Formula One Racing Series

Williams Press Release - April 27, 1998

TEAM WILLIAMS, is pleased to announce that the team placed first in the FORS Team Championship and its driver's placed 1st and 2nd in the Drivers Championship. Team Owner Chris Lawrence won his third championship in seven years while Jeff August debued in his rookie year with two wins and a close second in the championship. Team Williams was won 5 Driver Championships over the last seven years, with the other two Williams championships coming in the hands of Matt Kraft and Dick Higgins. Team Williams hopes to add Jeff August to that list and has no doubt that he can do it. Mr. August would have taken the championship this year with 4 wins if there were not some highly irregular blocking manuevers early in the season. Mr. August clearly proved himself to be not only the rookie of the year, but the rookie of the decade!

Team Williams has also won 4 1/2 Team Championships over the last seven years, tieing the title once with McLaren and losing it twice to Lotus under questionable circumstances.

Team Williams looks forward to good clean racing next season and hopes that all of its competitors will take pride in their ability to gain speed from their cars; not in their talent for forcing other people to drive as slow as they do.

Team Williams is also requesting the FORS contract board to recognize the option to extend Jeff August's contract with Williams for a third year.

Williams Press Release - November 6, 1997

It has come to my attention that there is some anamosity towards me on the part of the McLaren Team for a block I did onm the first lap of Hungaroring. It is refered to in the McLaren home page as an "egregious block". While I am not listed as the blocker, I do want to clarify the situation and clear up any confusion about what happened.

First, I am surprised that it is seen in the light that it is. When it was first brought to my attention, I could not even remember the incident, becuase quite simply, it was not a "targeted" block.

What it was was a situation block, meaning that in that situation, I would have blocked anyone coming through. It was nothing personal, and had nothing to do with the fact that the car coming through was a McLaren, or was driven by my former teammate, Dick Higgins.

To explain the situation, if I remember it correctly, John Weber had gone through the line at the posted speed and occupied the exit space. I then went to the inside, burning two wears and was sitting beside him, with a posted speed 20 MPH in excess of his speed. At this point, I had effectively passed John Weber, and would be able to take the desired line through the upcoming corner. I was one space behind my lap plan, but could work with that.

At this point Dick tried to come through and sit between us using a forced pass. If Dick had succeeded, then the following turn Dick and I would have moved out side-by-side in parrelel movement, knocking me of my line for the next corner, dropping me behind Dick and allowing John to move up beside me. There were three things very wrong with this:

1. Being two spaces off my line would have caused me to fall back a turn.
2. I would have effectively lost two places.
3. I would have been then racing side-by-side with John Weber, which considering the past problems between us, is something I try to avoid.

As such, I blocked and the block was successful. I am sorry it ruined Dick's race. In that situation, given the choice of giving up two positions and a whole turn, I would have blocked anyone coming through. It had nothing to do with Dick. I certainly would not categorize it as "egregious", and suspect that anyone in the same situation, if they recognized the implications of Dick's successful pass, would have done the same.

I will continue to be one of the most vocal critics of targeted blocking. I am also one of the driver's that plays the block card the least. When I do, it is usually for a very good reason. This was certainly a good reason. If someone is going to criticize me for my use of the block card, I only ask that they first openly criticize everyone else that uses it more often than I.

There is a difference between racing and blocking. Sometimes in racing, you have to block or protect your position. I have no objection to doing that, and I have and will continue to do so when the situation requires.

I do object to blocking for the sake of blocking. When the effort subtracts from your overall speed and ability to finish the race, then you are no longer racing, you are blocking. We have already seen a few incidents of that this season.

I have a few times in the past, when the other driver's behavior warrented it, also deliberately blocked people. I was not targeting Dick I would have blocked any car in that situation. As Dick used to be my team mate during the time of some of the most egregious blocking, I believe his is quite aware of my opinion on the subject. He is also aware that I almost never do "spite" blocks or unneccesary blocking. I was quit surprised to discover that he considered what I did at Hungaroing to be anything less than a clear and necessary fight for position. But, no matter how clean you try to race, you simply cannot roll over and give away positions or critical spaces.

Unfortunately, I have learned from Dick that he deliberately blocked my teammate Jeff in that race. This was in response to his mis-perception of my incident with him earlier in the race. This was unfair to Jeff. Jeff has now been denied two victories in a row because of unfair blocking tactics.

Last season devolved into a bitter dispute over the way people were blocking. Halfway through that season, I did decide to withdraw from the season becuase of my unhappiness over this. I would hate to see this season devolve into another round of "spite blocking". People should seriously try to work at being "gentleman" drivers. But, no one should be expected to give up a position for the sake of gentlemanlyness. I certainly do not. But, I also believe that people can behave thenselves better on the track than they have been already. It would be a real shame if we cannot act with more grace, class, maturity and sportsmanship than Micheal Schumacher has.

Williams Press Release, September 14, 1997

WILLIAMS, Formula One's most successful racing team, is proud to announce the addition of Jeff August to its traditional star studded line-up. Over the last six years, Williams has won 4 of the 6 driver championships, 3 1/2 team championships, and 17 races and scored 434 points. There have been 60 races over that time, of which Williams was represented 117 times. Chris Lawrence and Matt Kraft were teammates for the first three seasons at Williams, with each taking a championship and taking 6 and 3 races respectively. Then Chris Lawrence and Dick Higgins were teammates for the next three years, with again each driver taking a championship and each taking 4 races.

New driver Jeff August has showed considerible promise, having already taken a podium in his third race. Williams hopes that both Chris and Jeff will each take a championship before having to go their seperate ways. The traditional Williams three year teammate period may be interupted by the latest changes to the rules, but, we hope to have this rule changed by next season.

Williams will continue its traditions of good racing, clean racing, and always running two number one cars.

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