Williams and Toyota spell trouble for Cosworth

Williams will almost certainly switch from Cosworth to Toyota V8 power at the end of 2006, rock-hard F1 speculation says.

After splitting with BMW after an unfriendly six year works deal, Sir Frank Williams turned to Cosworth – the independent UK-based company – rather than accept BMW's offer of a customer deal.

Williams had hoped to move immediately to the semi-works collaboration he had nearly finalized with Toyota, whereby the Japanese marque's V8 unit would be re-branded 'Lexus' in return for development support and a subsidized 2.4 liter engine bill.

The authoritative British 'Telegraph' newspaper reports that Williams-Toyota talks seem to be 'at an advanced stage' about 2007, after Toyota told the Grove based team that a decision had come too late to seal a deal for 2006.

Other sources reveal that it is no coincidence that both Toyota and Williams are concurrently defecting to Bridgestone, and it has been suggested that Toyota delayed confirming its deal so as to play down any link between the pair.

''I have absolutely no comment,'' a Williams source said. If Cosworth loses Williams, its F1 days may soon be over. It needs to get a car manufacturer to badge their engine.