Williams’ Toyota powered ‘FW29’ contender has enjoyed a positive pre-season, but Alex Wurz does not think the new car is good enough to drive onto the podium in early 2007.
Alongside teammate Nico Rosberg, the Austrian race driver was again nearly two seconds quicker than the Grove based team’s Spyker rivals at the Barcelona test on Wednesday, but Wurz said: “At the moment I do not see us so strong that we can be on the podium without having some luck.”
33-year-old Wurz, formerly a test driver since he left the Benetton team in 2000, told the Austrian press agency ‘APA’ that points are a more realistic target for when the season kicks off in Australia later this month.
He said: “McLaren, BMW, Ferrari and Renault are all quicker than we are.
“If all those guys are reliable then we will have a tough fight against Honda and Toyota for points.”
Wurz added that his personal goal for 2007 is to demonstrate a “better performance” for Sir Frank Williams’ team than in 2006, when Rosberg and Mark Webber took the beleaguered outfit to just eighth in the constructors’ title.
German youngster Rosberg, meanwhile, is quoted by Auto Bild as insisting that the FW29 is “much, much better” than its predecessor.
But he admitted: “Some of the characteristics (of the car) are the same as the other one, and I had hoped that they might be different.”
21-year-old Rosberg ruled out wins this year.
“McLaren and Ferrari are simply too far away, but to be consistently in the points is possible for us.”
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
