BMW WilliamsF1 Team
| Season: | 2005 | | | | Address: | Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd
Grove,
Wantage,
Oxfordshire,
OX12 0QD
Tel: +44 (0)1235 777700
Fax: +44 (0)1235 764705 | | | | Country: | Great-Britain | | | | Sponsors: | BMW, HP, Hamleys, Royal Bank of Scotland, Castrol, Michelin, Petrobras, Allianz, Accenture, Reuters, Oris, Budweiser, Fedex. | | | | Teamboss: | Frank Williams | | | | Technical director: | Sam Michael | | | | Race team manager: | Dickie Stanford | | | | Chief aerodynamicist: | Loic Bigois | | | | Chief designer: | Gavin Fisher | | | | Chief mechanic: | Carl Gaden | | | | Chief engineer: | Patrick Head | | | | Engineer: | Tony Ross & Xevi Pujolar | | | | Test driver: | Antonio Pizzonia | | | | Constructor: | Williams | | |
| |
BMW Williams F1 Team
Williams came into the 2005 season still smarting about the loss of
Jenson Button to
BAR, but still felt that they had two drivers capable of doing the job:
Mark Webber and Nick Heidfield
?.
Webber was a typical Williams driver, fast but smooth. So was Heidfield, although many thought he was only in the seat to keep engine suppliers BMW happy. The fact was that Heidfield had outperformed Brazilian
Antonio Pizzonia in the pre-season shoot-out to decide the second seat at the team.
Mark Webber, renowned as a qualifying specialist, put the
Williams FW26 third on the grid for the first race in Australia
?. Heidfield was seventh, although this was more down to changeable weather conditions that raw speed. The race proved this. Webber fell back to finish fifth, while Heidfield’s race ended when he had a coming together with the
Ferrari of
Michael Schumacher.
The team’s performance improved in Malaysia
?. The drivers were running fourth and fifth, and catching
Giancarlo Fisichella, who’s
Renault was suffering from excessive tyre wear. Webber made a move on the Italian, only for the two to touch and both retired. Heidfield benefited from this and took Williams’ first podium of the season.
Bahrain followed in unspectacular fashion. Heidfield retired with engine difficulties, while Webber took home more points in sixth. In San Marino
? the team scored their first double points race of the season, with Heidfield sixth and Webber seventh. In Spain
? Heidfield struggled home to tenth but Webber yet again scored points, once more finishing sixth.
Monaco would be the high point of Williams’ season. A double podium, with Heidfield in second and Webber in third. It didn’t seem possible in the latter stages until the two Renault’s slowed, both with tyre degradation problems. Heidfield pulled off a stunning move on
Fernando Alonso, with Webber following his team-mate through a couple of laps later. Heidfield was back on the podium at the next race in the
Nurburgring, taking second position. He also qualified on pole to the jubilation of the German crowd.
Heidfield’s podium streak came to an end in Montreal
?, where he retired with engine woes. Fifth place for Webber ensured that the team kept up their good run of points, which began at the start of the season.
Indianapolis would be the first race in which the team failed to score points, although to be fair it wasn’t their fault. Michelin’s tyre problems meant Williams, along with five other teams, withdrew from the race.
What Williams didn’t know was that this would be the turning point in their season. A revised chassis design failed in France
?, causing the team to run two different designs for the next race at
Silverstone. Heidfield raced with the pre-Indy chassis, while Webber raced the chassis which had flopped in France. Although Webber came out on top, it was nothing to shout about, neither car finished in the top ten.
Prior to the German Grand Prix BMW announced that they had bought out the
Sauber team and Williams faced the possibility of having no engine supplier for 2006. Although the rumours had begun in Monaco, many were still shocked that BMW had fast-tracked their plans to 2006, expecting the engine manufacturer to wait until 2007 for a full purchase.
Once again the team scored no points in Germany
?, with Webber finishing twelve laps down after sustaining suspension damage at turn one. Heidfield had no problems, but could still only manage eleventh. The team finally bounced back in Hungary, recording sixth and seventh place finishes, their first points since Montreal. Another reason to celebrate came when the team announced that they would be running Cosworth engines in 2006. Cosworth had been supplying
Red Bull and
Minardi in 2005, before Red Bull announced their defection to Ferrari.
The team looked back on form in
Turkey, qualifying sixth and seventh. However Webber’s tyre failure in practice would set the tone for the race. Both drivers had two right-rear failures during the race before retiring for safety reasons. The team overcame those fears in time for
Monza, however lost Nick Heidfield through injury just hours before qualifying. In stepped
Antonio Pizzonia, who hadn’t driven the car in three months. However the Brazilian put in a strong performance, finishing seventh after running longer than all the other drivers bar
Kimi Raikkonen in the first stint. Webber had a less than great race, hitting
David Coulthard at turn one forcing him in for an unscheduled stop. He finished fourteenth.
The drivers had mixed fortunes at the next race in Belgium. Webber changed from intermediates to dries at the perfect time to finish fourth, however Pizzonia ended his race embroiled in controversy by tangling with second placed
Juan Pablo Montoya, ending both driver’s races and leaving the Brazilian with a fine. However the run of bad luck would continue in Sao Paulo, when Pizzonia turned in on Coulthard at the start, causing him to go spinning into Webber. The Brazilian was out again, Webber had a lengthy pit stop but returned to finish twenty six laps down.
There were question marks over Antonio Pizzonia’s involvement in Japan, however Frank Williams decided to keep him on. Williams had GP2 champion Nico Rosberg waiting in the wings, but feared an early debut could spoil the young German’s career.
Perhaps Williams had made a major mistake, as Pizzonia once again crumbled at
Suzuka. First he spun on his outlap in qualifying, before going off at the same corner on lap nine. Luckily for Williams, Webber snatched fourth place, the team’s best result since Monaco. Webber might have taken a podium spot had BMW not told Williams to turn the engine revs lower, which cost Webber third place.
Once again there were calls for Williams to bring in Rosberg for the finale in
Shanghai. Once again, Sir Frank stuck by his guns. This time Pizzonia managed to finish the race, although in a disappointing thirteenth position. Webber fared better, taking two points in seventh. In fact, Webber’s end to the season had boosted the confidence of the whole team after their calamitous mid-season. However the loss of Nick Heidfield must have hurt as well. Despite this, Williams held on to fifth in the Constructor’s championship, the best they could have hoped for in the circumstances. With Webber just scraping a top ten spot in the championship, and Heidfield finishing just behind, Williams could look forward to 2006, after finally confirming Nico Rosberg’s contract a week after the Chinese Grand Prix.
Statistics
| Statistic | # | Percentage | First | Last |
| Number of Grand Prix | 37 | 100% |  2005 |  2005 |
| Number of starts | 37 | 100.00% | 2005 | 2005 |
| Number of finishes | 25 | 67.57% | 2005 | 2005 |
| Number of finishes on podium | 4 | 10.81% |  2005 |  2005 |
| Number of finishes in points | 16 | 43.24% | 2005 | 2005 |
| Number of retirements | 13 | 35.14% | 2005 |  2005 |
| Number of pole positions | 1 | 2.70% | 2005 | 2005 |
