3 comments on “2008 Bahrain GP preview: Williams”

  1. I don’t really know… After the pre-season they had raised some expectations, but in my opinion, they didn’t do anything exceptional this season. Yes they had a podium, but only 7 finished that race. This one will show where williams really is (i think between Red Bull and Renault).

  2. Williams were clearly faster than Red Bull, Renault and Toyota throughout testing (with the FW30). Only occasional low-fuel heroism presented a different view now and again. It was hard to tell where they were in regards to BMW-Sauber, due to the latter doing it’s own thing mostly. So for me, Williams are fourth. This is Roberg’s opinion and, more importantly,  Mario Thiessen’s aswell.

    McLaren had similar issues in Malaysia, but we’re not going to mention their downward slide, are we?

    I watched the Oz GP from the exit of turn 6 and it was easy to tell who had decent grip on exit. The Renault looked twitchy, the Red Bull was unimpressive, but the Williams looked bang-on and fast out of the corner – just like the Beamers, Macca’s and those red cars.

  3. theRoswellite
    2nd April 2008, 23:20

    Well, third times a charm, so we should get a bit more definitive input on, not just the car, but both drivers as well (new year…new synergy).  It would be refreshing to hear someone in the team say exactly what it was they got wrong on the last go around…..my "guess" puts them both around the #10, for this race.

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