Inside Williams F1: photo gallery
By Andy Darley
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
This week saw the Williams F1 team open up its Grove, Oxfordshire, HQ to a party of bloggers and web journalists to publicise a competition it is running with its sponsor Philips.
Technical director Sam Michael and simulation engineer Jeff Calam took questions, and there were tours of the factory and the team museum.
The aim of the day was to show how the short-listed entrants in the Philips Driving Academy competition will be narrowed down through a series of actual and simulated driving tests until one is chosen to drive five laps in a Williams F1 car.
Always assuming there’s at least one entrant who Michael feels can handle the car, of course.
More about the competition in a separate story (you can enter it here) but, in the meantime, here are some pictures from the day.
Photos were strictly banned during the factory tour, but they were fair game in the grounds, the museum, the conference facilities – and, of course, during the group interviews with Michael and Calam.
Among the others to attend the event were Duncan ‘Doctor Vee‘ Stephen, Richard and Lloyd from F1-Fans.co.uk (pictured seated on either side of Sam Michael) and Rob from the F1Fanatics blog (in the blue 555 shirt). Links go to their coverage.
A note on the images: because of persistent problems with our website software you may find you get a 404 error if you are viewing this in a feed reader and click on a link to see a full-size photo. You should be fine if you visit the page itself and click from there, however. Oh – and the lighting levels weren’t brilliant for a lot of them. Thanks!
- Arriving...
- Leaving for the Hungaroring
- Reflections from the conference centre
- The famous topiary pitstop
- A metal jack adds a nice touch of realism
- The front wheel mechanic is slimmer than the rest - newer?
- A total of four privet mechanics service the car
- The original wire structure was made in Italy and took 11 years to grow
- Williams have facilities that outstrip some manufacturer teams
- Conference centre reception car 1
- Conference centre reception car 2
- ...and how they fit together
- Trophies litter the whole HQ - this is from Monaco
- Williams technical director Sam Michael
- Sam Michael fields questions from bloggers and web journalists
- Simulation engineer Jeff Calam takes his turn on the spot
- Calam's simulator can accurately reproduce every bump of a circuit
- The Williams F1 museum - endless cars, endless champions
- Alan Jones, and some of his winning machinery
- After Jones came Keke Rosberg, also a champion
- The Williams museum: more history than lighting
- Saudi sponsorship brought late-70s success
- One for people who like engines :o)
- Cars + bloggers = cameras
- Six wheels on my wagon...
- Patrick Head (with holes in shoes) and Frank Williams
- Nelson Piquet's 1987 machine
- A champion's eyebrows: Nigel Mansell looks on
- Suspension detail
- Red Five! Red Five!
- The sheer number of cars is overwhelming
- For two years, Williams raced in red
- Yes, it really is red. And that's just wrong.
- Woody Woodpecker - not the usual Williams image
- A reminder that MB is more than just a journalist
- The 1998 BTCC Williams Renault Laguna
- BMW worked with Williams to win Le Mans
- One of these is not like the others: Senna, Hill, Mansell, Coulthard, Prost
- Moving into the more modern era now
- The product of the partnership with BMW
- Jenson Button's 2000 season car
- Yes, a whole room for the spare trophies not needed elsewhere
- Memories of past wins and winners
- Points and point-scorers, from 1978 to last year
- The 1992 Suzuka constructor trophy
- A set of three from San Marino
- The Senna 'S' will always cross the line first
Related posts:
- Race to win a drive in an F1 car is ’still up for grabs’
- Win a chance to drive a Williams F1 car – for real
- F1 competition: Win a special edition AT&T Williams Philips shaver
- Rob Tarlton’s F1 drive: what the experts thought
Read more about Williams F1.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 3:56 pm and is filed under F1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Author: Andy Darley. Ex-journalist, fan of David Coulthard and anyone who ever drove or tested for Minardi and didn't say rude things about the team afterwards. Owns a Triumph Spitfire and hopes that, one day, it'll be on the road again. Andy has written 608 articles for us.
Hi guys, thanks for the linkback and the photos! Will be sure to add you to my link list. Hope to meet you again soon,
Rob – The F1Fanatics Blog