by Russell AtkinsTO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL: CLICK HEREAlex Wurz is eagerly anticipating the latest challenge in his Formula 1 career – that of returning Honda to the winners' circle in the wake of an abject 2007 campaign for the Japanese outfit that saw it register a scant six points.
The Austrian has been active in the top flight since 1997 when he was signed up as a test-driver by the front-running Benetton (now Renault) squad, but since then has made only 69 starts in the uppermost echelon, spending more time testing for McLaren and Williams. In recent years, indeed, he has competed in just the odd race here and there for the former and a full season with the latter in 2007, following which he decided to definitively hang up his racing helmet.
He was persuaded to remain in F1, though, by Honda, who clearly value his testing expertise and experience and snapped up his services as test-driver for the forthcoming campaign – and considerably beyond, he is keen to point out.
“Let me assure you, I'm not here for the short-term,” Wurz asserted, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio. “I'm really happy with my position where I am now, and I mean
really happy, because I love testing and development, I love speaking with the engineers trying to find little bits – every little thing is important on a race car. That's what I've always enjoyed, and being with Honda now is exactly what I wanted to do.”
The 33-year-old is well aware it will be no mean feat for Honda to regain the podium-threatening and race-winning form it displayed towards the end of 2006, but he is equally confident the Brackley-based outfit now has everyone and everything in place to be able to begin to fight back. Despite unspectacular testing form so far, he is also positive the RA108 will be a considerable step forward over its unloved predecessor, the RA107.
“I can definitely feel that everyone wants to improve,” he underlined, “and they're putting a lot of manpower and effort in to do that. That's a very good sign.
“I already knew quite a few of the mechanics and engineers [before I arrived], and I didn't really need much time to settle in because I started working immediately with the team and car.
“The initial shakedown was quite good; usually on a first day you have little problems, but the car immediately ran for quite a lot of laps without anything strange happening. I think that gave us a very solid base to now try and extract the real potential of the car over the next tests.
“Apparently I'm the only driver in Formula 1 history who has raced only for the top three British world championship-winning teams, but coming here there's nothing I've seen somewhere else which Honda hasn't got. Just because they had one season last year which wasn't really that good, the years before that they were very good, so it's just a short recession and hopefully we can turn that around.
“We are not able to do that overnight – that's a fact, because the competition is far too big and hard in Formula 1 – but step-by-step, with the people we've got, I definitely think we can turn it around and bring Honda back to the top.”
To read the interview in full,
click hereTO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL: CLICK HERE
