1785 replies to this topic

[Ricardo F1]

Claire doesn't build the cars, but she more or less fired herself by giving Paddy a stake to entice him to run the team. 

Given their trajectory anything was better.  Or so they thought . . .

[WilliamsF1Fan]

Today's set of excuses:

 

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer:  A hugely disappointing day because we’d had a pretty promising weekend so far, certainly with Sergey starting in a better grid position than we’ve had more recently. Unfortunately, we suffered a wheel assembly problem on the grid with Sergey’s car which meant we fitted the wheels after the three-minute deadline. Consequently, he was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty which put him half a lap adrift of the pack. His race was ruined from that point on. He spent the afternoon in that situation suffering constant blue flags. We converted to a two-stop strategy as that is actually the quickest race if you’re not holding a position. It was good to see that he could put in some quick laps at the end whilst in free air. On Lance’s side, he had a puncture on lap nine due to the brakes becoming too hot, which overheated the rim and caused the failure. We failed to control that on the second set of tyres and he suffered another puncture. The issue was managed for the rest of the race, but with so many pitstops and blue flags, Lance was in no position to make any progress.

 

Sergey Sirotkin: It’s not ideal to finish where we did but, in some ways, it was a good race. We had a car that was definitely allowing me to fight. I think we had the pace, the car really had the pace and I think we had a good chance to be in the points, but a bit of bad luck with the penalty following what went wrong on the grid. I think we showed a good improvement in qualifying. We showed a good improvement in the pace within the race itself. We’ll just keep working, harder and harder, and we’ll get there.

Lance Stroll: It was a pretty terrible day. I got a puncture on lap nine and lost a bunch of time, like a lap, just getting to the pits. After that I was busy letting cars through with blue flags as I was a lap down. Then we had temperature problems all race, and I was told to give gaps and let cars by, so there was not much of an opportunity and we just weren't racing today. Looking forward I am very excited about my home race next and hope we can have a much better weekend in Canada.

[MortenF1]

Apparently there are paddock-rumours saying Williams have improvements worth 1,5 to 2 seconds in the pipeline, ready for the French GP i think it was said.

Source - Ted Kravitz Q-notebook. ...not the source per se, but he mentions the rumours there and gets to chat with Patrick Head who says there will come improvements later.

Obviously such improvements in-season are unheard of but hopefully this atleast means they have some good developments worth lap time, coming.

Edited by MortenF1, 27 May 2018 - 19:33.

[Mzovk]

Apparently there are paddock-rumours saying Williams have improvements worth 1,5 to 2 seconds in the pipeline, ready for the French GP i think it was said.
Source - Ted Kravitz Q-notebook. ...not the source per se, but he mentions the rumours there and gets to chat with Patrick Head who says there will come improvements later.
Obviously such improvements in-season are unheard of but hopefully this atleast means they have some good developments worth lap time, coming.

They are going to sack Stroll and Sirotkin?

[MortenF1]

[PedroDiCasttro]

Any chance Lawrence Stroll buys the team at the end of the season?

 

Their market value will plummet at this rate.

[pdac]

Apparently there are paddock-rumours saying Williams have improvements worth 1,5 to 2 seconds in the pipeline, ready for the French GP i think it was said.

Source - Ted Kravitz Q-notebook. ...not the source per se, but he mentions the rumours there and gets to chat with Patrick Head who says there will come improvements later.

Obviously such improvements in-season are unheard of but hopefully this atleast means they have some good developments worth lap time, coming.

 

 I'm sure it's not too difficult to get those sort of improvements on the car they have right now. Here's hoping.

[pdac]

Any chance Lawrence Stroll buys the team at the end of the season?

 

Their market value will plummet at this rate.

 

Actually, it looks OK right now. Seems end of 2016 was a real low point and they've build it right up since then. It's really not tumbling right now.

[MortenF1]

 I'm sure it's not too difficult to get those sort of improvements on the car they have right now. Here's hoping.

I can't for the life of me imagine they will be able to improve it by that much! It would have to take a new car I think, but OK, it might be in practice. Still doubt it, and heavily.

[pdac]

I can't for the life of me imagine they will be able to improve it by that much! It would have to take a new car I think, but OK, it might be in practice. Still doubt it, and heavily.

 

Remember, Williams is not just the GP team.

[Ricardo F1]

Any chance Lawrence Stroll buys the team at the end of the season?

 

Their market value will plummet at this rate.

God that's genius!!!  Put your son in the car, make it look like a bag of pants, buy the team for a song and hire a decent driver!  BRILLIANT!!! 

 

Lance can change tyres of something.

