Wurz eager to make Williams race return 02 Feb 2007
Williams’ Alexander Wurz is confident about his chances for 2007, despite it being his first full campaign as a Formula One race driver since he left Benetton in 2000. The Austrian was promoted from his role as third driver with the team last August to become Nico Rosberg’s 2007 team mate.
“Although I have done thousands and thousands of Formula One kilometres in the last couple of years, I simply haven’t had enough of the real stuff - racing - so I can’t wait for the season to start,” said Wurz at Friday’s launch of the new Williams FW29. “There is a really high sense of motivation in the whole team ahead of the coming season and of course I am very proud to be part of the Williams team.”
Rosberg was equally sure that the British squad’s performance will improve in 2007 after their disappointing eighth-placed finish in last year’s championship.
“In the past weeks everyone in the team has been very positive and put great effort into the new car, so I think we can be optimistic about a much improved season ahead of us,” explained the German, who made his Formula One debut with Williams at the 2006 season opener in Bahrain.
“The experience from last year is going to help me significantly this season. The F1 environment is completely unique and I have learnt how to handle all of its various elements now.”
Rosberg and Wurz are joined in the Williams line-up by Indian Narain Karthikeyan, who signed to the team as a test driver in 2006, and new Japanese testing recruit Kazuki Nakajima, who has spent the past few days testing Williams’ interim car in Valencia, Spain.
