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If the idea was to attract attention, Williams certainly succeeded. Choosing Mike Coughlan, one of two men at the heart of 2007's 'spy-gate' scandal, to spearhead your attempt to reverse a cycle of decline is guaranteed to get you headlines.
This, after all, is the man who, when he was employed as McLaren's chief designer, sent his wife to photocopy nearly 800 pages of Ferrari technical information in a local shop. Unsurprisingly, the assistant got suspicious, phoned Maranello, and the rest is history. McLaren were ultimately fined $100m and thrown out of that year's constructors' championship.
Coughlan was banned from F1 for two years and has filled his time since designing a vehicle for the army, working in the US-based Nascar stock-car series and, briefly, for the still-born Stefan Grand Prix team.
Now, though, he is back, following a decision by Williams to employ him as chief engineer in a reshuffle of their technical department aimed at recapturing the glory days of the third most successful team in F1 history.
As part of the changes, Sam Michael, who has been technical director for seven years, and chief aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson have both resigned, although they will stay in their current roles until the end of the year.
And in perhaps the most significant change of all, Williams co-founder Patrick Head will retire from his role as director of engineering later this year, although he will remain involved in both the F1 team and specific other Williams sister companies as a shareholder and board member.
Head is one of the most experienced and widely respected men in F1 so, for the many both inside and outside F1 who care about whether this iconic team can recapture at least some of their past form, his continued involvement is reassuring.
As these changes have made clear, though, those hopes can no longer be invested in Head or even, to some degree, team founder and owner Sir Frank Williams, who formed one of the most remarkable partnerships in F1 history.
The man who has been given the reins is the chairman Adam Parr, who was formally named as the man in charge of the day-to-day running of Williams last summer.

The wheels have been coming off at Williams for some time. Photo: Getty
Since then, Parr and the seven-man Williams board have certainly been ringing the changes.
The first was the decision to drop the promising German Nico Hulkenberg, who impressed increasingly in the course of his debut season in 2010, and replace him with Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado.
Judging by their careers so far, Maldonado is not Hulkenberg's equal on ability, but he came with a sizeable and lengthy sponsorship deal from his country's state oil company.
The decision to hire him, then, was an effective admission that long gone were the days of Williams being successful enough to choose their drivers on merit and let their performance on track deliver the necessary sponsorship resources. That particular equation had been reversed by the tide of declining results.
A second controversial decision was floating the team on the Frankfurt stock exchange, making it effectively the only F1 team to be a publicly listed company - although of course Mercedes and Ferrari are indirectly listed through their parent companies.
It has not gone especially well so far. The shares fell on their first day of trading and recently had lost a third of their value. They rebounded, though, on Tuesday following the news of the changes at the team.
The fact that there was a resurgence is interesting in itself - it's not necessarily what you would expect in the context of a decision to employ a man at the centre of one of the two biggest scandals in F1 over the last four years.
But while Coughlan's return was certainly a surprise to many in F1, perhaps that reflects an essential truth about his appointment, one voiced by Williams and Parr themselves. Spy-gate was a long time ago, he has served his punishment, it is probably time to move on.
That certainly seems to be McLaren's view of the matter. "The events that led to our decision to terminate Mike's contract occurred nearly four years ago," a spokesman told BBC Sport. "He's an experienced engineer and Williams are a famous team which we would all like to see recover to better fortunes."
The reshuffle at Williams follows the worst start to a season in the team's history, with drivers Rubens Barrichello and Maldonado failing to score points in the first three races. But unacceptable as that was, as Williams have themselves described it, what really prompted the changes was the difference between on-track performance and pre-season expectation.
For a number of years now, Williams have started each F1 season proclaiming that their new car was the one that would deliver a return to form. The difference in 2011 was that this time they really believed it.
The new FW33 is quite a radical design, featuring a remarkably small gearbox, the intention of which was to free up as much airflow as possible to what is now the critical area at the bottom of the rear wing.
