Williams Confirm Pizzonia for Spa
Williams have confirmed Antonio Pizzonia will replace Nick Heidfeld for the Belgian Grand Prix, As revealed earlier today by Autosport-Atlas
The team's principal Frank Williams said the decision was made to allow Heidfeld to fully recover, after the German suffered side-effects of a crash in testing two weeks ago.
Another factor, Williams said, was capitalising on Pizzonia's strong seventh finish in Monza last weekend. If Pizzonia races in Belgium, he will qualify seventh to last.
"Our first priority is prudence in relation to Nick's condition," Williams said in a statement.
"Although the broad view is that he may well be ready to race by Friday, the back-to-back calendar at this time does not allow the luxury of more time to reach this conclusion, so it is best both for Nick, and indeed the team, if we make a clear and early decision that Antonio will race this weekend.
"In addition to allowing Nick more time to recover, we can nominate Antonio now and he can benefit on Saturday in Belgium with a good starting position for qualifying from the strong seventh place finish he secured in Monza."
This will be Pizzonia's fifth race start for Williams. The Brazilian, who celebrates his 25th birthday this Sunday, has scored for the team a total of eight Championship points.
This includes the two he scored at the Italian Grand Prix last weekend - where he finished an impressive seventh despite starting from 16th on the grid and not having prior time in the car for the past three months.
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