Overruled engineers, written tests and confusion: How Williams picked its 2000 F1 line-up

Imagine this scenario, if you will: you, the owner of a multiple title-winning Formula 1 team, have booked the Barcelona circuit to launch your brand new car for the new millennium. An automotive giant has joined as a technical partner, supplying its own engines as it makes its return to F1 after over a decade away, and has its legacy in an all-new livery adorned by blue-chip sponsors.

And yet, you still don't know who your second driver will be. The launch is tomorrow - you've got to make a decision, I don't know, today?

In the context of modern F1, this sounds like a far-fetched dramatisation of a racing-themed situation comedy, or an amateurish state of affairs reserved for a team circling the drain. For a squad like Williams, which had not long been knocked away from F1's zenith during its heady period of success in the mid 1990s, this was the reality it faced 25 years ago in preparing for the year 2000.

Williams had the luxury of coasting through the driver market during its era of success. Everyone wanted to drive Adrian Newey's Renault-powered cars, and the symbiotic approach of Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head decreed that drivers were somewhat expendable; as long as the car was a title winner, then the driver should be able to adapt. Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve have historically not been considered part of F1's pantheon of world-class stars, but they nonetheless beat more celebrated opposition to titles during that period.

When Newey left for McLaren and Renault exited F1, Williams ceased to be an outright 'destination' team. It still had some sway, helped by the expectation of BMW's arrival, and managed to prise Ralf Schumacher away from Jordan for 1999 (no doubt accelerated by the Irish squad's sensible use of team orders in its Spa 1998 victory) in exchange for Heinz-Harald Frentzen. And, with Villeneuve ending his top-line career by joining the British American Racing team, Williams enticed CART champion Alessandro Zanardi back across the Atlantic and hoped it could capture the same lightning in a bottle as it had with its Villeneuve signing.

It didn't quite work that way. Zanardi couldn't get his head around the grooved tyres of the time, nor the carbon brakes, and the pressure became insurmountable. Yet, his exit from the team after just one season was not confirmed until early 2000.

Zanardi struggled on his F1 return with Williams in 1999, but the team left it late to appoint a replacement

Photo by: Sutton Images

In lieu of any other apparent options, Williams had briefly considered keeping the Italian, whose ebullient nature was tested by his 1999 travails. Once the decision was made to release him, Williams' first port of call was in attempting to recall tester Juan Pablo Montoya from his Chip Ganassi Racing seat after winning the 1999 CART title as a rookie, but Ganassi managed to retain the firebrand Colombian's services.

Unrelated to this, Williams had put a few drivers through their paces with the intent of finding a reserve driver for 2000: sportscar racer Jorg Muller, Japanese F3 champion Darren Manning, and F3000 contender Bruno Junqueira were all given time behind the wheel in the Williams BMW test hack, a gorgeously re-liveried FW21 in dark blue set off by white pinstripes. Tom Kristensen, future Le Mans legend, had also tested - but neither Williams nor Head had apparently been enthusiastic about the Dane.

Muller, the 1996 F3000 champion, was BMW's pick, while Manning's exploits in Japan and domination of the Macau Grand Prix had put him on Sir Frank's radar. In Junqueira's case, he was backed by Williams sponsor Petrobras through the junior ranks, and had shown up well in his second season of F3000.

"When they first announced it, I thought, 'man, is there a chance I'm going to be the driver?' as all the good F1 drivers already had seats"
Bruno Junqueira

"In 1999, I did a good year," Junqueira tells Autosport. "I won races and got pole positions, and I was contacted by McLaren to drive for their junior team [West Competition] in Formula 3000. I needed to see which team I was going to race for 2000 and I spoke with Jonathan Williams at the time and he said, 'no, I'll give you a test' and they started to look for me to have the opportunity to be a test driver.

"So I was between going to McLaren or keeping with the same Petrobras team. I had a really good relationship with my engineer and my mechanics, and I thought the best chance that I had to win in 2000 was there. I'm very attached to people, and especially when I have nice people working with me and, and that's why I decided to stay with them.

"I did a test with Williams, and most of them liked me. Into the end of the year, they did a test between me, Jorg Muller, and Darren Manning to see who was going to be the test driver for Williams in 2000. After those tests, they contacted me and said, 'we want you to be the 2000 test driver'.

"I was already super delighted to have this opportunity but then, early in the year, maybe even between Christmas and New Year - I don't remember exactly the time - they fired Zanardi. And when they first announced it, I thought, 'man, is there a chance I'm going to be the driver?' as all the good F1 drivers already had seats..."

Junqueira impressed Williams in testing, outpacing Muller and Manning to leap to the front of the queue - or so he thought...

Photo by: Gavin Lawrence / Motorsport Images

In that Jerez test between Junqueira, Muller, and Manning, the Brazilian racer was fastest by some margin. His 1m26.769s fastest lap dwarfed Muller's 1m28.168s and Manning's 1m28.829s high-water marks.

