There is much to like about the Williams Formula 1 team. Fondly remembered as Williams Grand Prix Engineering, known affectionately as Team Willy, now called Williams F1 and soon to be known as Williams Grand Prix Holdings plc, this is a quintessentially British team. And long may that last.

The Williams folk are big-hearted racers, and that comes from the very top, Frank and Patrick setting the tone and staying true to their values.

This week, at its headquarters at Grove in Oxfordshire, the team held its ‘livery launch’ for 2011, the car itself having already been seen and examined at Valencia, Jerez and Barcelona.

Underneath a smart navy blue livery, boldly featuring new sponsor PDVSA (the Venezuelan state oil company), FW33 is the most radical Williams for a long time. These days, explained technical director Sam Michael, you have to take risks to get ahead.

There was much talk of ‘tight rear ends’, stirring not a little mirth and banter among the assembled British journalists. “Let’s face it,” said the eloquent Sam, “everyone likes a tight rear end.” He is referring, of course, to the back of FW33 which is notably compact, low and neat.

This has meant designing and building a new gearbox (the smallest the team has ever produced) and angling the driveshafts upwards towards the wheels, that being a radical move and entailing use of a recently developed technology. Like all teams, Williams is searching for downforce in the wake of a ban on double diffusers. The success of the new gearbox will be important because this year it must be used for five races rather than four as in 2010.

Rubens Barrichello did not come to Grove, the date clashing with his 14^th wedding anniversary. Sir Frank missed it too, not yet back from Qatar where he’d been helping Prime Minister David Cameron to promote British engineering excellence in the Gulf, while co-founder Patrick Head, we were told, was away on a ‘secret mission’ in the USA. But F1 rookie Pastor Maldonado was there (above) and heard Sam Michael tell the assembled company how well he’s shown in testing thus far. The GP2 champion brought much-needed sponsorship to Williams, hence PDVSA writ large on the car, and it is clear that the Venezuelan has every intention of proving that he is there because of his talent and not simply because of what he brings from his homeland.

“It’s not so different from GP2,” he told me, “but everything is bigger – more people, more technology, more buttons on the steering wheel. At first it was difficult, being faced with all the functions controlled from the car, but now it’s no problem. It’s a new season, new rules, so anything is possible and I will compete as hard as I can. I am focused, I’m not worried.” It will be intriguing to see how he fares against the speed and experience of Barrichello.

There was, naturally, plenty of talk about tyres. And yes, Michael confirmed, they have seen far more degradation with the Pirellis than with Bridgestone, and he predicts three pitstops in the early races. There was also mention of Michelin. Why? Because a five-course lunch was provided by two-star Michelin chef Michael Caines MBE, with whom Williams has forged an official partnership for 2011. VIP guests and sponsors will eat extremely well this year. Though perhaps it’s not such good news for Barrichello, who has lost a lot of weight over the winter in his efforts to stay ahead of the game.

As I said, there is much to like about Williams. All the photos on the walls of the bar in the Conference Centre at Grove feature Alan Jones. There’s one of him and Frank on a training run at the old factory in nearby Didcot. Happy days. Certainly the team has pinned its hopes on FW33, quietly confident that this car can take it another step back towards the front of the grid where many fans around the world would like the team to be.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Back in 1979 Keke Rosberg was an eager young star, racing in both Formula 1 and the ‘new era’ Can-Am in America. Rosberg broke into F1 in 1978 driving various races for the Theodore, Wolf and ATS teams. In ‘79 he drove for Wolf through the second half of the year after James Hunt decided to quit mid-season. But at the start of ‘79 Keke had nothing in F1 and was committed to racing in the States in one of Paul Newman’s Lola-based Spyder Can-Am cars.

The Spyder was fast but fragile and burned up its front tyres. Rosberg won the season-opener at Road Atlanta and again at Watkins Glen in mid-summer. He also finished second to that year’s World Champion Alan Jones in Carl Haas’s Lola after a fierce battle at Mid-Ohio. But there were almost as many crashes.

“I had a bad year,” Keke recalls. “I was often very fast but I kept blowing front tyres. I pushed the fronts too hard, but they didn’t warn you. It just burst. It was the shoulder that went all the time. I had a huge shunt at Willow Springs in testing. I went about three miles across the desert in a cloud of dust.

“I had another big one at Laguna Seca. My first lap of qualifying was good, but not quite good enough. My brain said you should not do a second lap, but my heart said, ‘Go for it.’ And the right front tyre burst in turn one.

“In those days there was an earth bank and nothing else, and I hit the bank very, very hard in a Lola tub. The Lola limp was one of the best-known illnesses among racing drivers and I was lucky I didn’t break my legs. In fact, I didn’t break anything. But boy, was I messed up!

“It was a huge shunt. I had a girlfriend who used to fly for American Airlines and she nursed me that night because I was completely gone.

“When we did the warm-up on Sunday morning we taped my gloves to the steering wheel because I had no strength in my hands. I drove the warm-up in the spare car but I was so dizzy and felt so bad that I went straight back to the hotel and lay down for three hours. Then I came back and drove the race.

“I was running very strong. I think I was fourth, but of course I didn’t know where I was. I’d run out of brakes and was just not all there, and I didn’t have the strength to catch a slide out of the last turn. I spun and stalled the thing.”

