Long Time Coming

This weekend's Canadian Grand Prix represents something of a landmark for Alex Wurz, as the Austrian marks the tenth anniversary of his Formula One debut for Benetton.

Alas, he's not exactly celebrating ten years of racing, because for fully half that time he served as a test driver, for McLaren and latterly Williams.

While his contemporaries logged up the starts, Alex found himself typecast as someone who would do all the less glamorous stuff, and do it without too much fuss. He was well paid, especially in his years at McLaren, and much appreciated by his bosses.

But the name of the job is 'racing driver', and he never intended to be out of the limelight for so long. This year he finally made it back with a full-time race seat with Williams, and after a difficult start to the season, he scored a handy seventh place in Monaco. It was only worth two points, but on a day of low attrition, that was a respectable outcome.

Much has changed since Wurz arrived on the scene back in 1997. Incredibly, only five other drivers from that year's Montreal grid will be on it again this year, namely Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli.

Long gone are the likes of Jean Alesi, Damon Hill, Mika Hakkinen, Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert, along with lesser lights such as Shinji Nakano and Pedro Diniz.

Alex could long ago have drifted back into sportscar racing or tin-tops. He has not only survived, but perhaps at age 33 enjoys a better reputation now that when he was racing for Benetton.

Alex Wurz (Benetton B197 Renault) on his Grand Prix debut © LAT

He certainly had an unusual rise to the top, doing little to attract attention until winning Le Mans in 1996. It's no secret that sponsorship eased his passage into a testing role at Benetton the following year, and nobody was too excited when he first arrived.

But he proved to be pretty handy behind the wheel, and quickly won over his engineers with his positive approach. He was a breath of fresh air at a time when race drivers Alesi and Gerhard Berger were a little jaded, and the team was still suffering from the post-Schumacher blues.

Berger's mid-season illness gave Wurz his break. Montreal was spoiled by a big crash in qualifying, He started 11th, only three places behind Alesi, and then in the race he had a transmission problem.

In France he started a place ahead of the Frenchman, but spun off in the race. And then third time out at Silverstone he finished a surprise third, right behind his team mate. At that stage Berger felt ready to return, and duly scored a memorable win at Hockenheim.

Alex had done enough to guarantee himself a full-time seat in the post-Berger/Alesi era in 1998. That year he set fastest lap in Argentina, and then at Monaco showed he was made of the right stuff when he banged wheels with Michael Schumacher.

But thereafter, things began to go wrong. His relationship with Flavio Briatore unravelled, and as others have discovered, that is not a good thing if you are driving for him. At the end of 2000, he was left stranded.

That's when McLaren came to the rescue for 2001, and his old Mercedes GT racing connections probably didn't hurt. Testing for a championship contending team seemed like a good idea, and both parties benefited.

But Alex didn't envisage that the job would see him through the 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 seasons as well. Even when Pedro de la Rosa joined the team, and his role became a little diluted, Alex stayed at McLaren.

Finally in 2005 his patience was rewarded when had a chance to race one of the silver cars, after Juan Pablo Montoya was sidelined. He finished a solid fourth at Imola, moving up to third after Jenson Button was excluded.

Last year saw a late change of plans as he sought a fresh challenge with Williams - he had the guarantee of Friday running, and the prospect of a race seat in 2007, something that was never going to happen at McLaren. Everything panned out just as he wanted to, and Melbourne this year saw him sitting on a grid for only the second time since his Benetton days.

David Coulthard and Alex Wurz collide during the Australian Grand Prix © Reuters

It's not been an easy start to the season. He was taken out by Coulthard in Melbourne, and by Schumacher (on the first lap) in Spain. In Malaysia a gearbox problem in qualifying ruined his weekend, although he still managed to finish just outside the points.

Finally, things came together in Monaco. It was the best place to register his first points of the season, and he finished with Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari on his tail.

"I'm quite happy with seventh place, especially because no one really retired in front of me," he said, although to be fair Mark Webber started ahead.

