AT&T Williams F1

Nico Rosberg took to the track today for his debut outing in the team's 2008 car, the Williams Toyota FW30. The main aim for the first runs of the new car is to prove its reliability, starting with the drivers carrying out short runs and increasing their length over the week.

This week will also prove critical for the team as first impressions of the car's level of performance are garnered and then compared with the theoretical numbers achieved in the wind tunnels during its design and development in the factory.

The team will also be evaluating sensitivity to set-up changes in order to investigate new set-up directions with the changes in the car's mechanical and aerodynamic behaviour.

Test Times:
N Rosberg: 1:12.838 (84 laps) 3rd
K Nakajima: 1:13.473 (94 laps) 7th

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
Today, Nico Rosberg took the FW30 out for its first official test day. After completing some further systems checks and mapping in the morning, he progressed onto long runs in the afternoon to check stabilised temperatures on the new cooling systems. No major problems were encountered, so it was a successful initial run. Meanwhile, Kazuki continued the reliability programme with the FW29B.