AT&T Williams F1

“James is in the building”. The ladies in accounts rush to apply their make-up; mechanics down tools to print off photographs for him to sign; in the canteen there are genuine whoops of excitement.

To say that James Toseland’s arrival at the factory is eagerly awaited is an understatement. We’re racers here at Williams F1 and the presence of double World Superbike champion and MotoGP star James Toseland is a reason to stop work for a few minutes.


Toseland has dropped in at Grove while en route to Donington for this weekend’s British Motorcycle Grand Prix. He has asked to take a look behind the scenes at a Formula 1 factory and we’re only too happy to oblige.



He is welcomed in reception by Frank Williams and Patrick Head (himself a keen biker), before being whisked off by Jonathan Williams for a whistle-stop tour of the Williams F1 museum, which houses an example of every car ever built by the team.



To give James a comprehensive tour, Ed Wood, the team’s Chief Designer and a bit of a self-confessed “bike nut” then takes him to the machine shops, wind tunnels, racebays and design room. He seems amazed by what he sees.


“The out-and-out difference between my Tech3 Yamaha team and Williams F1 is that everything is developed in-house here,” says James. “At Tech3 my mechanics are basically fitters because all of the development work for my bike is done in Japan, where it’s shipped after every race. Formula One teams, on the other hand, manufacture most of their cars in-house, which is an impressive feat.”


Another impressive aspect of Formula One is the performance of the cars themselves. Around the Circuit de Catalunya they are 20 seconds per lap faster than the MotoGP bikes and James dons race boots and gloves to discover the performance for himself aboard the team’s top secret simulator.


Kazuki Nakajima sets a benchmark time of 1m21s and shows James around the controls. Test driver Nico Hulkenberg’s seat is then fitted into the cockpit and James hops in. He spins on his first lap out of the pits and his first flying lap is 10s shy of Kazuki’s time, but over the next 30 laps he gets to within three seconds of his target time.


“I’ve never previously driven a single-seater, let alone an F1 car,” says James. “It’s quite a culture shock to lap 20s faster than on the bike and while the cornering speeds of the car are very impressive, the most difficult thing for me to get used to is the brakes. You have to be very aggressive under braking and Xevi [Pujolar, Kazuki’s race engineer] kept telling me to apply more initial pressure. I’m told that Kazki and Nico apply about 85 kilos of pressure to the pedal, which seems incredible.”


There is a genuine fascination among Williams’ engineers to see how quickly James adapts to four wheels. Patrick Head turns up to watch progress, as does Technical Director, Sam Michael, Chief Operations Engineer, Rod Nelson, Nico Rosberg’s Race Engineer, Tony Ross while Ed Wood also pops back to see how James is getting along.


“I’ve been a fan of James’s for a while,” says Patrick. “I first met him on the grid at Brands Hatch last year at the World Superbike meeting and he’s obviously very talented. As for his run in our simulator, he improved constantly and given more time would probably have got even closer to Kazuki’s time. He did a good job.”


James emerges from the simulator dripping in sweat – “I got a similar adrenaline rush to that which I get when I’m motorcycling” – and before leaving heads to the racebay for an autograph signing session. While there, he meets Jake Archer, the eight-year-old nephew of Lee Tarrant, who works in the team’s model shop. Jake is the reigning Mini Moto champion and has MotoGP ambitions. “One day,” says James, “you will be MotoGP champion!”

In total, James spends six hours at the factory and impresses everyone with his easy-going charm and obvious talent for driving, as well as riding bikes. In one visit he’s turned an entire Formula One team into avid MotoGP fans. Good luck at Donington this weekend; we’ll be watching from Magny-Cours!

Footage of Toseland’s visit to Williams F1 will be available on this website Monday 30th June. Don’t miss it!