Q & A with Alexander Wurz

Alexander Wurz: I found out this week. Nevertheless we had a very long ongoing dialogue between the team, Frank (Williams), Sam (Michael) and Patrick (Head) and myself.

We started it at the time I signed the testing agreement because the team always said: Look Alex, you come in, you push, you show us what you are made of and there is absolutely no reason why we should not put you in the race.

I said: 'Okay, we will talk about this in half a year.' Over the course of the last few months we always had a dialogue and it got more intense that closer we came to two days ago when it was finally made official. There was a dialogue and I am absolutely stoked.

Q. Did you have a feeling that this might happen when Mark Webber and Frank's contract talks began to stall?

AW: I don't know the influences of Mark's decision - or how they negotiated. I am not his manager. The team always kept me informed that they were talking to Mark and myself, and it was their final decision. So it is better that you ask Frank about that.

Q. Apart from the third place in Imola last year, it has been a while since we have seen you in a race. Do you feel the sport has moved on, or will it be easy to re-acclimatise?

AW: That is a very cheeky question! I move with the sport, I am testing flat out. I do the Friday driving and racing has been in my blood since childhood. It is something, like an instinct, that you never lose.

The fire is burning and every year, in the last few years I have been driving against world champions in the team, race winners, incredible talents in the best British teams, so that is a school in itself. All the other experience and maturity I gained in that period I will put on the line for next year.

Q. So without being cheeky, you are coming back as a more mature driver?

AW: Yes, thank God it is like this. We are all learning and as I mentioned at McLaren and Williams with the drivers I competed against, it was only for testing but testing was flat out. I learned a lot and with the hunger and desire to go out racing, which is burning like crazy, I never stopped. That is a good combination.

Q. Quite a lot of people, including your compatriot Niki Lauda, reckoned you were finished and would never come back and get a race seat in F1. Does this deal give you some satisfaction now?

AW: In my vocabulary there is not the word give up. People who know me closer, since my young age when I was BMX racing, if I have something in my head I will work on it. To some extent it was very lucky, it was a long period, but it is also important for you to understand in that time that there were race offers - sometimes very interesting, lucrative race offers.

Sometimes they were not possible because of contract obligations, sometimes also two offers which were for teams that had no real future and I could not see myself there. Going to McLaren and Williams as a reserve driver, trying to make them aware of what I am capable of, of course it is satisfying that now the team decided, okay you will race for us next season.

Q. Is there a sense of bitterness that some of the best years of your career were spent in a third car and not racing? They were five years when you could have been at your peak and they have just gone by.

AW: That is another cheeky question! My peak has not gone by me, it is going to come and I am going to show that. Because I think I have the experience now over the years which I have gained with the incredible teammates I had and in the teams - and the teams do not employ me for the spare driver if they did not think I was capable of delivering and doing their work.

I have sets dozens of lap records on the empty tracks of testing, and lots of fastest laps on the Fridays and more importantly I have done many, many quick long runs on top of it. On top of it I already came into F1 with a big technical interest.

I could raise the game there to now be, according to the team, one of the best drivers in terms of feedback and pushing. So that is a very nice combination for the team and you have to understand that I am fully hungry to do so. So that is why I am here.

Q. Emotionally, does this deal feel even better because it has been so long since your last race deal?

AW: No. When you are a young guy, when you work hard to come to F1 and you have your first ever go in an F1, and you have your first test and your first race it is all tremendously exciting. So is it now.

It is very difficult for me to say what felt more special, but it definitely is special. There are more people going into space every year than there are F1 drivers and racing for Williams is a traditional team - it is super cool. I am really stoked about that.

Q. Will there be any chance to do a race drive at the end of this year?

AW: No, it hasn't been discussed. Of course it was discussed in the sense that I am a spare driver and if something happens to a driver, which I don't hope because I like Mark and Nico both, you never know what is happening in F1.

I have learned that also in my career because I started my career as a test driver replacing someone - just as Pedro de la Rosa and Robert Kubica will race this weekend. This sport is very fast moving so you should never say no. But in normal conditions I will end the season as third driver.

Q. How good was the working relationship with Mark?

AW: I worked with both, but it was good. We are professional; I have known Mark for a long time. He came into sportscar racing after me, in fact I was teammate with Bernd Schneider and that is how we met. We always had a good relationship and talked a lot, which got quite intense as soon as I moved to Williams because we are sitting in the same boat - we have to develop the car.

Certainly I do that all the time, we still do it, because it is still his racing season. If he now stops working, with the speed of development now, he will feel it at the end of the season. So it is flat out all the time until you make the handshake and say okay, bye.

Q. Some teams put their test drivers to one side. Do you think Williams played closer attention to your abilities and feedback than McLaren?

AW: No. You have to actually ask the engineers that, but I know for the fact that some race drivers out there, not too many and I won't mention any names, but they are key elements of team decisions and technical developments. It is always a team effort and if a team is doing well it is not because the test driver is doing well.

If the car is bad it is not because the test driver screwed up. It is a big chain of people and very complex how you work together, but some out there - including myself - are very important for the teams and the teams appreciate it. You see the developments; it is just crucial at the moment.

Q. Is there one ability or one skill that helped you get this drive?

AW: No. If you only have one good skill then a team will not sign you. Especially not Frank! So it is a combination that has to work out and they must be comfortable that the driver line-up is Nico and myself for next year. We have to prove this with lap times, with effort, pushing the team, working with the team, but it all comes down in the end to go as quick as possible from the lights to the chequered flag. The period starts now with developing the car.

Q. What are the aspirations for next year with Toyota?

AW: Williams signed the deal and announced it last week. It is an incredible engine manufacturer, with tremendous possibilities and capacities. And we already know some facts from the engine, which is important because the car is designed. You know there is a certain period of finding each other, but having the announcement so early helps to speed up the process.