Williams F1 car back on the track after 23 years

A Williams Formula One car driven throughout the 2003 season has been restored and is set to return to the track after more than two decades in storage.

Drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya both used the vehicle as a test car throughout the season - which ended with Williams finishing second in that year's Constructors' Championship.

Now, 23-years-on, the FW25 has been restored by the Grove-based F1 team's heritage division and the engineers who originally worked on it during that 2003 season.

On Friday, the renovated racing car - powered by a 3.0-litre V10 engine - will return to the track competitively at Germany's legendary motorsport Mecca, the Nurburgring.

Jonathan Kennard, the F1 team's heritage director, led the project and told the BBC team behind it had "absolutely loved" being involved in the car again.

"It's probably one of our favourite cars that we ever made in our history, and there's a lot of love and passion for the FW25 amongst all the team."

Kennard said having the knowledge of the mechanics who had originally worked on the car in 2003 during the year-long restoration project had been "absolutely wonderful".

"When this [car] was made, I think Williams F1 team probably had around 450 people all with this the sole aim of designing the fastest racing car to go and win the World Championship."

"We've got 31 people in Heritage, but I think we're pretty well set up to deliver a car that is as good if not better than it was back in 2003."

He explained the vehicle had been in storage since "back in the day" when it had last been used, and "hadn't turned a wheel since 2003".

Restoring the car was "not cheap" Kennard said, before adding that the its original V10 engine was "officially back".

"We're running the engine exactly as it would have been run in 2003 - so 19,000 rpm, 3.0 litre V10."

"The one thing that many Formula One fans if they've been watching for a while miss is that ear-splitting noise that the old Formula One cars have."

Kennard said the restored FW25 had a noise that was "absolutely terrific".

"When we fired it up for the first time, I don't think there was anybody in the room that wasn't a little bit emotional about it. It was a really special thing to see."

"We're quite proud to be a part of that."

The car will be competing across four rounds of the 2026 BOSS GP series - with Magny-Cours, Red Bull Ring and Mugello all hosting races after the Nurburgring.

Talking about the restored car's speed, Kennard said: "If you actually compare the Formula 1 cars of today versus the 2003 FW25 in terms of lap time, they're almost the same."

Taking the wheel for the races will be the car's owner Phil Stratford, who said owning and racing the car was a "lifelong ambition".

"To be able to do it with the full support of Williams Heritage, the engineers and technicians who know this car better than anyone, and to bring it back to competition... is extraordinary."

"I cannot wait."