During Alex Wurz's two years at Williams, the team moved from eight to fourth in the constructors' championship. In 2007, when racing - rather than testing - he had a solid, if unspectacular, season, scoring a total of 13 points.

We're not talking about a driver who was ever going to be out-qualifying team-mate Nico Rosberg on a regular basis, yet he made a vital contribution to the team. Well respected for his technical contributions, the input Wurz made to Williams' development programme proved highly valuable.

Before the season got underway, it looked like 2008 was going to be a successful year for Williams. They were on the pace in testing, and some even speculated that the team had a chance of returning to the top step of the podium.

The team enjoyed a strong start to 2008, with Nico Rosberg on the rostrum in Australia. But despite this positive result, during the course of the season Williams have slipped back so far that they're now fighting with the Force India cars for last position.

At Williams' disposal are two young, quick drivers. But both lack experience, and the FW30 hasn't been successfully developed throughout the course of the season.

During Damon Hill's time with Williams, a number of journalists would point out that he was in the best car. This was meant to be somewhat disparaging, but as Hill often retorted, having worked with the engineers at Williams over a number of years (initially as a test driver), the team's successful development programme was obviously influenced by his own contributions.

Williams have engineers who are well respected with the paddock, although their budget doesn't match that of the manufacturer teams. With testing millage heavily restricted these days, and given the team's current lack of competitiveness, attracting an experienced, respected driver to the role of test driver would be difficult.

There can be no denying that Williams has failed to developed their car throughout the season. Employing a more experience race driver, even if he doesn't have the ultimate pace of Rosberg, may be what's needed to ensure the Grove-based outfit can fight with the well financed manufacturer teams.