"Again I showed the racing is not a problem, and now I have to pray for a bit for more luck. I have to say in qualifying the team sent me out at the right time, I just messed up a few tenths in Turn One, and that was my top ten position gone.

"The pace was there immediately on Thursday, and then qualifying the only problem was actually myself asking for too much in Turn One, so I was sliding wide.

"I lost three tenths there, and another tenth with overtaking someone, and I only needed two tenths to go into the top ten. Anyway, I was 11th, and maybe that was a good thing for the strategy, and that actually played into my hands."

Indeed, being the first guy outside the top ten gave the team plenty of time to assess strategy options for the race. He went for a single stop on lap 44, and it worked out well. Team mate Nico Rosberg started seventh on a two-stopper, and dropped back to 12th.

"The first stint was alright, just at the beginning I decided to save my tyres, and keep a safe distance to the guys. I thought maybe some are on a two-stop and are going to be close, but no one did it, so I again relaxed for my tyres.

"Then at the very end I had to squeeze them out because I had to make about two and a half seconds up to the Honda guys in three or four laps. I did that, so I was quite happy about it.

"Most of the time I was in relatively clean air, and in the end I just had to defend from Kimi. It wasn't difficult, and the only thing I had to make sure was not make a mistake, because I had enough tyre life, so my traction was good.

"Again I used my Le Mans experience a little bit, and I had saved the tyres a bit for when I needed them. Anyway, it's good to bring home two points with a clever strategy from the team, and I'm very happy with them."

The result came at the perfect time for Alex, because his team-mate Nico Rosberg had been scoring well, and showing that he'd made good progress since last year. There's an 11 year age gap between the two, but Alex says he is not under any undue pressure.

Alex Wurz overtakes the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher in Sepang © LAT

"That Nico is very strong at the moment is good for me, it raises the level in the whole team. Usually in terms of lap time we are very close, always, but he's extracted more in the qualifying.

"In Malaysia I was unlucky with the gearbox problem, and then had a super strong race there. If it comes together I'm there, it's no worry for me ..."

The obvious suggestion is that Alex is still a little ring rusty. It doesn't matter how many miles you do, so the theory goes, if you're not actually involved in the cut and thrust of a race weekend, you lose a little edge. He denies that he's had any trouble getting up to speed.

"It's no problem, because as you see every race I do I'm fighting hard to overtake people, so it's not a racing issue. I have to say in Australia I was a bit caught on the back foot with the qualifying format, when I was very fast the whole weekend and then suddenly everything happened so quickly, it was a bit too much.

"But from then on, it was just how it went. I was unlucky in Malaysia with the gearbox, what happened in Barcelona with the traffic was dreadful, and then in Monaco was my mistake."

It seems that at every race, the FW29 is potentially a top ten qualifier, and Nico has made full use of that on three occasions thus far. It's encouraging to know that the car has performance that can be tapped, but Wurz is not getting too excited yet.

"It's very tough, you can't rest for a minute in F1 where we are. We have to really keep working hard, everyone, including myself. I still have to adjust myself to these new tyres, my driving style is very much maybe like Kimi. We're talking about one or two tenths that I can extract."

This may be his first year as race driver, but Alex spent 2006 getting to know the Williams team. Having come from McLaren, he had a pretty good reference. He insists that team, boosted by the Toyota deal, is a lot stronger than it was last season.

"They've come a long way. I think last year we had a strong start to the season because as a team we had been very clever to choose the tyres, we had an advantage form the engine I think at the beginning of the season, and then we dropped back

"The team, in terms of how it restructured over the winter, from the fundamentals, the manpower, the human performance, the people in the factory, is clearly much better.

"You can't turn it around overnight, but I've seen other world championship-winning teams, McLaren and Renault, and we're really strong now. If we can develop steadily I think we will be there in the future. I'm not sure now if I'm talking one or three years, but you can't expect miracles these days. At the end of the day, every race is a new story, so let's wait and see what's coming."

What he will never be able to do is make up for lost time. Canada will be only Alex's 59th Grand Prix start. Trulli and Schumacher, who also had their first races in 1997, will be notching up their 170th and 169th respectively ...