Williams: Webber, Button to Get Equal Treatment

Australian Mark Webber and Briton Jenson Button will receive equal treatment at the Williams team next season, according to the British squad's technical director Sam Michael.

"Both drivers have the same status, there's nothing in either of their contracts that puts them above either of the other driver," Michael told AAP. "They both have the quality clauses that says that they both must receive the same treatment.

"We always make sure that both race drivers have got exactly the right equipment. Both cars are identical from that point of view."

Both Webber, currently driving for Jaguar, and BAR driver Button will join Williams in the hope of reviving the BMW-powered squad after a difficult 2004 season. The team from Grove, second last season, have dropped down to fourth place in the Constructors' Championship and have not scored a win since last year's German Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, rivals Ferrari have won 11 out of 12 races so far this year and could clinch the constructors' title at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix. Michael admitted Williams had paid the price for making costly errors in the design of their radical-looking FW26.

"At the moment we're probably six or seven tenths of a second a lap behind Ferrari," Michael said. "We would be in a position next year where we correct the faults that we've made on this year's car.

"There's probably even four major areas of the car that have affected its performance this year, where we've made mistakes on design direction - there's aerodynamic, mechanical and other electronic changes that we made that were incorrect.

"The thing that gives us a lot more confidence for next year is we finished 2003 with a car that was the fastest - we made these mistakes and went in the wrong direction."

Michael said Williams are unlikely to be more competitive this year, but he is confident next year's car will be a winner straight away.

"We can change a little bit of the things back on this year's car but generally a lot of it's got to wait for the FW27 in 2005," he said. "We can see clear areas where we've made mistakes (and) we're in the process of correcting those mistakes and they'll be fixed for the FW27.

"We have every intention that the FW27 will come out of the box and be fast straight away but if not then we've got a lot of procedures in place to make sure we can turn it into a car that can win."