The last race of any Formula One season is always one of farewells, with drivers and suppliers either leaving the sport or switching allegiances for the following year, but Interlagos will see a double departure at Williams, with
Mark Webber and Cosworth both preparing to make their final appearance with the Grove squad.
In both cases, it will be a sad
adieu, with Webber's supposedly dream move to the team that provided countryman Alan Jones with his world title having fallen flat, and Cosworth staring into the
F1 wilderness as the team accepts a 'factory' deal with
Toyota for 2007.
With Spyker MF1 having opted for a
Ferrari deal over Cosworth for next season, and
Scuderia Toro Rosso set to run either Ferrari or
Renault V8s, the famous engine builder faces an uncertain Formula One future, despite having provided one of the higher-revving units of the year.
"The 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix is likely to be the last race for Cosworth as a Formula One engine supplier," head of race engineering Simon Corbyn admitted, "The objective from the outset of the CA2006 programme was to deliver the benchmark new generation V8 Formula One engine and, at Cosworth, we believe that we achieved that in terms of engine performance, reliability and also engineering support to
Williams."
The company, which made a winning debut with
Jim Clark in 1967, aims to go out on a high, however, with Webber able to take a fresh V8 for his, and Cosworth's, swansong.
"Mark will start the weekend with a fresh Series 6 engine, and will run an engine duty cycle specifically for Brazil, which will allow the engine to run at 20,000rpm for the entire race," Corbyn revealed, "We will be going all out to add to our tally of 176 wins in 39 seasons of
Formula One."
