Williams reshuffle

HEAD: "Well, it's certainly a change, there's no doubt about that. But I certainly look upon it as the start of a new era, I think, because in aspiring to get back to a competitive position we will require that of ourselves and we're not making adequate progress as things are so change is certainly necessary and I shall be fully supporting Sam in his new position."



HEAD: "Certainly BMW, as Williams, have the intention of being fully competitive in this year's championship. We were the closest contender to Ferrari last year, and clearly we weren't shy in saying what our intentions were for this year. We haven't achieved them and BMW internally are straightforward in talking to us about the fact that they're disappointed that as a team we haven't achieved that. But this change is one that I decided upon five weeks ago. It would have happened at the end of the year, but in the position we're in this year and in that we're already into designing the 2005 car, I concluded that the change should happen earlier rather than later."



HEAD: "It's certainly likely to be more headquarters. You'll still see me at various races but I would say it will be more factory based. But throughout my career, whether it's been as chief designer or technical director, there have been many years where I haven't gone to a number of races. It's really been dependent on the strength of other people. For instance, until the end of 1988 from when we started winning in 1979 Frank Dernie did about half the races and I did half the races. I didn't go to some of the races, and that sometime happened when Adrian Newey was with us as well."



MICHAEL: "It's on my shoulders now. It's up to me now to carry the ball and correct some things that I think are incorrect, and that means short-term, in terms of turning the FW26 around, and in terms of the FW27."



MICHAEL: "Well, I think only future actions will show that. But certainly we have put in place a development plan for the car, and we're re-attending to that in the light of what we've seen on the track. There are still 12 races this year. It's very important for us in terms of building towards 2005 and in terms of re-establishing ourselves for 2004 that we turn around this position where we've moved from being the team challenging from Ferrari intending to move upwards to a team that's now in fourth position in the constructors' championship."



HEAD: "Well, I don't think the immediate position with Sam was driven by that. As I said the intention was that this change was going to happen at the end of the year anyway. Clearly for me to move on from the position of technical director having had a pretty long career in F1 already, the ideal plan for me would be to have moved on at a time when Williams were being strong and successful. That certainly had been my intention, but things didn't work out to plan in 2004, and it soon became obvious that a change needed to be made sooner. So it really was something that was going to happen anyway, but we've moved it earlier."



MICHAEL: "Not really. I think at the end of the day you've got to concentrate on the things that are going to get us a more competitive car. As I said that involved a short-term plan and a long-term plan, and it's basically concentrating hard on those fundamentals. There will be changes internally in the way we go about things and what we have planned, but those are undefined as yet so that sort of thing will become fairly clear shortly."



MICHAEL: "That's right. That's what it does do. For me it's an ideal situation in terms of taking a step up, because Patrick still exists here and still has a major interest in making sure we're fairly successful. It's quite a unique opportunity for someone to take the leap from chief engineer to technical director still with the support of someone who's done it for 27 years."



MICHAEL: "We set out our targets and we met the majority of those targets on the car, but the targets weren't high enough. Ferrari shifted things to another level and BAR and Renault have obviously stepped up their game. We just didn't do a good enough job, and that's something we're in the process of correcting for this season and for next year as well. There's no covering up and saying that we did do a good job and there's something else wrong - we just didn't do well enough. That's a matter of clearly defining our targets again for the short and long-term."



HEAD: "Well, I don't want to give Sam too much pre-warning about the future ahead for him, but undoubtedly if the car goes very well and gets accolades the technical director gets the praise. But equally if the cars the other way around he's the leader of the team and approves the technical decisions that make up the car, so he's got to be prepared to take the brick-bats as well as the praise."



HEAD: "I don't think the likelihood of that is very high. Certainly, I expect to be very active. Certainly, it'll be a lot more factory-based than previously, which I have to say suits me fine really. I want to do everything I can to a) support Sam and b) to try and do whatever is necessary to bring Williams into a competitive position. The only way that that is really achieved is what we design, the ideas, the working environment with the people, and I want to do all I can back at base to make sure that gets stronger."



HEAD: "I was always quite enthusiastic about being successful, and you work out pretty early that the pain from being unsuccessful - I'm following down Ron's statement, aren't I - is actually pretty unacceptable. It's much better to put the extra work or attention in that makes it successful."