AT&T Williams F1 team finally revealed their 2008 livery and released a pre-season interview with Frank Williams. The blue white livery is similar to the 2007 one but somehow it does look better . The biggest looser is Lenovo, their logo has been relegated from the prominent position on the sidepods to the rear wing. Still more visible than AT&T logo though …

Here are few answers from Frank Williams on his drivers and prediction for 2008 season:

Nico returns for his third season this year. How important is he to the team?

He’s fundamental. We have the highest regards for him and we have great confidence that, given the right equipment, he will win races.

Kazuki has been promoted from test to race driver, how has he been doing over winter testing and what are your expectations of him in a race seat?

We knew we were taking a bit of a gamble when we signed him, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised by his testing pace. It’s really only a question I’ll be able to answer properly after the first few races of the season.

And lastly, what are your predictions for the season ahead?

I think the first four places are most likely to be occupied by the same people as last year, sadly. But I do think it will be a brilliant racing season.

More photos of new 2008 Williams livery inside the article (all photos courtesy of AT&T Williams).

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F1Wolf

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Few things happened over the weekend, here is my attempt to sum them up.

Ron Dennis is back in the news. Last week the Marca story claimed he is being fired by McLaren. Both Mercedes and McLaren too their time before they very quietly rejected the claims. Now the Sunday Times report that according to their sources McLaren will announce exit of Ron Dennis later this week. I do not really care whether he goes or stays, but it would be nice if he himself either strongly denies these rumours or confirms them. The sooner the better, we have F1 racing to watch …

Few funny things came out of Williams. Frank Williams suggests that Lewis Hamilton is better driver than Kimi Raikkonen. He did not say that directly, but what else to make out of this:

“If the Ferrari is the better car this year, McLaren should be saying to themselves ‘Thank god he is not in a Ferrari, otherwise there would be no point going racing’. I don’t know Kimi well. He is a gifted driver, as good as anyone, but Kimi’s weakness is that he is not that interested. So if a man of equal skill, let’s say, turns up in an identical car, with one working harder than the other, it is more likely that that man would have the upper hand.”

Poor Massa …

Patrick Head spoke about Williams missing out on Lewis Hamilton back in their BMW days. Back in 2004 Hamilton and his father came to Grove saying ‘Ron Dennis has dropped us’. Frank Williams proposed to BMW to take Hamilton on, but BMW were not ready to provide any finances and Williams did not have much cash to spare … After the split with BMW Williams signed Nico Rosberg who then became a target for McLaren after 2007 season. Williams admitted they turned down majestic offer from McLaren and kept Rosberg for 2008 and to their surprise even managed to get Nico sign up for 2009 (and more cash).

And finally, Fernando Alonso does not seem to be impressed with the direction F1 is taking, and frankly, he is not alone….

“We are making F1 not the highest technology in the world. Everybody looking at F1 from the outside sees it as the maximum, but if GP2 keeps improving, and keeps their slick tyres, they will do our time laps very soon while we are going back to the past.”
“We are becoming a sort of GP2: same tyres, same engines. We don’t have the best technology anymore. And if you have a car that doesn’t go (quickly) in the winter, you have to put up with it for the whole season.”

F1Wolf

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