Webber talks Williams with AJ

Jones took a dominant pole position at Silverstone in 1979, before team-mate Clay Ragazzoni went on to score the team's first ever Grand Prix win in the same race. Jones went on to win four races that season, one more than world champion Jody Scheckter, and has always had a place close to the hearts of Frank Williams and Patrick Head.

Partly it was because Jones was there when Williams emerged as a front-running F1 outfit, the Aussie winning the team its first drivers' title in 1980, and partly it was because Jones was a straight-talking man's man, who was not too politically correct to lamp a sponsor if the mood took him, as it did in South Africa one year.

Many see Webber the same way - a straight-talking action man, that is, rather than a budding light-heavyweight - and anticipate that the presence of Australian technical director Sam Michael will further strengthen the axis, making it potentially difficult for Jenson Button to gain a dominant foothold in the team he first drove for in 2000.

"I saw Alan in China and he was full of advice on how to deal with Frank and Patrick," Webber said at Suzuka. "It was nothing that surprised me. They are racers - straight up and down people. It's a dream for me to drive for Williams and, in terms of getting on with them, I'm sure lap times will help..."

Webber said that irrespective of the outcome of the Contracts Recognition Board meeting on October 16, he wasn't worried about who his team-mate is going to be.

"It would be good for Williams if we had Jenson," he said, "Let's just hope it's resolved sooner rather than later."