Wurz for Williams?

[Marbot]

Perhaps deserving of its own thread.Here

[maltafan]

The fact that Williams have not yet confirmed NK, shows that the team is not much interested in him, therefore increasing the credibility of this article, which I have read in another site too, although there seems to be just a rumour rather than a fact.

[BSchneiderFan]

A strange move, if true; from third driver at one of the top teams with big manufacturer backing, to third driver at a struggling midfield team without works support. Doesn't seem to put Wurz any closer to a race seat, unless he thinks Rosberg will crash and burn. But perhaps it's down to his departure from McLaren being somewhat enforced, and this being his best available option.

[ASCII Man]

Or perhaps he feels that the Webber-Williams relationship is shaky at best, and in the event of another bad season will probably see Webber make his exit towards a team fitting better to his calibre, like BMW Sauber, or Toyota if Kimi goes to Ferrari, thereby presenting Alex with a nice and "cosy" race drive at Williams.

It wouldn't be much, but at least Alex would be in the spotlight and would be able to prove himself again.

[Marbot]

Or perhaps not at all.http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns16070.html

[ASCII Man]

Well, nevermind then!

[pink69]

No offence to Alex but I don't think he's championship winning potential. Like Marc Gene he's a good tester but unless there was an injury to a driver, I never really saw him getting a seat at mclaren, utimately why De La Rosa got the nod when Montoya got injured. I just don't think he can cut it. He should look at a different career direction IMO.

[Gt_R]

Wurz is a decent chap with decent skills and decently quick.

But he's not so good to the extent that teams will go all out to modify the car to suit his size.

Unfortunate really. Wurz could be a regular in F1 and won't fare worse than half the field.

[Alwaysfirst]

Originally Posted by pink69

I never really saw him getting a seat at mclaren, utimately why De La Rosa got the nod when Montoya got injured.

The reason why de la Rosa was given the nod over Wurz was that the car had yet to be modified to accomodate Alex, something that the team was about to do anyway, which is why he was given the nod for the next race. The main reason why this problem arose was because McLaren was pushing so hard to get the best car for it's regular drivers they designed the whole of the shape of the cockpit around them. Wurz was the planned replacement for Montoya for both races, not de la Rosa, it's just that de la Rosa was closer to Montoya in height (Wurz was by far the tallest of the McLaren drivers).

[BootsOntheSide]

Gt_R has summed it up really - also remember that a test driver's data is less useful when his physical build is different enough to really alter the downforce and CoG on the car, or some parts of the car have to be changed to suit him.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by Gt_R

Wurz is a decent chap with decent skills and decently quick.

But he's not so good to the extent that teams will go all out to modify the car to suit his size.

Unfortunate really. Wurz could be a regular in F1 and won't fare worse than half the field.

If I take what you are saying correctly then Wurz is more than qualified to drive on a full time basis, which is the way I feel by the way.. I can not see his size being a major problem in car design, he is tall but thin. Actually what is his weight and height? in inches and pounds please.

[Marbot]

This time with no question mark.Here.

[JeremySmith]

He is 6ft and weighs 163 pounds which is the same as me...Thin!

[Marbot]

He's not as tall as Justin Wilson who also is missing out for probably the same reason.I too am too tall (6'2") for the job,and too heavy (210lbs).

[maltafan]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

A strange move, if true; from third driver at one of the top teams with big manufacturer backing, to third driver at a struggling midfield team without works support. Doesn't seem to put Wurz any closer to a race seat, unless he thinks Rosberg will crash and burn. But perhaps it's down to his departure from McLaren being somewhat enforced, and this being his best available option.

The difference is that this year Mc Laren will not have him as Friday driver, because they cannot, and at Williams he can.

[Redlake27]

I'm amazed that for nearly a decade Wurz has caused so much debate. He has spent nearly ten seasons in a top car (OK, not exactly racing all the time) but surely has amassed enough miles for teams to make an informed choice.

He drove for Benetton, and whilst impressive in his debut year, he didn't do anything that made Benetton/Renault want to choose him over Button, Trulli, Alonso or Fisichella - the drivers they recruited since dismissing him.

Since joining McLaren, they have recruited Kimi, JPM and Alonso. And offered testing roles to Paffett and De La Rosa. But chose not to keep Wurz.

