OMG!!!
Williams became the first team to launch their 2004 challenger at Valencia today - and it's turned a few heads.
The FW26 - unveiled by Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya - sports a revolutionary new front nose that is certain to cause a stir.
Last season's constructors' championship runners-up have gone for the radical approach with a car unlike any we've seen in recent years.
The team's chief designer Gavin Fisher said: "It will be immediately evident to onlookers that a high degree of innovative design has gone into the FW26."
"There has been a great deal of anticipation on our part about this new car.
"It has challenged us throughout its development and there is certainly a sense that today is a more significant launch day than in previous years."
The car has a shorter nose than its predecessor with the front wing mounted on what the team call 'tusks'.
Drivers Montoya and Schumacher are both impressed with the new machine and will drive it round the Spanish circuit later today.
Schumacher said: "I have tested some of the new elements of the FW26. And individually, they all have been a real step forward, whether the engine, the new gearbox, or all the other smaller but none the less significant components.
�gSo I am really fascinated to see how all of this works together, and it would be fair to say that my expectations are very high."
Montoya added: "We had a great deal of anticipation about last year's car, and it turned out to be justified anticipation.
�gThis season, there is an even greater degree of expectation about the potential of this car, and the great advance the team has made is to bring the whole validation process forward by a significant amount.
�gI hope the car will be quick from the off, but now we have the benefit of a clear two month test programme in Spain before the first race."
The team have launched their car earlier than last year following their slow start to the 2003 season.
Sam Michael, the team's Chief Operations Engineer, said: "In 2003 it became evident that we suffered performance-wise as a consequence of launching our car relatively late on in the winter.
�gRefining the car took some time, and as a consequence of this (as well as other factors), we didn't win a race until Monaco, seven races into the year.
�gThe reason we are here unveiling the FW26 in order to bring our test programme forward really doesn't need any more explaining.�h
Team boss Frank Williams added: "Our ambition can be nothing other than winning most races, steal Ferrari's crown and add another championship title to the record.
"Having any less ambition at the start of the year would be wrong."
courtesy of www.itv-f1.net
hope the beat the ferrari team. always like to support the 2nd best team 
