Nelson to be in charge of race strategy

Nelson, Fernando Alonso's former race engineer at the Renault team, will start working for Williams next March as Chief Operations Engineer, taking away some of the responsibilities technical director Sam Michael had last year.

"Rod specifically will run the pit wall, so he will sit on the pit wall where I used to sit," explained Michael during the launch of the new FW29.

"He will run the strategy. He is in charge of the race team, test team and vehicle dynamics. He reports to me obviously, but when I am at the track it won't be a case of: Sam is here, he is going to run the strategy again.

"At the end of the day I want to make sure that Rod has everything under control himself and that I am there to support him when I do attend races. He is a very strong character, bags of experience, very well qualified, he is at PhD level, so he is a really good all round package so far."

Although Williams hope to benefit from Nelson's previous experience at the Renault team, Michael says that was not the reason why he was hired.

"Things like that are a bonus, but they are not why you employ someone," added Michael.

"You always employ someone to make sure they can contribute to the long term structure and development of the team, and they are going to get respect from the engineers that work for them.

"Those are the real reasons. I am sure when he turns up he will say a couple of things that help, but that is not the main reason why you employ someone."

Michael also admitted it has not been easy to give up on some of his responsibilities, namely planning race strategy.

"It has (been hard), but 2006 showed me that I cannot keep doing it like that - and I have to do the role as I have for the past six or seven months," he said. "It has made a massive difference to the team and motivation, and understanding the problems people have had.

"It has resulted in a significantly better car than what we had last year. Although it is always tempting to get involved, where I have got someone reporting to me, whether it is an aerodynamicist or mechanical designer or race engineer, I always step back and let them run the show. It is part of moving on if you like."