Oliver White
Austrian driver Alex Wurz has been announced as Honda’s test driver following his retirement from competitive racing after the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix. Alex first arrived in Formula One in 1998 with the floundering Benetton team, but soon after took up a testing role with McLaren. Realising his chance of turning his testing duties into a full-time drive for team he switched allegiances to Williams and worked at Grove until Mark Webber’s move to Red Bull for 2007 allowed him to compete alongside Nico Rosberg. However, the young German highlighted many of Wurz’s weaknesses, and while his season wasn’t a disaster, Nico showed excellent form that at times over shadowed Wurz. Upon retirement it looked as though Alex would disappear from Formula One, but today he has been signed to Honda to develop their RA108 chassis.
I am delighted to be joining the Honda Racing F1 Team at the beginning of what I hope can be a very exciting period for the team. This is an excellent opportunity to play an important role in the development of the team going forward. My three previous teams have all been world championship winners and I hope to be able to contribute to Honda’s ambitions.
The chance to work with one of the best brains in F1 in Ross Brawn is very exciting, as is the level of resources that the Honda team has at its disposal. Alex Wurz.
Having an experience and much praised test driver will certaianly benefit Honda. Alex has been said to be very good at developing cars giving vital and accurate feedback, something Honda desperately need.
Wurz will be at the Valencia circuit on January 22nd in the RA107 car before getting his hands dirty with the RA108.
This is good news for both Wurz and Honda. Wurz will probably like working with the sensible Ross Brawn, while Honda will appreciate Wurz’s exceptionally high technical skills. This is a really good piece of news.
It is good news for both parties. Hopefully Wurz can improve the car, Brawn can improve the team and they can get themselves back to their 2004 form.
This has surprised me given Wurz’s apparent reasons for retiring last season – as I remember it he basically thought the risk involved outweighed the enjoyment he was getting from it.
He obviously regards testing as a safer environment than racing despite assertions from other drivers that the safety standards at tests are appalling compared to grand prix weekends.
Drivers are always moaning about safety levels at test sessions. I guess it must be a little safer though as the pressures are different than in a race with 21 other cars belting about the place jostling for position.
I presume the difference between Wurz testing now and when he did for McLaren and Williams is that he isn’t looking for a race seat anymore.