JANUARY 30, 2003

Williams launches new FW25 tomorrow

The Williams-BMW team will tomorrow morning launch its brand new FW25 in Barcelona with high hopes that the new car will be considerably better than last year's FW24 which proved to be very quick in qualifying but was rarely able to compete with the Ferraris in the races. The team has been working flat out for several months to produce a better chassis and has made a number of changes in the technical line-up, including the hiring of Ferrari aerodynamicist Dr. Antonia Terzi. Terzi, a highly-qualified aeronautical engineer, has been part of Nick Tombasis's team at Ferrari in recent years although she has taken some time away from racing to complete her doctorate. The team also took on Minardi's Dr. John Davies to help revamp the aerodynamic programme at Grove. As usual the mechanical design of the car has been done by the team's chief designer Gavin Fisher, who has been behind the design of the last five Williams chassis, having moved into the spotlight when Adrian Newey quit the team in 1997 to join McLaren.