Williams Optimistic over Cosworth

While this isn’t really a story, I decided to report on it for two reasons: (1) When you have no where to go but up, of course you are optimistic. (2) Sam Michael’s talks about the Cosworth/Williams relationship sounded like an ex-girlfriend and it entertained me.

Apparently, Williams just wasn’t that into Cosworth, but after three years with Toyota, it realizes that it left a good thing and after showing up on Cosworth doorstep with a boom box, Cosworth has accepted the ring and they’re happily back together; unless they sent Patrick Head to do the deed, and then it was mostly like a bunch of thugs, not a boom box.

Williams technical director Sam Michael:

"We won’t know that until we get it on the track. Our target is always to be at the front and with the grid being so tight now, it’s even more realistic to have that as a target as the regulations have closed everything up so much.

"Finding one or two tenths from aerodynamic or some other gain can put you in with a shout of winning races. That’s why there have been so many winners this year. Cosworth are going to do a good job.

"The sport has changed massively since 2006. If you look back from the early 2000s to the last 18 months, it has been manufacturer dominated, but that’s shifting significantly. There were different reasons for not being with Cosworth back then. But you can also ask if the decision we took was correct? We don’t know, because history sets itself and that’s it. If we had continued with Cosworth back then, maybe it wouldn’t have been the best thing.

"That’s the great thing about F1—it keeps evolving and it’s a process of change right now and that has led things back to an independent engineering group being the best thing for Williams.

"Cosworth has got two big hurdles. Fuel consumption is critical with no refuelling, and their target for the winter is to improve that. The other is reliability. Everyone has accumulated three years of running on their engines while Cosworth has been out and gained thousands of kilometres of knowledge."

But at least it still hugs well.

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