Does F1 need another good No2/No3 driver? He may be a fine test driver, but I'd like to see him make way for Carroll, Rossiter, Lapierre, Jani etc etc

[Teretonga]

Hmmm....
The more I look at the way this situation is playing itself out the more I am convinced that Wurz is not being dumped by McLaren but is choosing to leave. He has been there five years and McLaren blocked a move to Jaguar a couple of years ago.
He has huge experience and must provide good feedback or they would have tumbled to the fact a long time ago
He scored a podium on his first substitute drive for Montoya this year so is not slow in a general sense yet they announced Paffet's appointment ahead of any announcement of Alex's and said talks were continuing.
My guess is that they were aware he wanted to move at the end of the year, he made no secret of the fact that he wanted a 'drive', the DTM didn't attract him although if he had wanted a 'token' drive the offer would have been there by Mercedes, (he is FAST and it would keep his knowledge from going elsewhere) and he was contracted until the end of the year. Paffet was announced as third driver, someone Mercedes want to bring on (remember Franchitti had a year or two in DTM before going to Indycars).
The fact that Alex's 'unofficial announcement' was made on January 1st tells me that maybe he has had this in place beforehand and the news wasn't made public until the contract was up... Still no official confirmation yet...

[KE30MAN]

I'd like to see Alex along side Webber with Nico spending a year learning the ropes before getting a full year behind the wheel.


Not sure if Alex's experience will offer too much to Williams given the wholesale changes this year.

[JeremySmith]

Good idea..I like that!

[alf]

He scored a podium on his first substitute drive for Montoya this year so is not slow in a general sense

Didn't Mika Salo jump into a Ferrari totaly cold, ie no experience of the car, let alone 5 years in the development loop, and win at his first attempt, ( ok he had to move over for Irvine, but he was clearly GOING to win)
fair enough if Wurz got a podium, well done but it aint the drive of the centuary???

Wurz seems to me, to lead a very charmed life

[Alwaysfirst]

But Wurz hadn't had 5 years in the development loop of this car either. Yes he had been driving previous McLarens but he hadn't been able to test in this one remember because of the cockpit size limitations. Though I do agree that Salo was an excellent driver & often got a poor deal in that he almost never got the chance to shine.

[Redlake27]

I think the Ferrari drive ended Salos career. OK, he should have taken that lucky win at Hockenheim, but in those days Hockenheim was more like two long drag strips rather than a drivers track. At his next race, Hungary, he was outraced by Ferrari test driver Badoer. Who was driving a Minardi....... And for the rest of the season Salo was struggling to make the top four, which is where a 1999 Ferrari should have been.

And Wurz had the same issue. I think 3rd place at Imola was his career ender, not something to be proud of. He had more miles in a car than anyone who EVER has made a one off race, yet finished about a minute behind where that car should have been.

[arrowultima]

maybe they need a regular tester similar to webber's size? naive?

[ASCII Man]

Originally Posted by Redlake27

I think the Ferrari drive ended Salos career. OK, he should have taken that lucky win at Hockenheim, but in those days Hockenheim was more like two long drag strips rather than a drivers track. At his next race, Hungary, he was outraced by Ferrari test driver Badoer. Who was driving a Minardi....... And for the rest of the season Salo was struggling to make the top four, which is where a 1999 Ferrari should have been.

And Wurz had the same issue. I think 3rd place at Imola was his career ender, not something to be proud of. He had more miles in a car than anyone who EVER has made a one off race, yet finished about a minute behind where that car should have been.

You seem to be conveniently forgetting that testing miles are NOTHING like racing miles. You don't have to contend with other cars in close proximity during testing.

So that flushes your argument straight down the toilet.

[BootsOntheSide]

Perhaps the most spectacular collision in recent times, Trulli and Fisichella in Valencia, happened during a test session, so that's not entirely true. Anyway, by the time Salo got to Hungaroring he had done 2 races for the team, so his performance there was inexcusable, especially given his deserved reputation for excellent drives at the similar Monaco track. In 4 of the 6 races Salo did he was nowhere while Eddie racked up podiums. Jean Alesi was right that Badoer should have been given the chance.

As for Wurz's one-off compared to de la Rosa's, that's been discussed at some length in the other thread. Neither of them got anywhere near the car's maximum race pace, but Pedro was more impressive in qualifying, and on a track he didn't know.