Amazingly, it’s been 12 seasons since the might of the Williams team produced a World Champion. That’s quite an astonishing fact for a team that simply dominated the 1980′s and 90′s. Can the team start producing good cars again? Even if just for Frank Williams’ sake, I hope so.

How can a team so well established perform so badly for over a decade? Well put quite simply, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the last year Williams had Renault engines was 1997; the last time they won the World Championship. Williams has failed to secure a half decent engine deal since the BMW days at the start of the century. So what have they done? Gone back to the highly unsuccessful Cosworth engines. Oh dear!

This season see’s the classic experience-rookie partnership at the team to try and shake things up a bit. Veteran Rubens Barrichello should bring some vital experience and speed to a team that scored just 34.5 points from 17 races last season. This is just simply not good enough from a team with as big a budget as Williams do. Barrichello is joined by German rookie Nico Hulkenberg who is widely regarded as one of the hottest young talents to enter Formula One in years. The pair should revitalise the stalling British outfit.

Despite this, testing seems to have gone relatively incident-free with the cars even showing some genuine pace at times! Hulkenberg even topped the time sheets on a damp day at Jerez; promising signs indeed. At least they won’t be at the back of the field; Barrichello was a whole 5 seconds quicker than the rather pedestrian looking Lotus’ at the same test.

In football terms, Williams has become a sort of feeder team for the rest of the field. Nico Rosberg was always destined for big things and one has to wonder whether the other Nico is headed the same way. Williams has to realise that the team needs a massive shake up. Patrick Head and Sam Michael have been extremely loyal servants for the team, but I think it’s time for them to move on now. A fresh design team, look and technical expertise is needed at a team that has the potential to be back at the front of the field if they get it right.

So heading into Bahrain, I predict a distinctly mediocre performance from the sleeping giants. Barrichello and Hulkenberg will struggle to make it past the reaches of the top 10 in what is the most competitive field ever.

Prediction: 2 points.

Join me and Victoria on Formula1FanCast.com’s Fantasy League Formula 1 2010. Our league is called Formula1Fancast.com and the league pin is 722. Try and beat us if you can, but be warned we’re good!

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