system in the off-season, deciding to use it on the FW12 with the hope it would be an advantage over the other non-turbo cars and put it on a more equal footing with the more powerful turbo-powered teams. Unfortunately though, the revisions had a detrimental effect. The main problem encountered by the team was that air was getting into the hydraulics and disturbing the computerised settings making the FW12's handling unpredictable, with both Mansell and Patrese pointing out on numerous occasions that the suspension settings were changing from lap to lap, and sometimes from corner to corner. Additionally, the onboard computer which was needed to run the system not only added weight to the car (approximately ), but also drew power from the car's engine to run properly (approximately 5%). This was acceptable when the team started using the system as they had the use of Honda's V6 turbo. In 1988 though the Judd V8, in its first year of F1 competition, was only developing some , which resulted in the car being sluggish, and accounted for its lack of straight line speed. It was at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix that Williams Technical Director Patrick Head decided to dump the reactive suspension system for a more conventional one. This was a process that Head had previously stated could not be done without a great deal of development and work, but at the team's home Grand Prix, a race it had won the previous two years, the situation was desperate as Mansell had finished the first qualifying session 13th while Patrese was 30th, some 14 seconds slower than the final starting position of 26th. Overnight after Friday qualifying the team worked tirelessly to convert the cars. While Head admitted it was a bodge job done on the fly and would have to be re-worked later, both Mansell and Patrese expressed delight with the car, Mansell qualifying 11th while Patrese improved by 18 seconds to start 15th. The race was also a boost for Williams as Mansell drove his car in heavy rain to a hard fought 2nd place, his first points of the season, setting fastest lap along the way (one of only two non-turbo fastest laps of the season). Mansell was forced to miss the Belgian and Italian races because of chickenpox and was substituted by Martin Brundle and Jean-Louis Schlesser consecutively. Brundle had previously driven F1 for