"This year, we really thought we'd come out fighting," said the team's head of communications, Claire Williams, Frank's daughter, on Wednesday. "We thought we had the potential for more podiums only to find the reality was we had regressed further. After however many years, that wasn't acceptable any more."
In the short to medium term, it is Coughlan who has been charged with turning the team's fortunes around. The 52-year-old is to be considered for Michael's soon-to-be-vacant role. And even if they ultimately appoint someone else as technical director, Coughlan is responsible for next year's car and will clearly remain a key figure in the technical department for some years to come.
He is a man of vast experience - he has been in F1 since 1984 and has worked for Lotus, Benetton, Ferrari, Arrows and McLaren. He is regarded as very bright, enthusiastic and hard-working, even if he is, as someone said to me on Wednesday, "not exactly Adrian Newey".
That was a bit harsh. Newey, the man responsible for Red Bull's current period of domination, is a genius, one of the greatest engineers in F1 history. The problem for all the other F1 teams is that he is one of a kind. But you can see why the comparison was made - their shared history means it is Newey's shadow that hangs heaviest over Williams.
The team's spell at the very top of F1 ended with his departure for McLaren. The final car he had an influence on, the 1997 FW19, was the last Williams to win a title. And they have never been the same since.
Frank Williams has admitted that letting Newey go, not acceding to his demands for more involvement in the running of the team, was his biggest mistake. But expecting a return to those days, of the fastest car in F1, of seasons - entire eras - of domination, is a pipe dream, as Parr himself admits.
When I asked him on the eve of the season why Williams had not won a race since 2004, he turned the question back at me. "Let's just switch it around," he said. "Why would you expect Williams to beat Ferrari?"
It was a fair point. Years of lack of performance have produced a vicious circle of decline. Lack of results makes it harder to attract the best drivers and sponsors with big money. Lack of resources makes it even harder to produce a winning car. And not being able to attract a man who can transcend it - a Hamilton, an Alonso - makes the results even more elusive. So it goes on.
Even Barrichello's vast experience and highly regarded technical ability, which was instrumental in helping Williams recover from a poor start last year, has not helped them produce a competitive car in 2011.
Coughlan's job, then, is not to return Williams to its previous heights, but to restore respectability, get them back on an even keel. Only then can they think again about going further.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/05/williams_look_for_way_out_of_c.html
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Are the new rules a good thing? What are my views on the Hispania debacle at the start of the season? Do the new tyres leave too much rubber on the track? Which new driver has made the best impression so far? What's going wrong at Ferrari?
Watch my answers below.
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/murraywalker/2011/04/your_questions_answered_-_part.html
This blog entry is being penned as I fly over Quanzhou on my way to Shanghai at 3,9101ft, travelling at 616mph.
I've just watched possibly the greatest boxing movie ever made, in my humble opinion. The Fighter is a gritty, emotive film about human endeavour, sporting brilliance, and defying the odds. Christian Bale is a master of his craft, isn't he?
It got me thinking of some of the greatest sporting tales ever told. I grew up with my Dad regaling me with tales of watching George Best's electrifying feat at the 1968 European Cup final. We all know about the sheer bravery and mastery that Sir Steve Redgrave displayed in winning Olympic gold number five or Red Rum's historic third Grand National win in 1977.
Now, imagine seeing Michael Schumacher crossing the line to bag win 92 of his career. In his 40s, having had three years in retirement, his return initially fails to deliver... and then, finally, it happens. Where would that rank, do you think?
I know opinion is divided on Michael and it's a shame some of his incredible drives fight for space in our memories with the controversial battle with Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997 or his demotion to the back of the grid during qualifying at Monaco in 2006. However, don't underestimate what a win would really mean and tell us about him.
This sport moves at such pace that, within a season or two, reining in these cars is like going into a cage with a totally new species of wild animal. They react differently; the cars evolve during the race to such an extent a completely new driving style is suddenly required.

