Formula 1 News

Williams: 2008 Spanish GP preview 

Kazuki Nakajima: “We have some aero updates on the car for Barcelona, which we spent last week testing, and they should bring us some gains performance-wise. Personally, I like the Circuit de Catalunya. I had a good result there when I raced in GP2 last year and I hope I can do well in my debut Spanish Grand Prix. My engineer, Xevi Pujolar, is from Spain, so it’s technically going to be one of our home races, so I’m hoping I can get him a good result!”

Nico Rosberg: “I’m looking forward to this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix because we know the circuit
well as we’ve done a lot of testing there in the past. The car performed well at Catalunya throughout winter testing, so it should run well in the race. We had a promising test there last week; I had two day’s preparation time with the car which should stand us in good stead for the race. The only difficulty with Barcelona is that track conditions are constantly changing so you’re frequently having to adjust your set-up. Malaysia is now firmly behind us and I’m hoping we’ll come away from next weekend with a positive result.”

Sam Michael, Technical Director: “Barcelona is a great test of aerodynamic efficiency, engine power and chassis balance. It tends to highlight a car’s strengths and weaknesses, except perhaps the brakes because braking loads in Barcelona are fairly minimal compared to other tracks because there are numerous high speed corners with high lateral corner loads on entry and exit. We have tested at Barcelona throughout the winter, and as recently as last week, during which time we’ve fine tuned set-up and brought some aerodynamic and mechanical developments to the car. Bridgestone will bring two tyres from the harder end of the compound range for this race and strategy tends to lean towards two stops because the high speed corners make a one stop option too difficult. With the cars demonstrating good reliability now, our target for Barcelona is to continue improving our performance and getting points in order to build upon our position in the constructors’ championship, but it will be a tough battle.”

source: AT&T Williams