Williams hail Wurz's Friday work
Williams technical director Sam Michael has hailed third driver Alex Wurz's contribution to the team as key to their strong start to the campaign.
Despite poor reliability wrecking their race results, Williams have surprised many with their speed this season as they have emerged as potentially Bridgestone's quickest package.
And Michael believes that the pace shown by Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg has only been possible because of the contribution that Wurz makes on a Friday in picking the right tyres for the weekend.
"Alex is fantastic," said Michael. "He would be the world champion of Friday third car driving if there was a championship for that.
"He has driven F1 cars for a long time - so has got a lot of experience across cars, teams and tyres. He is also very good with electronics, and that all helps him to be an awfully good driver at a test.
"But the most important thing on the Friday is that he drives within himself by a couple of tenths to make sure he gets the answer. A lot of the other third car Friday drivers are there to put themselves on the map and take a lot more risks than Alex does.
"It is probably because Alex has got a lot of confidence and inherent talent, but he doesn't do anything stupid on Fridays because he knows his answer on the prime-versus-option tyre choice is the most important thing for him to do all weekend.
"If he goes one or two tenths quicker, then we are not going to go, 'wow, look at that'. But if he does do that and goes into the wall then we will give him a hard time for not getting the prime versus option numbers."
Wurz's contribution to the team is so critical because of the limited mileage that race drivers Webber and Rosberg can put on their Cosworth engine during practice.
The team have agreed to a maximum of around 1,100km per unit over two race weekends – a limit that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
"I think that (the limited mileage in practice) is what we will have all season because it is mainly geared around the engine design," explained Michael. "It is designed to do a certain amount of mileage and, if you increase that mileage, then you will probably lose power.
"Cosworth could say we could go to 1,200km but to do it we would have to turn the engine down at certain points. So far I don't think it has been a huge penalty. I think Nico and Mark are very good to getting the car on the limit quickly."
Williams technical director Sam Michael has hailed third driver Alex Wurz's contribution to the team as key to their strong start to the campaign.
Despite poor reliability wrecking their race results, Williams have surprised many with their speed this season as they have emerged as potentially Bridgestone's quickest package.
And Michael believes that the pace shown by Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg has only been possible because of the contribution that Wurz makes on a Friday in picking the right tyres for the weekend.
"Alex is fantastic," said Michael. "He would be the world champion of Friday third car driving if there was a championship for that.
"He has driven F1 cars for a long time - so has got a lot of experience across cars, teams and tyres. He is also very good with electronics, and that all helps him to be an awfully good driver at a test.
"But the most important thing on the Friday is that he drives within himself by a couple of tenths to make sure he gets the answer. A lot of the other third car Friday drivers are there to put themselves on the map and take a lot more risks than Alex does.
"It is probably because Alex has got a lot of confidence and inherent talent, but he doesn't do anything stupid on Fridays because he knows his answer on the prime-versus-option tyre choice is the most important thing for him to do all weekend.
"If he goes one or two tenths quicker, then we are not going to go, 'wow, look at that'. But if he does do that and goes into the wall then we will give him a hard time for not getting the prime versus option numbers."
Wurz's contribution to the team is so critical because of the limited mileage that race drivers Webber and Rosberg can put on their Cosworth engine during practice.
The team have agreed to a maximum of around 1,100km per unit over two race weekends – a limit that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
"I think that (the limited mileage in practice) is what we will have all season because it is mainly geared around the engine design," explained Michael. "It is designed to do a certain amount of mileage and, if you increase that mileage, then you will probably lose power.
"Cosworth could say we could go to 1,200km but to do it we would have to turn the engine down at certain points. So far I don't think it has been a huge penalty. I think Nico and Mark are very good to getting the car on the limit quickly."
