In 1999, Mario Theissen, a German engineer born in Monschau in the Eifel, a region in western Germany, became director of BMW Motorsport alongside former driver Gerhard Berger, and in 2002 joined the Williams-BMW engineering staff with the task of following the development of the Bavarian V10 directly on the race circuits during the season. This was not new in Formula 1, since several teams already had an engine technical director integrated directly into the chassis constructor’s team, but at Williams this arrangement created tensions within the team, with Theissen on more than one occasion blaming Williams itself for not having a car worthy of the powerful BMW engine. Perhaps for this very reason, Patrick Head, the long-standing Technical Director of the Grove-based team in Oxfordshire, England, decided for 2003 to design an entirely new car, the FW25, which abandoned almost completely the features of the two previous cars built in partnership with BMW.
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| WILLIMS FW25, Juan-Pablo Montoya Montecarlo, Monaco GP 2003 |
Nevertheless, the technical staff remained practically unchanged, with Englishman Gavin Fisher still in the role of Chief Designer. Brian O’Roake and Mark Tatham continued as Chief Engineer for Composites and Chief Mechanical Engineer, respectively. The Aerodynamics Managers were still Jason Sommerville and Nick Alcock, but no longer under the direction of Geoff Willis, who had moved to BAR, but under Italian engineer Antonia Terzi. The very young Terzi, one of the very few women in the world of Formula 1, had obtained a Master’s degree in Materials Engineering at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy and a PhD in Engineering, focused on aerodynamics, at the University of Exeter in the UK. Born in Mirandola, in the province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna, Terzi initially worked in Ferrari’s design department under Rory Byrne until 2001, when she was recruited by Williams Racing to become the team’s Chief Aerodynamic Engineer. The new Williams FW25 was thus the product of an entirely new project, with a stiffer and lighter carbon fiber monocoque chassis manufactured directly at Williams facilities, on which new push-rod suspension with torsion bar dampers at the front was installed, while at the rear a classic damper was used.
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| WILLIMS FW25, Ralf Schumacher Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 2003 |
The engine, the cause of many problems in the previous season due to its lack of reliability, was completely revised, although it maintained the classic V10 structure with a 90° bank angle. The engine block and cylinder head were produced at BMW’s foundries in Landshut, Lower Bavaria, using an aluminum alloy through a special die-casting process called Thin-Wall, particularly suitable for producing parts with high mechanical characteristics while keeping the weight very low. This special alloy allowed BMW technicians to keep the weight of the new P83 at just 90 kg, thus matching the competition, even though the main feature of the previous P82, the maximum power output, was partially sacrificed. In fact, the new Bavarian V10 settled at 900 hp at 19,200 rpm, far less than the 940 hp delivered by the P82, but more than enough to face the competition and, above all, having almost completely resolved the reliability issues, with the 2003 season closing with only one failure suffered by Montoya in Austria.
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| WILLIMS FW25, Ralf Schumacher Melbourne, Australian GP 2003 |
The aesthetics of the new FW25 partly recalled those of the 2002 car. The tip of the new nose was slightly more sloping and the front wing had a more arched profile, the sidepods, although still very generous, had softer shapes and in front of the rear wheels now had two narrow chimneys to vent hot air, while on the sides there was a proliferation of additional winglets to clean the airflow directed to the rear wing, itself a new design with slightly arched wing profiles. Despite all these small innovations, the aerodynamic aspect of the car was precisely what created the most problems, as highlighted by the two main drivers, Ralf Schumacher and Juan-Pablo Montoya, who during the first part of the season complained of a lack of front downforce with annoying understeer. From mid-season, the rear of the car was completely redesigned, allowing the load to be shifted more towards the front. A great help also came from tire supplier Michelin, which devised a new type of front tire that provided greater contact with the ground as the tread wore down. Not surprisingly, after an uninspiring start to the season for the Grove cars, with only one podium and a few other points finishes in the first six races, from the Monaco Grand Prix things changed significantly and in the following seven races the FW25 achieved 4 wins, 4 second places, and 2 thirds.
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| WILLIMS FW25, Juan-Pablo Montoya Suzuka, Japanese GP 2003 |
Under pressure from Ferrari, which used Bridgestone tires, on August 27 the FIA intervened and changed the rule requiring stewards to measure tread width not only with new tires but also with used ones, thus forcing Michelin to return to parameters allowed by the technical regulations. Only the speed of the Italian Monza circuit allowed the FW25 to still achieve a good result in an otherwise forgettable end of the season. At Monza, the team’s third driver, Spaniard Marc Gené, replaced Ralf Schumacher, recovering from a car accident the week before the Italian race, finishing fifth at the flag and himself contributing to the conquest of second place in the Constructors’ Championship, with Williams-BMW finishing with 144 points, just two points ahead of McLaren-Mercedes.
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