Sam Michael confident of FW33 but believes every team has a championship chance – Formula 1
Williams’ technical director, Sam Michael, has said that his team car, the FW33, will make a good show in the upcoming Formula 1 season. He further added that every team will have a title shot in the 2011 season due to the new regulations which makes the
playing field equal for .
Michael said that the Williams team have come up with quite a few innovations which make the car competitive. He commented when asked about the car, “The FW33 has been a good car from the beginning, but in terms of performance we will have to wait until
the racing to really see where it stands.”
Talking about the problems with the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), he explained that the problem was not induced by the KERS, but some other electrical device. He also said that the KERS will be used in 2011 season and Rubens Barrichello and Pastor
Maldonado are content with that. Talking about the movable rear-wing, he explained the technically aspects of its usage and said that in qualifiers it will boost the lap time by half a second and in the races it will make a lot more difference than that. He
also said that the restriction of using the wing once per lap will be modified after a first couple of races as Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) will work on the rules.
Talking about the much criticised Pirelli tyres, he said that they have done a good job with the development and the 2011 season will be decided mostly on the tyre strategy of the teams. He said, “The teams are closer now as a result of the new regulations,
which is what they were designed to do.”
When asked about the drivers, Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado, he said that Barrichello has always been a useful head in the team as he helps develop the car. Talking about Maldonado he said that the new rookie has shown some courage in the pre-season
testing and he is also working with the team to improve the ranking in the coming season.
The season starts in less than 20 days in Australia and Sam Michael is looking confident that his team will make some point scoring finishes.
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