Junqueira was Head's First Choice

Patrick Head, BMW-Williams’ Technical Director, has admitted that Brazilian Bruno Junqueira was his first choice to fill the second seat in the team alongside Ralf Schumacher this season, though it was Jenson Button who finally got the job.

Both Junqueira â€" this year’s F3000 champion â€" and Button went head-to-head in two testing sessions at the Barcelona and Jerez circuits in January aimed to find a replacement for Italian Alex Zanardi.

"I'd pretty much decided we should have Junqueira because we were already familiar with him and the engineers had a high regard for his technical understanding," Head said.

However, Junqueira, who was Williams’ test driver during the 1999 season, lost out to Button after the young Brit impressed the team.

"Then Jenson did a test for us at Jerez that suddenly made the decision very difficult. We then went to Barcelona and he used a left-foot braking set-up for the first time - it wasn't something he'd done before.

"And instantly, on a track he'd never seen before, he was very quick and in the end we had to go for him."

Button finished this season in eighth place in the Formula One Drivers’ Championship with twelve points.