AT&T Williams initially struggled to repeat the form they had shown in the pre-race official test, during which Alex Wurz recorded the second quickest time of the week and both drivers demonstrated consistently quick long run pace as well as highly competitive single lap times. A wide range of set-up adjustments were programmed across the Friday practice sessions, but neither driver began to find an optimisation until Saturday morning. Rosberg managed to capitalise on this progress with a highly proficient set of qualifying runs in Q2 & Q3; however, Alex Wurz’s Saturday afternoon was curtailed by the failure of a minor gearbox component which left him unable to select gears and complete a flying lap as Q1 drew to a close.

The failure was highly non-symptomatic as the Williams second-generation seamless transmission has proved to be dependably reliable during its winter development, whether on track or during dyno testing. Last Sunday’s race again reflected a contrast of fortunes for the two drivers, but on this occasion it was Rosberg who suffered. After a good first stint, when he had managed to pass Kubica to reclaim a place lost at the start and recorded the 6th quickest lap of the race, engineers noted a progressive loss of water pressure indicative of a leak. The only remedial action available to the race engineers was to reduce the operating parameters of the engine after the first stop, followed by another incremental decrease following the second stop. However, 13 laps from the flag, the problem proved to be terminal. Post-race analysis is continuing in Grove and Cologne at the time of writing.

In contrast, Alex Wurz enjoyed a more successful race, particularly in the first stint during which he moved from p19 to p11. Alex was able to improve his placing to p9 by the end of the third stint and running on the less favoured hard compound to the flag, successfully defending against a push from Mark Webber who was by contrast running on the quicker medium compound.

Tyres and fuel

Both Alex and Nico stopped for two pit stops and ran medium, medium and hard compounds respectively in the three stints. Alex was fuelled two laps lighter than Nico for the start in order to allow him to challenge effectively from the back of the field. Rosberg ran to lap 19, with the earliest two-stopper, Massa, stopping two laps earlier and only five cars running longer, the last completing their first stop on lap 23.

Systems and reliability Kazuki Nakajima suffered a quickly resolved gear selection fault after his spin in FP1. As noted, Wurz’s unrelated gearbox selection failure in Q1 was caused by the failure of a minor component, although an accurate determination will require analysis at the factory. Rosberg’s DNF was caused by a water leak which thermally overloaded the engine.

On to Bahrain With a back-to-back race in Bahrain this week, the team will have limited opportunity for further development, but will be seeking to maintain its improved qualifying pace which is now a match for its typical long run form and showing the ability to compete in a group that includes BMW and Renault. However, diagnosis and rectification of the problems that caused Rosberg’s retirement at Sepang will also be a key objective. Sam Michael:

“The weekend was one of contrasts in many respects, from the changing fortunes of the drivers to the marked improvements we have made with the car, but yet the disappointment caused by Nico’s race retirement. It was a tough weekend, as it followed a long test and the track conditions had changed - which is normal. That meant we had to move the setup quite a lot during the race weekend, but perseverance paid off and we found a good optimisation by Saturday morning.

On the plus side, we have moved the car forward to be able to qualify it at a level more reflective of our race pace but on the other hand we have some work to do to ensure reliability does not compromise all this hard work. We have made significant improvements to our reliability over the winter, but we are not there yet. All drivers did a good job, from Kazuki’s contribution on Friday to the impressive lap Nico managed in Q3 and his strong start to the race and of course Alex’s determined drive to improve his start position by ten places at the end of the race.”


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