Fans of Michael Schumacher would love to see him do something special again (AFP)
The demands on a driver's time are greater than ever and unlike in his first career, Michael's perfomances are immediately live on the internet, being discussed on message boards and the subject of 140-character reviews courtesy of the Twitter revolution.
Not only is Michael compared to contemporaries in his 20s, but perhaps even more unforgiving is that he's compared to himself in his 20s.
We arrive at a circuit and immediately mention Michael 'has won here more than anyone else', 'took pole here by over a second in 2002' or said it is 'where Michael secured his seventh title'. Sometimes, living up to your own legacy must be that hardest act of all.
One thing is for sure, just like the film, Michael is a fighter and will battle on. Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn will be aware every time he looks at 'Schumi' that if he can produce the car, Michael can produce the drive.
Mind you, he'll have to go some way to beat the current drivers' championship leader. The last time a driver won the first two races and failed to take the title we were watching Back To The Future and listening to Bros, so history is on Sebastian Vettel's side, but I get the impression that the sport isn't.
What I mean by that is that these days the rate of development and evolution is so unrelenting and punishing that I'd be surprised if the lights at Brackley, Woking, Milton Keynes, Grove or Maranello are ever turned off.
The same incredible process of change also applies to each grand prix itself. Pirelli deserves a huge round of applause for giving us tyres that are delivering precisely what the sport wanted - drivers flying on one lap and driving like my Grandpa Bernard used to in his white Maxi on the next. The 24 gladiators may hate having a chariot that performs so differently during the space of 50-something laps but it makes it great for you at home.
I know with DRS, KERS, tyre degradation, Plan A and B along with all the other elements of a Grand Prix, at times it must seem like a Higher Maths A-Level lesson but I must say Martin Brundle and David Coulthard do a great job at making sense of the madness.

Some bad luck and his old adversary Fernando Alonso cost Hamilton in Malaysia (Getty)
Ooh, we've just been told 30 minutes to landing, as the season-long treadmill really gets into its stride. We'll be at the track before we know it and I think this is a good weekend to keep your eyes on the men straining every siney, making every move on and off track, and not resting for a moment in an attempt to ramp up the pressure on Seb.
Lewis Hamilton. I saw him after the last GP, a race where strategy, bad luck and his old pal Fernando created the perfect storm to wreck his race. He said 'that's racing' but he knows the facts tell us he was as quick in race-pace as Seb, and he'll take heart from that.
How about Mark Webber? If something is going wrong with one of the Red Bull RB7s it seems to go wrong for his. Two difficult GPs, a dodgy KERS system and four stops compared to just two made by Kamui Kobayashi in Malaysia. However, 12 months ago Seb had no luck and hardly any points. Mark, by contrast, has had two strong finishes - and points mean prizes.
And what of Fernando Alonso? I spent a week at the same holiday resort as him after the Australian race and we were laughing together as he went out day after day to play golf in the driving rain whilst I used the weather as an excuse to do a LOT of sleeping. A bit of rain? No problem for Fernando and that sums up his single-minded determination to achieve what he wants and it won't change this year. A car noticeably slower than McLaren and still managing to race Lewis on the track.
Two races in and I think that the competition at the front seems more aggressive and competitive than I've seen since I started this job. Another great reason to leap out of bed early on Friday morning, hey?
And finally, on that note, thanks to the millions who sacrificed a Sunday morning snooze for last weekend's race. The Malaysian GP enjoyed the highest viewing figures on record and the whole production team were delighted when we discussed it the morning after the race over a breakfast of roti bread and vegetable dhal. Great motivation for all!
Looking forward to sharing this Sunday morning with you too.
Jake
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2011/04/this_blog_entry_is_being.html
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Hello everyone,
What a start to the new Formula 1 season it has been! I am filming my first video blogs of the year on Monday. There's a lot to talk about and I'd love to hear your questions.
So if you have anything you'd like to ask me about the Formula 1 season so far, then please post your questions below.
All the best
Murray
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/murraywalker/2011/04/welcome_to_2011.html
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