Head to cut back on race appearances

Patrick Head

Engineering director Patrick Head plans to cut back on the number of races he attends this year so that he can spend more time at the Williams factory.

The decision comes on the back of Williams' nightmare performances in the first three races of the season. The Grove-based team failed to get a car across the finish line in the first two races while Rubens Barrichello could only manage 13th place in China with team-mate Pastor Maldonado five spots below him.

The team are determined to turn things around and Head has decided to spend more time attending to the FW33's reliability problems at Grove.

"We have some very good people at all levels on our race team, and I was doubtful that I could add to our work there," he told MotorSport magazine.

"But the unreliability problems are something we should not have, and I suspect I can contribute more with the engineers and technicians in our factory to help eliminate these.

"So I will probably be less present at the track this year. I shall be taking a keen interest in our progression."

He also questioned the value of the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS), suggestion teams may decide to drop it again at the end of the 2011 season.

"It will be interesting to see how the teams view the value of KERS as the season progresses – all teams are running on tight budgets, and KERS adds considerably to their costs.

"The lack of KERS application in 2010 was by agreement of the teams only, in the light of difficult financial times.

"I wonder whether the teams will consider it to be an asset to F1 by the end of 2011. As an engineer it is extremely interesting technology which has relevance for road vehicles, but added value for racing may be questionable." Planet F1