Barrichello to debut 2011 Williams on 1 February

Rubens Barrichello will give Williams’ 2011 car its track debut at Valencia on 1 February, a spokeswoman for the Oxfordshire based team has confirmed.

She told Dutch website f1today.nl that although veteran Barrichello will be driving on the first day, the Brazilian’s new teammate Pastor Maldonado will take over half-way through the second day as the pair equally share all the pre-season testing.

The spokeswoman also said Williams has not decided whether the 1 February debut will coincide with a conventional “launch”.

“The FW33 will be in action at the first test in Valencia,” she said.

The team’s engineering boss and co-owner Patrick Head wrote in his new column for Motorsport magazine that the FW33 is “more adventurous” than Williams’ 2010 car.

“Rubens told the media that he thought the car looked radical, but I think it is just more adventurous than our 2010 car, and to move upwards in team order, it will need to be,” said the Briton.

Head admitted it is “unfortunate” Nico Hulkenberg was not retained for 2011 even though he thinks the young German “deserves a seat on merit”.

He insists that Venezuelan Maldonado, who in 2010 succeeded Hulkenberg as the new GP2 champion and “comes with some financial support”, also “deserves” the seat.

© RIF | GMM