Of course, there were mitigating factors; the prototype BMW V10s were exceptionally combustion-prone, and it proved difficult to string meaningful runs together at full power. But Junqueira's performances suggested that he was the best option to carry forward into a reserve role, one that he correctly surmised could lead to a race seat when Zanardi was eventually cut loose.

But there was an unexpected fly in the ointment for Junqueira. In the weeks after his test and after Zanardi's departure, little mention was made of the race seat. The Mineiro pursued further testing duties through the winter in the modified 1999 car, hoping to stick further miles on the BMW's odometer, and was set to go to Jerez for a test from the 14-16 January. But, Junqueira was told, he would have to share the three-day test with an up-and-coming British talent fresh from Formula 3.

"Early in January, I think it was Frank or somebody called me and said, 'Hey, Bruno, there is this new British driver,'" he recalls. "'He did a few Formula 1 tests; he's very good. I want him to go and test with you at Jerez, and you're going to be his benchmark.'"

The driver in question was a fresh-faced, wide-eyed 19-year-old named Jenson Button, who had finished third in that year's British F3 championship. Button had gathered rave reviews in prior F1 tests, one with McLaren as his prize for winning 1998's Autosport BRDC Award, and then a follow-up run with Prost Grand Prix in late 1999.

Team owner and four-time F1 champion Alain Prost was very impressed by Button's speed and feedback, to the point where he presented the young Briton's management team of David Robertson and Harald Huysman with a deal: Button would drive for the Gauloises-backed Apomatox team in F3000, and serve as Prost's reserve with a view to a race seat.

Button's management team viewed the offer with some scepticism, given that Prost was not wholly prepared to commit to a race drive. There were other offers to test that winter, but Williams was the only team in a position to dangle the carrot of a race seat in front of Huysman and Robertson. Button put the other bids on ice and accepted Williams' offer to drive at Jerez.

In truth, very few laps were turned around the Andalusian circuit due to the BMW's continued volatility - there were likely more holes-in-ones at the golf course next door than representative lap times set by either Junqueira or Button.

Button entered contention after a strong test with Prost and was then benchmarked against Junqueira

Photo by: Russell Batchelor / Motorsport Images

"At no point had they told me that there was going to be a test to see who was going to be the driver," Junqueira remembers. "They never told me 'if you beat him, you're going to be the driver'. I think we stayed like four days in Jerez and unfortunately we were having an issue with the engine - we did one or two laps and had to stop.

"I think in the end, Button ended up doing like one or two runs and I don't think I did even five laps in a row, we were having a lot of issues. So then they decided to take us to Barcelona the next week - and after Barcelona was when they were going to announce the driver [at the launch].

"Then I realised that it's going to be between me and him, because we were testing together again - and just a few days before announcing the driver. There's no rumour of other drivers, and this is not a benchmark test; this is a shootout to see who's going to be the driver."

"We had seven engineers at that test, they were asked to vote - it was 6-1 in favour of Bruno after the engineers voted"
Jonathan Williams

Williams' Barcelona shootout nominally took place over five days from 19-23 February, although running continued to come at a premium. The tete-a-tete for the seat alongside Schumacher was thus condensed into one day, the 23rd being one day before the final launch in front of the gathered media.

Junqueira says that the BMW powerplant was still waylaid by issues at Barcelona, which hampered both drivers' long runs; he got 26 laps under his belt over the course of the day, while Button managed 21 laps - with a time 0.16s faster than Junqueira's best. Nonetheless, the paucity of data made it incredibly difficult for Williams to decide who to take and, with the launch of the FW22 a day away, the team needed to make a call.

Speaking on an Autosport podcast series about Williams' history, Jonathan Williams - son of Frank, who was heavily ingratiated in scouting and assessing younger drivers - revealed that the decision went to a vote between the engineers. This was influenced by the driver debriefs, which culminated in both drivers sitting - unbelievably - a written test loaded with questions about car set-up and how they would affect the car. Button's later reflections of the written test were that he hadn't done particularly well.

"It went all the way up to the night before because there was so little data and essentially, very briefly, I found myself in a bit of a war room," Williams said. "I was getting all these calls from my father saying, 'we just don't know what to do, we can't tell them apart.' We had seven engineers at that test, they were asked to vote - it was 6-1 in favour of Bruno after the engineers voted.

Poor reliability of the new BMW V10 during testing meant Williams had limited data to go on when making its choice

Photo by: Motorsport Images

"Only one engineer, a young chap called David Clarke, put his hand up and said Jenson - all of the other engineers said it should be Bruno. I think Patrick favoured Bruno more.

"Not out of disrespect to anyone, but I just think sometimes in life, you've just got to simplify things. And I said to my father, 'let's look at it this way - talking about these two drivers right here, right now, you're saying that you can't separate them, correct?

