JANUARY 22, 1996
Williams confirms Boullion
AS predicted last week, Jean-Christophe Boullion has been named Williams test driver for the second consecutive year.
The 26-year-old Frenchman, who lives in Oxford, England, impressed Williams last year with his testing work but failed to live up to expectations as a racer when he replaced Karl Wendlinger at Sauber, although he nearly scored a point on his debut at Monaco, and later collected points in both Germany and Italy, finishing 16th in the World Championship.
Although overshadowed by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Boullion did impress Sauber principals, who felt that the Frenchman did a good job in the circumstances with which he was presented. They decided to hire Johnny Herbert for 1996 because of his experience and because he was a race winner.
Boullion began his 1996 testing program at Estoril last week, setting the fastest time on Thursday during an 80-lap race test. His lap time was just 0.2secs slower than Hill had managed the previous day.