Edited by Ricardo F1, 27 May 2018 - 19:58.

[F1matt]

Williams as a company are in a healthy state, they have almost zero debt and all profit made from their engineering projects is ploughed back into the race team to develop the car, as they are a listed company Lawrence stroll could launch a takeover If he sees fit but what is the point? He pays a fee for his son to drive a car in the same way Sirotkin does, the title sponsor who get an amazing deal as they pay less than Johnnie Walker used to pay for the privilege of been a McLaren sponsor so it is getting more and more difficult to charge a premium to sell space on their car, probably due to declining audiences and a loss of terrestrial television.

Williams need to keep lobbying for a budget cap and keep treading water till the rules change and they can compete using less money, given their resources any radical car that doesn’t work won’t be fixed overnight, no team finds 1.5 to 2 seconds a lap, that is a ridiculous figure, at best it will be measured in 10ths.

The facts are clear it is going to be a long hard season and hopefully lessons will be learned and incorporated into next years car and get higher up the grid, we have to accept that, replacing Rob Smedley, Paddy Lowe, Claire Williams, or either of the drivers won’t help, Sirotkin is doing a good job for his first season and Lance is in a dark place, he needs to pick himself up and lead the team.

No team has the right to be at the top and the sport is cyclical surviving is the key to be able to hang in there to fight another day and compete at a higher level. It would be nice if we could stay positive on the thread and not stoop to the level currently displayed by the Robert Kubica thread hijackers.

[noikeee]

Apparently there are paddock-rumours saying Williams have improvements worth 1,5 to 2 seconds in the pipeline

Who designed the new package, the tooth fairy mounted on a unicorn?

[WilliamsF1Fan]

I do wonder though, if Williams are able to get on top of some of their car issues, then maybe 1.5 seconds gain may not be beyond the realms of possibility.  Sure, a single update would be impossible, but unlocking the raw speed in the car may bring that about?

[MortenF1]

Who designed the new package, the tooth fairy mounted on a unicorn?

would have to be.

[PayasYouRace]

I do wonder though, if Williams are able to get on top of some of their car issues, then maybe 1.5 seconds gain may not be beyond the realms of possibility.  Sure, a single update would be impossible, but unlocking the raw speed in the car may bring that about?

The hope is that if it’s a fundamental but fixable issue, then pace could be found. The worry is that the issue isn’t easily fixed, or worse, issue is fairly minor and the car is just naturally slow.

[WilliamsF1Fan]

The hope is that if it’s a fundamental but fixable issue, then pace could be found. The worry is that the issue isn’t easily fixed, or worse, issue is fairly minor and the car is just naturally slow.

 

I read the first part nodding.  The second part... I just covered my eyes and pretended I didn't see it 

 

I am firmly hoping that it is a fixable issue, otherwise nothing the team can throw at it will bring up much pace.  

[Sixpounder]

Financial based excuses to hire pay drivers only could be acceptable if the team is more competitive. What makes Williams looking ridiculous recently is gathering spoiled Canadians' and moreless dirty Russian money without any reasonable outcome on sport level. In the end F1 is a competition. Imagine Chelsea FC relegated to Championship after first year of Abramowitch era. Fans wouldn't stand that kind of result. And now Williams is in comparable to my example "dark hole" where you have completely nothing to appreciate; no hope, no heros to keep the faith in. And on the other side highly affected pride (british pride) that their beloved brand is sold to that type of guys (mentioned above). Sold for nothing. And no one from team owners is admitting how bad it is. Where is the place for respect? Where is sport target here?
Last thing - funnily - young Stroll was partially right in his unfamous comment about "what is the point of keep racing?". This rethoric question could be a good one... but not from his mouth. As he is one of that bad situation reasons here.

[kapow]

Was this Williams's worst ever race?

[Ricardo F1]

Anyone looking for Lance Stroll to “lead the team” would best better be at a psychiatrist not an F1 circuit.

[Ibsey]

Was this Williams's worst ever race?

 

Can't remember another race that was as painful to watch from a Williams POV

[ANF]

The hope is that if it’s a fundamental but fixable issue, then pace could be found. The worry is that the issue isn’t easily fixed, or worse, issue is fairly minor and the car is just naturally slow.

Is there only one issue on the car that needs to be sorted out though? I mean, I'm just a casual observer but to me the whole team looks like a bunch of clowns. The drivers are sliding around in the seat and getting their knees crushed in the car, the brakes overheat and cause a puncture after nine laps at Monaco, the mechanics discover a "wheel assembly problem" on the grid three minutes before the race...

[ANF]

By the way, does Lance Stroll have a new race engineer? That was a new voice on the radio this weekend, right?

