Australian GP: Williams Friday practice report

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE

The first day of the 2008 Formula One season in Melbourne was not plain sailing for the AT&T Williams team as various technical problems interrupted the process of optimising the FW30 for the Albert Park circuit. With virtually no running in the first practice session and a technical problem in the afternoon session affecting Nico's car, the team will be working hard in tomorrow's morning practice to finesse the FW30 for the all-important afternoon qualifying.

Nico Rosberg:

The team had a pretty difficult start to the season today. I had no running in the first session and in the second session I ran with a differential that was not working. This meant that it was unbelievably difficult out there. As a consequence, it was hard to learn anything useful while keeping the car on track. Nevertheless, we learnt a few bits and pieces, but we need to make up for today with some real progress tomorrow. All that said, I think we have a good base and we haven't seen the best of it yet.

Kazuki Nakajima:

It was a shame to lose some time to learn the track in the morning session due to the technical problem we suffered as although I have some experience of the circuit, it is quite limited. But this afternoon we managed to finish the whole programme and while you always want more time on the track, I am now much more familiar with the Albert Park layout. The next job is to check the data tonight to see where I can improve.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:

We had a reliability problem with the gearboxes on both cars in the morning session that meant no useful running. We solved that problem for the second session, but had another problem with the differential on Nico's car that he carried throughout the session. We knew what the problem was and it will be fixed for tomorrow, but unfortunately we could not afford the time during the session to correct it. Although we've lost track time, we will be looking hard at the setup tonight to improve for tomorrow.

-credit: williams