The excellent performance of the FW23 in 2001 gives the Williams team hope that the new 2002 season could see them in a starring role. The collaboration between the Grove-based team in Oxfordshire, England, and German giant BMW as the engine supplier and provider of all related technologies continues for the third year. Mario Theissen, a German engineer born in Monschau, in the Eifel region of western Germany, joined BMW in 1977 and, after holding increasingly important positions, became director of BMW Motorsport in 1999 alongside former driver Gerhard Berger. In 2002, he was placed alongside Williams’ engineers at the racetracks, a move that, in the years to come, would prove ill-advised due to Theissen’s constant criticism of Williams, which he claimed was incapable of designing a winning car.
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| WILLIAMS FW24, Juan-Pablo Montoya Montréal, Canadian GP 2002 |
The team of engineers, under the technical direction of Technical Director Patrick Head, that designed the new Williams FW24 remained unchanged from 2001. It included Briton Gavin Fisher, who joined Williams in 1988 and was a protégé of Newey during his time at Grove, as Chief Designer; Brian O’Roake and Mark Tatham, who continued to serve as Chief Composites Engineer and Chief Mechanic, respectively. For the increasingly important aerodynamics department, Geoff Willis, also a Newey protégé, having worked with him at Williams until 1997, remained Head of Aerodynamics, still assisted by Jason Sommerville and Nick Alcock. As previously mentioned, Mario Theissen was now also present in the Williams garage as BMW’s representative. Given the good results achieved in 2001, the new Williams FW24 did not differ greatly from its predecessor, closely following its shapes. The high, square nose differed only in the new front wing, now slightly curved rather than straight as on the FW23; the sidepods retained their classic squared-off shape, required to house the cooling radiators for the powerful German V10, although their upper section now incorporated the exhausts, which blew horizontally toward the rear wing.
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| WILLIAMS FW24, Ralf Schumacher Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 2002 |
To pass the new crash tests, Fisher redesigned the chassis monocoque, making it stronger yet lighter, while the suspension layout remained unchanged, having been designed for the Michelin tires already used by Williams in 2001. The transmission assembly also remained the same, while the engine was upgraded to the P82 version, capable of developing up to 940 hp at 19,000 rpm in qualifying trim, while in races it was slightly detuned to preserve durability. The weight of the German V10 remained its Achilles’ heel, about 10 kg heavier than Ferrari’s Tipo 051, along with poor reliability, causing five retirements during the season. The true potential of the P82 V10 was expressed in qualifying, with both cars never starting beyond the third row and Montoya securing 7 pole positions, 5 of them consecutive. At Monza, during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, on a track favoring engine power, the Colombian driver took pole with an average lap speed of 161.449 mph (259.827 km/h), breaking the record previously set by former Williams driver Keke Rosberg at the 1985 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, when he had averaged 160.9 mph (258.9 km/h) in his turbocharged Honda-powered Williams FW10.
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| WILLIAMS FW24, Juan-Pablo Montoya Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 2002 |
The livery of the new Williams FW24 remained identical to the previous season, with only the main sponsor changing: from the British Grand Prix onwards, Compaq became Hewlett-Packard following the merger of the two companies. On the driver front, German Ralf Schumacher and Colombian Juan-Pablo Montoya were confirmed for the two race seats, while Spaniard Marc Gené, Italian Giorgio Pantano, and Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia served as the three test drivers. Overall, the FW24 was a good car, very powerful and fast, but hampered by aerodynamics that were not up to the standard of rivals Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes. Montoya’s growing maturity allowed the Colombian to fight consistently for top positions, though his aggressiveness and combative nature too often led to mistakes, while Schumacher, often overshadowed by his teammate, proved more consistent and managed to secure Williams’ only victory of 2002 at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur, where Montoya also finished second, giving the Grove team their first one-two finish since the 1996 Portuguese Grand Prix.
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| WILLIAMS FW24, Juan-Pablo Montoya Montréal, Canadian GP 2002 |
At the end of the season, Williams-BMW finished second in the Constructors’ Championship with 92 points, from 1 win, 5 second places, and 7 third places. In the Drivers’ standings, Montoya took third place with 50 points and Schumacher fourth with 42, far behind the Ferrari pairing of Schumacher and Barrichello, but the potential of the FW24 gave hope for a brighter future. On December 3, 2002, Nico Rosberg, son of World Champion Keke and himself a future World Champion, conducted his very first test in a Formula 1 car, driving a Williams FW24 at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, becoming at the time the youngest driver ever to have driven a Formula 1 car.
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