[MustangSally]

By the way, does Lance Stroll have a new race engineer? That was a new voice on the radio this weekend, right?

 

I think it's voice recognition software. "Hello. Please use simple words like 'left front' or 'right front'. You can also say words like 'yes' or 'no'. This conversation may be recorded for training purposes."

[Squeed]

Who designed the new package, the tooth fairy mounted on a unicorn?

Since they are trying to fix a major flaw rather than eek out a few more 10ths from a package that is functioning as designed, I would assume the potential for a major gain is there.  They just have to figure out how to put the air where they want it, and keep it there. If they're successful, the entire package comes to life.

[maximilian]

Did I imagine things, or was Lance at one point saying "what's the point of even racing" on the radio?

[PedroDiCasttro]

Did I imagine things, or was Lance at one point saying "what's the point of even racing" on the radio?

Yes, he was. When he was being lapped.

[Ricardo F1]

Did I imagine things, or was Lance at one point saying "what's the point of even racing" on the radio?

Should have said point of “driving” given Stroll rarely races anything.

[Baddoer]

Apparently there are paddock-rumours saying Williams have improvements worth 1,5 to 2 seconds in the pipeline, ready for the French GP i think it was said.

Source - Ted Kravitz Q-notebook. ...not the source per se, but he mentions the rumours there and gets to chat with Patrick Head who says there will come improvements later.

Are those named Maldonado and Massa? Both were seen in the Williams garage.

[kapow]

Yes, he was. When he was being lapped.

I think he said something along the lines of "You told me to save tyres, now you're telling me to keep a 3 second gap. What's the point in racing?"

[LuckyStrike1]

I think he said something along the lines of "You told me to save tyres, now you're telling me to keep a 3 second gap. What's the point in racing?"

 

He has a point ...

[w1Y]

He does but Lance talks as if he's earned the right through speed to act that way. The drivers are trash but i feel sorry for sergei as this is his first season.

Because Lance is in his second seasons its almost as if he acts like he has earnt it. He hasnt, hes paid for it.

I do.hope williams can find a fix bit I alsp hope they get some more experienced drivers in

[kapow]

Williams have won one race in 14 years and are on course for their worst ever season as a constructor.

[LuckyStrike1]

He does but Lance talks as if he's earned the right through speed to act that way. The drivers are trash but i feel sorry for sergei as this is his first season.

Because Lance is in his second seasons its almost as if he acts like he has earnt it. He hasnt, hes paid for it.

I do.hope williams can find a fix bit I alsp hope they get some more experienced drivers in

 

He is a driver in F1. He is entitled to have opinions about driving and racing in F1 I would think. 

[ANF]

I think it's voice recognition software. "Hello. Please use simple words like 'left front' or 'right front'. You can also say words like 'yes' or 'no'. This conversation may be recorded for training purposes."

"If you actually want to give feedback, please hold and you will be connected to one of our engineers."

[statman]

How is it possible to mess up Sirotkin's race this bad? Great weekend only to be completely destroyed by team stupidity.

 

Wheels not fitted, working on the car during that penalty, my goodness.. 

[hogstar]

Monaco is a track which Williams have rarely excelled at in the modern era, but yesterday beggars belief. Sirotkin's race was ruined before the start and that is not what you would expect from a team over 40 years old. Again, there seems a lack of leadership and management by committee, which does not work. 

 

The team needs an enforcer and it hasn't got one. Lowe? Make me laugh. There are too many people at Williams that are not good enough and Claire Williams has always been unconvincing at best.

 

In a parallel universe I longed for Patrick Head to come on the radio to Stroll and make it clear that if he didn't stop whinging he would be sacked. 

 

Williams could do a lot worse to get Frank Dernie back to help sort out the car and help Stroll to fall down the stairs. 

[PayasYouRace]

Is there only one issue on the car that needs to be sorted out though? I mean, I'm just a casual observer but to me the whole team looks like a bunch of clowns. The drivers are sliding around in the seat and getting their knees crushed in the car, the brakes overheat and cause a puncture after nine laps at Monaco, the mechanics discover a "wheel assembly problem" on the grid three minutes before the race...

 

There hasn't been a big overhaul in personnel in the team, so these are mostly the same "clowns" that had a front running car just a few years ago. It looks like specific problems which need sorting.

[ANF]

There hasn't been a big overhaul in personnel in the team, so these are mostly the same "clowns" that had a front running car just a few years ago. It looks like specific problems which need sorting.

Let's hope they get things sorted then. I'd love to see Williams being competitive.