"'So if you plot their progress, not in terms of their Williams tests, their career progress in total from the beginning to this point in time, you're saying they're equal. And if you plot that on a very simple x and y axis, it would show you that Jenson's rate of progress is far steeper because he is here after only two years of cars. One Formula 3, one Formula Ford.

"Two years ago, he was just finishing karting. Bruno has just completed his second year of Formula 3000. And I think he'd done two, if not three years of South American Formula 3. So he's had four to five years at this F1 doorstep level. So what you're saying is that they're basically equal, which one is going to progress the most from here? It's arguably Jenson.'"

Frank Williams and Head deliberated in the morning and overruled the engineers - Button was going to drive in 2000, and Junqueira would be the reserve. Yet, the drivers had to endure a dog-and-pony show before the launch as neither was informed until a couple of hours before the launch.

Button recalled in his autobiography, Life to the Limit, that "the whole thing was just weird. Building up to the announcement I was whisked from one place to another, seemingly for no apparent reason, and I kept passing Bruno [...] we'd exchange odd apologetic looks, both wondering what the hell was going on."

For Junqueira, he'd had to manage the disappointment of not being chosen for the role and accept the reserve deal. Of course, if Button couldn't cut the mustard in F1, he'd be the first driver in line for a drive - but this was never to occur; Button began to thrive and by the end of the season was matching, if not beating, Schumacher.

"[Frank] said, I want you to go and win the Formula 3000 championship - and maybe next year I'll give you a ride," recalls Junqueira. "He also told me that, just in case Button doesn't do well, I need to be ready because anything could happen. A month before, I was super happy that I had a chance to be the test driver. That was my goal and Williams was at the time one of the best teams and I was going to keep racing in F3000.

After over-ruling its own engineers, Williams signed Button to partner Schumacher for 2000 as Junqueira had to make do with a reserve role alongside F3000

Photo by: Motorsport Images

"And then when you start to having this chance to race, it was above my expectations or my goals. But it was a hard situation because in retrospect, I felt that I did very well on the test and I couldn't run much. But is what it is, I cannot change it, and I did my best. I went there, and won the Formula 3000 championship. I have no regrets."

After a full year as Williams' test driver and with an F3000 championship under his belt, Junqueira had the chance to stay on with Williams as reserve. Instead, encouraged by the opportunity to keep racing, he went to CART as a replacement for Montoya at Ganassi, who ended up replacing Button at the team after a single season.

Despite a fraught first season, having to become acquainted with the quirks of racing in America and saddled with Lola-Toyota package that was less potent than the Reynard-Honda concoction used by Penske, Junqueira shrugged off the baptism of fire to finish second overall in 2002.

The Toyota avenue didn't work out for Junqueira either; Cristiano da Matta, who won the 2002 CART title, was prioritised ahead of his countryman to partner Olivier Panis in 2003

"My goal was to go to America, to do my best, and I maybe had a plan to go back to Formula 1," he says. "At the time, Toyota had offered me a deal to be a test driver for Toyota F1 and maybe race for them in 2003. So my plan was to do two years in the US, win the championship and then I go back to drive for Toyota.

"It was very difficult in my first year. I ended up winning a pole position in the oval, I won a race. I did very well in the Indy 500 [which was not a round of the CART series, as he finished fifth]. But I think it was much below the performance I and the team were expecting. But I think in the second year, I was able to collect myself, get organised, and do a much better year."

Regardless, the Toyota avenue didn't work out for Junqueira either; Cristiano da Matta, who won the 2002 CART title, was prioritised ahead of his countryman to partner Olivier Panis in 2003 as the Japanese manufacturer went with an all-new line-up for its second F1 season.

Had the six engineers not been overruled, Junqueira would have been racing in 2000 - not Button. And that leads to all sorts of ramifications best encapsulated as 'sliding doors moments'.

Junqueira wanted to keep racing after winning the F3000 title in 2000, and finished runner-up in CART three times - but the door to F1 never opened

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Had Button not driven for Williams, would he have been sufficiently impressive in F3000 and managed to break into F1 for 2001? Would Junqueira have ended up winning the 2009 championship with Brawn?

As much as it's fun to play with alternate universes, Junqueira had his own successes: he commanded eight wins in CART, three runner-up finishes just shy of winning the title, and recovered from a broken back in 2005 to race competitively for another decade in the US and his native Brazil.

"You never know how life goes," Junqueira muses, sanguinely. "Some decisions can go better, or you think they're going to be better and it gets worse, and are not the best decisions. Or it's the other way around. I think [Jenson is] a great driver and he deserves everything, all the success he got. But I cannot have regrets - I think I had a great career as well."

Although Junqueira has a case to lament not getting a crack at grand prix racing, he enjoyed plenty of success on the US-open wheel scene

Photo by: Sutton Images