Michael: Williams out to lead and win in 2005.

BMW WilliamsF1 technical director, Sam Michael has revealed that the Grove based squad have only one target for 2005 - unsurprisingly they want to win again, and again and again.

Speaking prior to the resumption of F1 testing today [Tuesday], where Williams will be in action at Barcelona, Michael admitted that now he is technical director, he is under more pressure to ensure that next year's car, the FW27, can challenge the likes of Ferrari, BAR and Renault, all of whom finished ahead of Williams in this year's constructors' championship.

"I suppose [I am under more pressure now], because the final buck stops with me, but ultimately any car that I've ever been involved in, in the last 10 years has been a lot of pressure on me anyway," he commented.

"Maybe not directly as an end result if it fails, but I've always seen it as a team effort and taken the pressure accordingly. I've never been in a position where 'he made the wrong design decision, or he did or whatever'.

"It's always a team effort and, right from the beginning, even before I was technical director, if we had a car that wasn't performing I always took it personally as well."

Having won the final race in Brazil, many are predicting that Williams can repeat that result in Australia in March, when the new season gets underway.

"Whether we win the first race or not we definitely want to return to the front regularly," he continued. "That means winning races, that's what our intention is for next year. We will do everything that we can to make sure that we can be in that position to lead and challenge for wins.

"We've been putting in place recently a very strong base in design and aerodynamics, and that should enable us to push the performance of the car and the engine and the tyres and the drivers, so if we're not in a competitive position, or even if we are, even if you're strong in Formula One it doesn't last for very long, you have to make sure you keep the pressure up because of competition from others."

As for the competition, Michael isn't taking anything for granted, and reckons that Ferrari will again be the team to beat.

"I think it will be very tight at the top next year," he concluded.

"There's going to be three or four teams that are all trying to knock Ferrari off their perch. Ferrari will still be strong; there is no doubt about that. They've put in place a very conventional, iterative type design procedure, so I can't see them making any mistakes, and so they will be a tough act to beat next year, along with those other teams, such as BAR, Renault and McLaren."