[Disgrace]

Is there only one issue on the car that needs to be sorted out though? I mean, I'm just a casual observer but to me the whole team looks like a bunch of clowns. The drivers are sliding around in the seat and getting their knees crushed in the car, the brakes overheat and cause a puncture after nine laps at Monaco, the mechanics discover a "wheel assembly problem" on the grid three minutes before the race...

 

Right. The drivers did very little wrong and the team are letting them down. No amount of moaning on the radio changes that. Sirotkin is good around Monaco and positioned himself to nick a point if things fell his way, but the team took him out of contention before the race even began.

[SenorSjon]

There hasn't been a big overhaul in personnel in the team, so these are mostly the same "clowns" that had a front running car just a few years ago. It looks like specific problems which need sorting.

 

We have been over this before. I feel Mercedes dominance helped them greatly in '14 and '15. With Ferrari, Renautl and even Honda engines more up to spec, it gets harder and harder for Williams to shine. Yesterday was plain abysmal. 

[Boing 2]

Monaco is a track which Williams have rarely excelled at in the modern era, but yesterday beggars belief. Sirotkin's race was ruined before the start and that is not what you would expect from a team over 40 years old. Again, there seems a lack of leadership and management by committee, which does not work. 

 

The team needs an enforcer and it hasn't got one. Lowe? Make me laugh. There are too many people at Williams that are not good enough and Claire Williams has always been unconvincing at best.

 

In a parallel universe I longed for Patrick Head to come on the radio to Stroll and make it clear that if he didn't stop whinging he would be sacked. 

 

Williams could do a lot worse to get Frank Dernie back to help sort out the car and help Stroll to fall down the stairs. 

 

Even in 2014 when she landed a Mercedes engine, Martini sponsorship and jumped from 9th with 5 points in 2013 to 3rd with 320 the next year? The teams going in the wrong direction but it was doing that under Frank for a long time too, it's had some of its best results in the last decade under Claire.

[sopa]

Actually I'm wondering now, how does Williams' 2018 competitiveness compare to their 2011 and 2013 seasons? Better, even, worse?

[PistolPete]

There hasn't been a big overhaul in personnel in the team, so these are mostly the same "clowns" that had a front running car just a few years ago. It looks like specific problems which need sorting.

 

With Stroll and Sirotkin, Williams got two rookies on board to make the car balanced... If neither knows how to do this, they are most likely extracting a lot less than car is capable of. Talent or not.

[JordanIreland]

Sirotkin is even slower than Stroll, let that sink in for a moment

If this trend continues and it really is contract with SMP and not directly with Sirotkin rest assured that in that seat will be someone like Markelov in the near future

While the car is clearly not the fastest on the grid, when a rookie beats you across all sessions in Monaco, you know F1 is not for you.

I do hope Williams can get their finances in order and replace Stroll ASAP. I’m sure he is more than frustrated with his own performances, but the way he is interacting with the media, which is also part of his job, is equally below par.

[Supertourer]

I'm not so sure that any budget cap will be the utopia that Williams hope for, one only has to look at the current WCC to see that actually budget is not the overriding factor - for example do we think that RBR has a bigger budget and access to resources than Renault? Force India has less resources and budget than Williams yet has 6 times the number of points they do. And so on...

 

Williams has become the NHS of F1, it always seemingly either needs more money or another restructure and actually I am not sure that is the root cause.And in anycase when Liberty are re-negotiating the teams revenue for 2021 aren't the special 'heritage' payments to a team like Williams going to be axed, so it's conceivable that they may end up with less FOM money, not more and then sit back at watch as the budget caps make no difference to Ferrari/RBR and Mercedes - do we think RBR and Williams would design equivalent performing cars on the same budget, bearing in mind that McLaren seemingly can't and with the same powerplant?

[JordanIreland]

Williams had a good car in 2012, 2014 and 2015, so it does show some capacity. 

 

What is interesting is that Williams havent won a constructors title since 1997 and McLaren not since 1998, which just shows how difficult it is to get that No. 1 sport. McLaren who seem to be much better funded than Williams, have produced non-winning cars since 2013. Which again shows how difficult it is to constantly stay near the top. 

[WilliamsF1Fan]

Dirk de Beer has stepped down from the team.  

 

https://www.autospor...-down-from-role

[mmmcurry]

Dirk de Beer has stepped down from the team.

https://www.autospor...-down-from-role

Seems to have been a revolving door policy over the last few years.

Steve.

Edited by mmmcurry, 30 May 2018 - 16:52.

[WilliamsF1Fan]

I could understand replacing Somerville as Aerodynamics under his reign began to suffer and replacing him with de Beer made sense.  However, this move gives the impression that the faults of the car lie with his department.