New Williams Set for February Debut

Williams will begin brand new partnerships with both engine supplier Cosworth and tyre supplier Bridgestone when the season ends in Shanghai on Sunday and will begin testing with a whole new package in November.

And Michael admitted to Autosport-Atlas: "For the first test we will have a new Cosworth, a new gearbox and new tyres, so a hell of a lot of stuff that is new on the car. It won't be boring that's for sure. It is not ideal.

"In an ideal world you would continue running a B-spec car or something that you could do tyre testing on but we don't have that, we will have finished our engine situation with BMW and that is what we have got."

Williams have suffered a downturn in fortunes this season but are confident a strong engine from Cosworth will give them a boost as the running order prepares for a shake-up once again.

The early testing performance of the new Cosworth V8 engine will be vital as any stoppages will harm Williams' work developing the tyres for Bridgestone alongside Ferrari and Toyota.

But the Northanmptonshire manufacturer are working hard to prevent that and Michael said: "There will be plenty of breakdowns to solve, that's for sure, but we are flat out on the dynos now to try to give ourselves the best preparation.

"All the way through November and December we will be in Spain testing with Bridgestone, doing tyre testing but also we have a new gearbox and engine package. I can see November and December being a bit of a groundhog day."

But Michael believes the pre-Christmas testing will give the team the chance to iron out the problems and added: "We should sort it out in January and then our new car will be out in February sometime."