Meet the Team: Dickie Stanford
PERSONAL
Age: 52
Star sign: Capricorn

Start date at Williams F1: 3rd January 1985

Previous jobs in F1: None outside Williams. I worked for Ralt in Formula 2 and Tiga in Formula 3.

Why Williams? Originally, because I wanted to break into Formula One and they were the closest team to where I lived. My first contact with them came when I started to take Ralt's F2 windtunnel model to Williams, just as they were expanding from two to three mechanics on each car. I joined Williams as a mechanic on Nigel Mansell's car.

Hobbies? I'd like to say doing up my 1967 250SL Mercedes, but I haven't touched it for two years. I've stripped it, re-painted it and every panel is new; but I've still got to do the rear suspension.

PROFESSIONAL
Describe your role in the team: I have overall responsibility for the test team, be it at the racetrack or at the factory. A lot of my time is taken up with logistics, particularly at the start of the year, when the test programme is very intense. It's a very wide-ranging job description, but that's one of the attractions for me.

Do you get a lot of job satisfaction? Testing's gone well if we've gone through a test programme and we've got a result. Either it's a 'yes that works', or it's a 'no it doesn't'. That gives me satisfaction. If we have to test the same part at a subsequent test, it delays everything and that can be frustrating.

How has the team changed over the years? The company has grown a lot in the last 10 years, which has been necessary for us to compete with the manufacturer teams. We're more than 500 people now and there have to be more managers in place to organise such a workforce. Having said that, AT&T Williams' race team is still probably the smallest in the pitlane and if you need an immediate answer on something, you can still go straight to Frank or Patrick. That must be unique in Formula One these days.

What's a realistic goal for AT&T Williams in 2008? We're always looking for wins and everything's there for us to do that this year. We're in our second year with Toyota, which is a great advantage, and I really hope we can get on the top step. That would be great.

(Image: Dickie, left, with Tony Ross).

Bahrain GP Review
Synopsis
After minor reliability issues had compromised track time and thereby the optimisation of set-up two weeks before in Malaysia, the AT&T Williams team came to Bahrain with a clear ambition to manage their weekend preparations without undue interruption. This goal was met, with both cars having a full 180 minutes of potential track time in the Friday sessions. Between the morning and afternoon sessions, significant set-up changes were made to both Kazuki’s and Nico’s car and by the close of the first day of the meeting, both drivers declared themselves satisfied with the progress made.

On Saturday morning Nico Rosberg, running on new tyres and low fuel, was able to set the fastest time of the session, but it was understood that on a longer run the competitiveness required to be at the top of the time sheets would be much more of a challenge.

Qualifying was relatively straightforward tactically, with no interruptions or flags that required run plans to be altered on the fly. Rosberg held station in P8 in all three qualifying sessions, somewhat less competitive than perhaps both driver and team had hoped for given the morning practice. By the time fuel had been added for Q3, Nico’s Q2 time that would have given him pole increased by almost two seconds and he would line up on the fourth row of the grid on Sunday.

Kazuki, by his own admission, was disappointed by his qualifying form, albeit that in only his fourth race it would have been difficult to progress into Q3 when his more experienced team mate had managed to finish the day in only P8.

Based on the qualifying outcome, the strategists elected to send Kazuki on a one-stop strategy and Nico on a more conventional two-stop plan for the race. Unfortunately for Nakajima, his anti-stall system kicked in off the line and relegated him down towards the back of the field. Trying to recover his poor start, he hit the oil on lap two which caused a number of drivers problems in the early part of the first stint. Rosberg claimed a place from the start and held P7 until the first round of stops where he was unfortunately jumped by Webber in the Red Bull. This was due to Webber having a free choice of pit strategy after starting outside the top 10, and then getting past Alonso following the Renault driver’s clash with Hamilton. Knowing that, it would have been better to have run longer in the first stint, but that decision is made on Saturday afternoon if you’re in the top 10. Ultimately, Rosberg claimed a point finishing in eighth, while Kazuki pitted on his one stop plan on lap 32 and ran to the flag to finish fourteenth.

Tyres and Fuel
Nico Rosberg: Medium-Soft-Soft. Stop 1: lap 17, stop 2: lap 40.
Kazuki Nakajima: Medium-Soft, Stop 1: lap 32.

Systems and Reliability
The team’s two FW30s ran reliably throughout all the sessions in Sakhir. Both cars ran new engines for the Bahrain Grand Prix and both completed their third race in succession on the same transmission (regulatory requirement is to complete four races in a row).

Next Events
The team will travel to Barcelona next week for a four day test commencing on Monday 14th April. Kazuki Nakajima will run on days one and four, with team mate Nico Rosberg undertaking testing duties on days two and three. The team will use the test to validate a number of new developments, both aero and mechanical, to come to the car for the start of the European season.

Sam Michael
“Although we managed to avoid any reliability issues compromising our preparation, this will remain a watching brief for obvious reasons. There is no room for complacency with reliability. Our focus as always is on improving performance and that’s what we are doing now we are back in Europe. We have a good number of new releases coming to the car for the start of the European season which we will test in Barcelona next week.”