FEBRUARY 2, 2007

Williams aims for better days

AT&T Williams launched its Williams-Toyota FW29 this morning at the team factory at Grove in Oxfordshire with the announcement of a major new long term sponsorship with Lenovo, a global leader in the international PC market.

"The 2006 season was not our finest year," says Sir Frank Williams, "but I am delighted to see how the entire Williams workforce has pulled together and redoubled its efforts over the winter. It is how you perform in adversity that really counts. We begin this year with a completely new brand identity courtesy of our new partners AT&T, four new or upgraded sponsors including Lenovo, a wealth of new engineering talent and, of course, what we hope to be the focus of all these efforts and ambitions, the FW29."

The car is an evolution of the FW28 but has much improved aerodynamics, more efficient engine and exhaust packaging. The car has already passed all the necessary FIA static and dynamic tests.

There are no surprises on the driver front with Alex Wurz and Nico Rosberg being joined by test drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Kazuki Nakajima.

Williams has also unveiled a new corporate identity, drawing on its 30 year heritage in F1 by returning to an iconic 'W' brand, refreshed and re-interpreted for the team's fourth decade of racing. The new corporate identity forms part of the new racing identity of AT&T Williams.

"As an organisation we exist to race and everyone in the company has shown a singular sense of purpose over the winter and so we look forward to Melbourne with anticipation," says Patrick Head, the team's director of engineering. "We start every project we undertake with the ambition of being the best, whether in engineering or marketing terms and indeed we approach every race with the sole ambition to win. But we are not in the business of predicting the year ahead as that requires me to speculate about the likely performance of our rivals."