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BAR's new technical director Geoff Willis made his first
appearance at the San Marino GP, and was not slow to point out that
the team has got a long way to go.
Geoff has had an interesting career, and before getting involved
with F1 he worked in many other fields, including the America's Cup.
Indeed, he was involved in formulating the technical rules to which
that event now runs.
Willis first got involved with motor sport working alongside
Adrian Newey at Leyton House in 1990, and later joined his former
colleague at Williams. When Newey left, he became chief
aerodynamicist, and he held that position until accepting an offer
from Craig Pollock to join BAR at the end of last season. Like many
before him he found that, with Patrick Head firmly at the Williams
helm, the only way to progress was to move elsewhere. Adam Cooper
asked him about his new role.
Q: Seventh place for Jacques at Imola wouldn't normally be much
to shout about, but in the circumstances it's not bad. Are you
pleased with progress?
"In terms of race operations and race strategy it worked very
well. The good performance in the warm-up was genuine, with a
sensible fuel load, and both cars were running very well. Jacques
said the car was very strong, although they were both slightly slow
in the middle sector. We told him to look after the car and he drove
it very easily."
Q: You watched the race from the garage rather than the pit wall.
Isn't that a bit strange for a technical director?
"I'm not part of the race team operations, and I don't need to
be. I was actually looking at the car during the stops in case we
had any problems and needed somebody to make a call one way or the
other. I'm really here in a role of understanding how the whole team
works, and where the weak bits are. Fundamentally my task at the
moment is design, performance and reliability. I think it's probably
necessary for me to come to four or five races a year, maybe every
third or fourth race, just to avoid losing contact."
Q: So you are going to have more of a Rory Byrne role, working
away at home and only occasionally coming to races?
"Yes certainly, that's right. This is obviously the problem
with the job title - it's horses for courses! Adrian has got a very
strong race engineering background and so he's here all the time,
while Ross Brawn is sort of crossing over between team principal and
technical director. My job is to be responsible in directing all the
technical issues of the team, and for that I need to know in person
what goes on at the race track. Clearly I'm not there to run the car
day in and day out, and it would be nonsense if I suggested I
should."
Q: You were hired by Craig Pollock, but by the time you started
work BAR had a new boss. Was that a bit strange?
"The change was made while I was still on gardening leave. I
came in to see David Richards in early January, I think it was, and
I think we discovered that we had the same set of attitudes and
understanding of what the problems involved."
Q: In a way does it help that you are both coming in with new
ideas at the same time?
"I think so. He's certainly a dynamic person. Although his
experience of F1 is not a huge amount, apart from his time at
Benetton, Prodrive is a serious player in the WRC and other areas of
automotive engineering, and I think he's got a mindset that's right
for the business. He understands what's needed. I think he's got
very dynamic management style, he's decisive, he's a good motivator,
and he's very enthusiastic. I'm pleased with what I find and I think
we can work together really well."
Q: You had a good look at the new Ferrari on the grid at Imola.
Did you learn anything?
"Over the last three or four years you've seen the Ferrari
evolve more and more into a single concept car, and it becomes more
integrated every year. You certainly have to accept that it's the
quickest car out there at the moment, so it's worth having a good
look at it!"
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