WilliamsF1 Team
| Season: | 2006 | | | | Address: | British American Racing Operations Centre
Brackley, Northamptonshire
NN13 7BD
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1280 844 000
Fax: +44 (0)1280 844 001 | | | | Country: | Great-Britain | | | | Constructor: | Williams | | |
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Disastrous. Dreadful. Delusioned.
All these words could be used to sum up Williams' season.
But where did it all go wrong? After all, this was a season which began so strongly. A return to the Cosworth partnership synonymous with previous Williams eras, an exciting young driver
Nico Rosberg, the much fancied Australian
Mark Webber and a switch to Bridgestone tyres.
The opening race showed that the promise was correct. After a first corner spin Rosberg stormed his way through the field to take a point on his debut, and also claimed fastest lap. In Malaysia the cars locked out the second row, whilst Webber looked on course for podiums in Australia and Monaco. But on all these occasions the cars did not make the finish. It was a sign of things to come.
In the final 13 races of the year Williams would claim points in just one - China. The pace the car had shown initially disappeared, but reliability was still the major issue. As the car's performance dropped, so did Rosberg's. The expected rookie errors started to show. And the Williams-Webber partnership which had promised so much at the start of 2004 was cracking. The Australian was unhappy with the team's lack of interest in developing the 2006 car, favouring concentrating on 2007. Webber left the team in the summer to move to
Red Bull.
Alexander Wurz will step up to the role in 2007, having not previously raced in F1 regularly since 2000.
Statistics
| Statistic | # | Percentage | First | Last |
| Number of Grand Prix | 36 | 100% |  2006 |  2006 |
| Number of starts | 36 | 100.00% | 2006 | 2006 |
| Number of finishes | 16 | 44.44% | 2006 |  2006 |
| Number of finishes in points | 5 | 13.89% | 2006 |  2006 |
| Number of retirements | 20 | 55.56% |  2006 | 2006 |
