Williams Barcelonatest notes 2008-02-27

The AT&T Williams today concluded their pre-season winter testing programme in Barcelona, Spain. The team have been at the Spanish track for the past three days with Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima carrying out final checks on the FW30 before the first race of the year in just a few week's time.

Nico and Kazuki have enjoyed a positive week in which they've recorded promising lap times and covered over 2,500kms between them. The team will now pack up and head back to Grove before heading to Australia.

Test Times:
N Rosberg: 1:21.293 (21 / 77 laps) 4th
K Nakajima: 1:21:796 (13 / 124 laps) 8th

Team Quotes:

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
"Today marked the end of a long, but productive winter test period and Nico and Kazuki have worked hard all week on the finishing touches. All of the systems on the FW30 have been checked thoroughly and we've signed off the performance parts ready for the first race. The car has completed numerous race simulations on the track, but we won't know its true competitiveness until the first few races. Thank you to all of the people who have put in a great deal of effort to get the FW30 to the level it is at now. We can't wait to get to Melbourne to see how the field forms up and to get racing again!"

Nico Rosberg:
"We've had a very successful test and run through lots of items. We also ran the new aero package for Melbourne which really was positive. Reliability-wise, we're looking pretty good, I think, we've definitely moved forward. The aero department has made some good progress over the winter and they've done a nice job. I want to thank the test team for working so hard, as they always do over the winter. Toyota has also done a good job for us, providing a nicely controlled engine which is an asset with the ban of traction control. I'm now looking forward to getting to Australia. It should be a lot of fun, but it's going to be close in the middle of the field so we'll have to see how we do."

Kazuki Nakajima:
"We've now finished all of our testing before the season starts and it's gone really quickly for me! The test this week in Barcelona has been really positive. The weather wasn't ideal on day one, but we managed to finish what we wanted to do. Personally, it was good practice for me to do the two race distances we covered as well. I feel ready for the season and I'm looking forward to actually racing now. Thank you to all the guys who've worked so hard over the winter to get us to where we are today, we're certainly heading in the right direction."

-credit: williams