Rosberg struggled home in sixth place a lap down and then recuperated in LA before the season-closer at Riverside. “My friend Mike Brockman took me to Los Angeles and I laid in his bed for nearly two weeks. I was so bad he came back from the office every day at lunchtime to feed me.”

At Riverside Keke put on quite a show, leading at one point but tearing off a bunch of bodywork after a collision with Geoff Lees. “I hit Geoff and took half the bodywork off, which wasn’t a problem. I was leading but Haas protested, so they black-flagged me. Otherwise I would have won that one, bodywork or no bodywork. That was the attitude in those days. As long as there were wheels on the car we would keep on driving.

“There were some good people in Can-Am in those days. Gilles [Villeneuve] came in and out, and Bobby Rahal was there and Price Cobb too, as well as guys like Jones and Jacky Ickx. It was a good time. But the tracks were so dangerous! The cars were very fast and the tracks were bad and it was a bad combination. At Watkins Glen you looked at the Armco and you didn’t want to think about it. It was a different time.”

Sometimes we forget how different.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Jacky Ickx and Mario Andretti. Quite simply, two of the greatest racing drivers in motor racing history. Even their names, which carry the resonance of Grand Prix wins from a golden era, heroic sports car feats and more, are dripping with style and class.

As far as we’re aware, these two have never been interviewed together before, and yet these giants of racing formed a bond 40 years ago as team-mates at Ferrari racing in both Formula 1 and sports cars. When they joined us for our inaugural Motor Sport Hall of Fame event in February we had the perfect opportunity to reunite them – and get them talking about the Prancing Horse. The result is the cover story for the June issue of Motor Sport.

Editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck was handed this enviable task, but it wasn’t exactly smooth running. He was made to sweat. Nigel had arranged to meet the pair in Signor Sassi, a favourite Italian restaurant, on the day of the Hall of Fame in London. Andretti had arrived from the States safe and sound the night before, but Ickx wouldn’t be so lucky.

Jacky spends much of his time in Mali these days, but he’d told us flying in from Africa would not be a problem. As it turned out, it wasn’t. But taking the short connecting trip from Brussels would be – his flight was cancelled. Typical!

I got the message in the morning and started to sweat. Jacky was one of our star guests for this special night and now I had images of him failing to make it (the message I got was that his flight was cancelled and I had images of him stranded in Africa!). But with characteristic coolness, Jacky came through for us. He jumped on the Eurostar, came straight to the restaurant and being a true gent was full of apologies (even though it wasn’t his fault, of course). Phew! The Hall of Fame was saved and I’d still get my future cover story.

Following the entertaining lunch, Nigel met up with Andretti again in Bahrain at the Grand Prix and Ickx at the Goodwood press day, topping up the material he’d already got from the two of them together. The result was 19,000 words of transcription from his Dictaphone – and he hates transcribing! I know, it’s hard to complain when you’re listening back to gems from such heroes, but we have to hand it to Nigel this month: he’s put in the hours…

Aside from Ickx and Andretti, there is an eclectic mix of stories in the new issue, from just about every era. Highlights for me include Anthony Rowlinson’s terrific interview with design genius John Barnard, Bruno Giacomelli talking to Paul Fearnley – and the photos of outlandish second-generation Can-Am cars in Gordon Kirby’s retrospective. The stars that passed through that series in the 1970s and early ’80s – including Jones, Villeneuve, Tambay, Rosberg and that man Ickx – has bestowed cult status on the era. So right up our street, then.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The start of a new Grand Prix season is always a time for optimism. One tends to look forward to what lies ahead, not back on what has passed – which is just as well considering the events of 2007 in Formula 1.

But for all the sad controversy of the spy scandal, there was a lot to excite and inspire on track last season, and there’s the potential for more of the same this time around – hopefully without the off-track distractions.

In this month’s issue we focus on the F1 season with a bumper preview that includes profiles of all the teams and drivers. Meanwhile, Nigel Roebuck talks to Sir Jackie Stewart about what to expect, and as ever JYS is thought provoking and frank in his opinions. Stewart’s a signed-up fan of Lewis Hamilton, but that doesn’t mean he’s certain that the bright young star of last year is going to have everything his own way this time…

Aside from modern F1, there is plenty in this month’s issue to keep you entertained for the next month. Gordon Kirby’s exclusive Roger Penske interview on The Captain’s early career as a promising driver is not to be missed, and neither is Simon Taylor’s latest Lunch with… His guest this time? Alan Jones. Entertainment guaranteed, then.

Putting together Motor Sport every month is a joy, but sometimes there are tough decisions to make. Here’s an example.

When we heard Derek Bell planned to race in the Daytona 24 Hours one last time in what would be his final appearance in international motor sport we thought it was a ripe topic for a feature. So I commissioned Rob Widdows to speak to Derek after the race to talk through how it went and reminisce about his good times and bad times at ‘the other’ great 24-hour enduro.

Rob duly carried out the interview and filed an entertaining story in typically double-quick time. Unfortunately, the article had lost its relevance. Poor Derek had missed out on racing because the Riley-Pontiac he was supposed to drive retired early on. Deeply disappointing for the three-time Daytona winner – and a little bit frustrating for us. Without the ‘hook’ of the story, I couldn’t justify running it in the magazine.

But we’ve pieced it together from the cutting room floor for you to read online instead. It was too good to waste, after all.

I hope you enjoy Rob’s article – and this month’s magazine, too.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine