Alex Wurz VS Nico Rosberg

[Born Racer]

How do you see this competition at Williams turning out?

Wurz has many years' experience of Grand Prix cars and Rosberg seemed to struggle a bit last year after a promising start, but unreliability didn't help him with the race experience he needed.

[Knowlesy]

I think it'll be a lineup that complements both driver and will turn out pretty evenly matched.

Rosberg needs to come out on top more than Wurz does though.

[Born Racer]

Rosberg needs to come out on top more than Wurz does though.

Well, I guess Rosberg needs to prove his pace to people, and whilst obviously Wurz does too, if he is just a bit slower he has his testing experience/technical knowledge to fall back on as a reason for justifying his continued presence in the team, whereas Rosberg won't yet have such an asset.

[FPV GTHO]

Well i'll be surprised if Rosberg gets beaten by Wurz. I dont really rate Wurz as the only race of his ive seen would be Imola '05, where although finishing in the points, he DID have a pretty good car.

I think Rosberg can still be as fast as people were expecting him to be last year, just perhaps he needs to knuckle down and sort a few things out and make sure his head's straight.

[alonso11]

I belive Wurz is phisycaly THE fittest guy on the grid and also among the ones with the deepest insight as far as the sport's technical side concerned.

I also belive that while testing for Williams, Patrick Head sized him as a guy who is in Webbo's league and thats why didnt hesitate for a second giving him the race drive. They obviously knew the asset they was dealing with

All in all, I expect him to beat Rosberg on a regular basis

[SALEEN S7R]

I think that Wurz can do a good job and that he and Rosberg will be about equal, if both drivers get into the points 3 or 4 times apiece this year they will have done well. IMO.

[BootsOntheSide]

It's a tough call. Time was when Alex was the coming man who was going to keep Austria at the front, but he struggled badly at Benetton for a long time. He can't be that far off a record length of time without a regular drive before returning (only Jan Lammers comes to mind as having a longer gap, and he only returned for 2 races).

Nico showed potential last year but ultimately achieved very little. He can't afford to go off the rails for another year.

[safc_fan89]

I think last season will have done Nico more good than a successful first season would have. He now knows that F1 is a harsh world and people will jump on you when your form dips. He has the talent...and if he has focused on using last season's problems to improve his driving, he will do a lot better this year.

I'm not convinced by Wurz's talents as a race driver at all, after his poor seasons at Benetton in 1999 and 2000, so I would back Rosberg to beat him. Williams could be the surprise of the season...they have changed a lot since last season. I wouldn't write them off just yet.

[maltafan]

Quite an interesting driver lineup. I think that Rosberg will earn more points for Williams than Wurz, provided that the car is reliable.

[Born Racer]

He can't be that far off a record length of time without a regular drive before returning

I don't know if this is the record, but Bruno Giacomelli's 1983 season with Toleman was his last in F1 until his season-long (except for the last 2 races when the team was gone) drive with Life in 1990.

[Born Racer]

And now I've actually bothered to stop to think about it I've realised that Wurz's last regular F1 drive was in 2000, hence an equal gap to Giacomelli's!

Blimey, these past seven years have flown by

[alonso11]

mind you, Wurz's last race was in 2005, yea not regular drive, but still, he did drive in the recent era of F1 (and even finished on the podiom, altho technicaly never climbed on that podium)

[KE30MAN]

Neither is top shelf but both will do OK and score some points. I think Nico will beat Wurz.

[JeremySmith]

it is a little bit of an odd driver line up..Although Alex is very fast, I would still go for Nico in race mode..

[Born Racer]

How do you mean odd?

A combination of experience and youth is a standard use of more than one basket to store the eggs in, or something like that.

[alonso11]

it could hardly be less odd (experienced and young indeed the most common combo)

[JeremySmith]

I just meant that Alex has not done much racing recently and Nico had a tough first year with Williams..Nothing more really..

[Teretonga]

if the car is any good, Wurz will surprise many, Nico will consolidate his reputation. I rate both them highly although I don't rate Nico as in the same class as Hamilton, I think he is better than Liuzzi, Speed, Albers and Sutil. It will be intereesting to see how it goes.
Alex is very fit. As much as, if not more so, than Webber/TGF/ and Coulthard who have been regarded as the very fittest. I think Wurz could surprise. if he doesn't he may not be there in 2008...

[rocketracer]

I would be suprised if Wurz doesnt prove to be the stronger performer of the 2.

The case with many lower mid field teams (who would have thought williams could be placed in that category) is that i would be suprised to see either of them scoring points week in week out.

So it will be hard to determine who has been the stronger performer based purely on points, as sometimes a single foruitous result can be an overly flattering indication of a drivers season. So my prediction is that wurz will generally be ahead in qualifying and race results, but for both of them to end the season with only peanuts for points.....

[MrSal2]

On basic speed Rosberg will probably have the edge. Who will have the most points at the end of the year-Wurtz because he will finish more races and pick up the scraps with 6th, 7th and 8th place finishes.

[safc_fan89]

I think it depends if Wurz drives like he did the first half of 1998...or how he did in 1999 and 2000. Either way his last full race season was over 6 years ago...that's an awfully long time without racing.

[Born Racer]

Just how much of a disadvantage is not racing though?

Such a prominent test driver must have run loads of race simulations, although I'm aware he won't have done much overtaking in a race-like way.

Well, this year we can look at the racecraft of both Wurz and Davidson and try to surmise if years without such practice has affected them.

[safc_fan89]

Incidences such as race starts can't be simulated on the test track...you can't say that not racing has been of benefit to him.

[Born Racer]

It won't have been a benefit, but I'm just not sure it will have been a great disadvantage.

F1 isn't like karting where there's frantic head-to-head racing going on all the time for which you need to keep yourself sharp.

[alonso11]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

I don't rate Nico as in the same class as Hamilton, I think he is better than Liuzzi, Speed, Albers and Sutil.

a bit too early to say anything about Sutil isnt it... for what it worth, he was at least as good a F3 driver as Rosberg used to be and those couple of friday outings of his with Spyker were absolutely brillant

Originally Posted by safc_fan89

Incidences such as race starts can't be simulated on the test track...

his race start was particulary good in 2005 Imola and he hardly put a foot wrong all weekend (altho you could tell the one lap qual system was a bit new to him) all in all he did finish top3 and he didnt look the least bit rusty or lost