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Williams Grand Prix Engineering nestles in the shadow of Didcot power station, just off the A34 south of Oxford. It's hardly a volume car producer, turning out just six vehicles a year. Williams also operates a global transport system to rival the complexity of its racing machines. Here we met four of the company's eight drivers, Steve Coates, Simon Peters, Keith "Biddie Biddick and Chris Newcome.
Each man doubles as a member of the race support team. They drive the trucks to each European race, and to the airport on "flyaway" races such as the Canadian Grand Prix. They work on the cars and in the pits.
Steve and Biddle look after the tyres while Chris is fuel manager. Chief truckle Simon is in charge of spare parts.
Major sponsor
Renault is a major sponsor, supplying both the 700hp vee-10 racing engines and four 530hp vee-eight Magnum trucks. The car engines each cost 1180,000 to build; the trucks come cheap by comparison. The FW16 cars cannot be valued easily, but dividing the company's £30m turnover by the six cars it will build in 1994 means each represents a £5m investment.
We met the men as they prepared two of the trucks for an assault on the Barcelona Grand Prix.
Loading was delayed by the mass of technical changes introduced to Formula One after Ayrton Senna's death at Imola three weeks before, The cars were eventually lifted by the Cartwright trailer's tail-lift and rolled on to the top deck.
Each purpose-built trailer serves as a workshop at the track.
_a Damon Hill is Williams main driver;
David Coulthard was named as his team mate just before the race. His father,
8 Duncan Coulthard, runs Hayton b Coulthard, a 23-truck general haulage company based in Twynholm,
Scotland. David, already the official test driver, embodies new hope following Senna's death, not to mention the chance of extra bonus money for everyone should he do well.
It was early evening before the last padlock was secured and the trucks were ready to depart for Southampton dock and the night boat to Le Havre. It was Monday—race day was six days away.
Moving the cars to Circuit de Catalunya was a reasonably straightforward job. One of the 38-tonners was stopped by French police fishing for hats and T-shirts, but that's an occupational hazard in Formula One. At the last peage point in France the attendant looked up, traced an imaginary tear on his cheek and cried "Senna!, Sennal. It is terrible." Reminders like that were never far away.
We headed south into bright sunshine and passed the Ferrari team's transporters coming from Italy. By now Magnum number three, manned by Jim Walter and Colin Hessey, had arrived ahead of us. They had left on Sunday carrying the workshop which Williams always erects within the pit lane garage. The fourth Magnum, the test team's transporter, met us in Spain carrying the third FW16.
By early afternoon we were safely inside the paddock. We manoeuvred the trucks into position in the paddock. We heard that most of the drivers had spun off. Michael Schumacher, winner of the season's first four Grands Prix, was among those forced to re-discover the limits of a car robbed of 30% of its downforce by the new regulations. The truckies put on their sponsored clothing and began to unload.
Sharp edges
Steve was soon de-burring sharp edges from the magnesium race wheels, and sorting the tyre warming equipment into sets of four. What was a trucking operation had quickly transformed into a racing outfit.
The test truck was late. By the time it arrived at 19:00tars the news that one of its drivers had resigned reached us. An offer to Piers Donnelly from the rival Jordan team promised a more predictable workload, albeit for less money.
Formula One truckies still earn around £8,000 per year more than general haulage drivers, so Piers was not complaining.
Thursday was wash day All six truckies scrubbed the fleet clean. The wash was barely underway when several sleepy mechanics emerged from the Williams trailers. They had worked all night completing repairs on the spare car. The day passed in a haze of activity Engineers and truckies ran about, searching through drawers trying to sort out the maze of modifications created by the test session.
The mechanics had worked 24hours without a break—some were to continue until 03:00hrs the next morning. The first practice laps were scheduled for early the next day.
The team kept going on a combination of dedication and good food. After another hearty breakfast the cars were made ready By the end of Friday Michael Schumacher was quickest with a lap time of linin 23.426sec. Hakkinen, the Finn, was second just 1.15sec slower round the 4.7km circuit. Hill lay third-1.29sec off the pace.
David Coulthard, whose entire experience in the new FW16 totalled just six laps, returned a creditable 16th fastest.
The mechanics and truckies set to work again. One car had a clutch problem. The other needed differential work. Both required alterations to their bodywork. Damper settings and ride heights were changed once more.
By Saturday morning the team was ready for what it called the real work. The first of the morning's two 45 minute free practice sessions ended with Coulthard recording the third quickest lap time of lmin 23.821sec. This was just over one second off Schumacher's new time of lmin 22.812sec.
The Williams and Renault mechanics made more adjustments and started to prepare a spare racing rear end, an engine/gearbox/axle assembly which could be bolted to any of the three cars in a hurry.
Suddenly, Andrea Montermini crashed his Simtek Ford into the wall a few metres from Williams garage, It was the fifth major incident of the season. The crowds only dispersed when the helicopter lifted the injured driver to hospital. A strange quiet filled the Williams garage. Few people watched the replay. The incident brought with it unpleasant memories of Imola. Fortunately Montermini survived with two broken feet, a cut head and bruising.
Qualifying
Qualifying ended leaving Damon Hill on the front row of the grid next to Schumacher in pole position. David Coulthard was ninth.
Again the truckies and mechanics started all over again. Steve arid Biddie cleaned the wheels and tyres, then wrapped each set in electrically heated blankets ready for the morning. Next the nitrogen powered refuelling pumps were made ready along with the rest of the pit lane equipment Sunday—race day—was frantic. Damon Hill skidded off during morning warm-up and, for a while, it looked like the third car might be needed. After a checkover the original was declared fit.
At the start of the race everyone made it safely through the first corner, and both Hill and Coulthard were going well. Coulthard's engine kept stalling during the pit stop and, following electrical problems, he was forced to retire, After the last pit-stop the team sat in silence glued to the TV monitors. Only when Damon Hill entered the final straight did anyone dare celebrate. The next half hour passed in a haze of celebration, emotion and tears. The Williams team had proved to itself that it could win again.
And then Simon, Chris, Steve and Biddie became truck drivers again. Together they re-packed and stowed everything aboard the three trucks within three hours. For these men it was straight back to Didcot where they had less than five days to get everything packed into boxes and ready to fly to Canada.
By 19.30hrs the Barcelona Grand Prix was all over bar the shunting.
E By Danny Coughlan