Williams will be a different team when they return to the track later this month, arriving in Barcelona with a Cosworth engine and Bridgestone tyres. The 2005 season did not go to plan for the Grove squad, outperformed by their rivals and dropped by engine partners BMW. But they are not about to roll over.
It seems a long time since the final race of 2004, when the departing Juan Pablo Montoya won in Brazil to give Williams a boost of confidence that in 2005 they would be leading the changing of the guard and finally overhaul multiple World Champions Ferrari.
The 2005 season started brightly but when Renault and McLaren forged ahead at the front of the field, Williams fell to pieces, gambling on an aerodynamics route that failed, suffering turbulent times with works engine partners BMW, and ending the year wondering just what their future will hold.
Former Formula One team boss Eddie Jordan, who sold his team at the start of the year, suggested exactly what he thought would be in Williams' crystal ball when he predicted the team would plunge down the grid and go the way of his own outfit, which has now been consigned, in name and spirit, to the history books.