Williams F1

Bit of an adventure into the unknown as to how the FW42 will run on this unique circuit. Not sure if anything will change as not much is known as to whether the team has brought updates.

Sort of frustrated with the lack of information coming from the team. Yes I know they can't give exact details but maybe something to give us that there are improvements on the way.

Anyway practice and the race at Monaco are always interesting for a lot of other reasons.

Morning all.

Anybody watching this today, if so can you give us some feedback please.

Not much to say.We are the slowest once again and looks like we don't have any visible update on the car.
Robert spun and slightly touched the wall, though without any major problem...

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Thanks.

...but we finished ahead of Lance Stroll

2.2 seconds behind on a 3 km circuit.

Wow, amazing improvement.

Thought FP1 saw a small step forward but FP2 really shows that team is not making any real progress.

To be such a big margin behind on a short lap is far from encouraging. I am at a loss as to what the team is doing to improve things.

I have said before this car needs forgetting and concentrate on next years.
this design/development path Paddy chose is all wrong.

Patrick has probably worked that out already.

Last years car was a concoction and this one is just as bad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 23/05/2019 16:26 by GPL.

Claire Williams: "you say it wasn't the start to the season that we envisaged – but I think we anticipated what was coming. Yeah, I definitely feel that we can see some light at the end of the tunnel now and I think probably just from the time sheets and the last race in Barcelona, we demonstrated that we are closing that gap.

It may be slow but we all know that it takes time to bring performance to your car. There’s definitely a lot of good work going on back at the factory that people may not necessarily be seeing yet. The aero team are doing a great job finding performance in the tunnel and we’re going to be bringing that to races over the coming weeks and months with a package coming mid-way through the season that we will hope will bring some significant performance to us. Yes, there are definitely signs of improvement.

I think there’s a certain positivity in the team at the moment. Morale is still pretty good, and that’s all we can ask of everyone: just fighting hard, not giving up and keep on bringing performance to the car."

4 seconds behind in FP2... That's a geological age in F1. 2 seconds behind the next-best team (not counting Lance's effort today). So we're further behind P17 than P17 is from P1. Amazing. I'm utterly amazed by this car's pace. It's unreal.

I agree with GPL. This car is so bad it's not even useful as a test bed. It needs a complete overhaul or replacement, and with our budget that only comes with a new season. Sure, you can use the FW42 to test parts in isolation. Just goes to show how terrible the situation is.

Any news on what ails the FW42? Is there a specific area of weakness, or is it weak all over?

Agreed. I'm shocked after Fp2 how far we are behind the next nearest back marker. On this evidence their is no hope with this car. I think Kubica was right. At the start of this season he said the car was better in some areas and worse in other areas than last years car. So it's just slow everywhere now without any obvious signs watching from the outside. Even from inside, it doesn't look as bad as last years car. Could we find more pace with last year's car and it adapted to this year's rules. You kinda think so if it's possible. But that really is clutching at straws.

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Quote:

GPL
I have said before this car needs forgetting and concentrate on next years.
this design/development path Paddy chose is all wrong.

Patrick has probably worked that out already.

Last years car was a concoction and this one is just as bad.

I actually think this is last years car with some of its issues ironed out. I don't know where I read it, but there was a suggestion that McLaren's poor years with Adrian Newey were down to Paddy Lowe and the team believing they could iron out the mistakes they'd built into a duff car, and all would be well the following year. And it wasn't of course. This year smacks of that approach.

In this age of cars being better on some circuits than others (unless you have mega bucks to spend), I'd hoped that this years car would be competitive somewhere. I'm no longer convinced this one will be the case unless they bring some big updates soon.

F1 Fan. If it was last years car with bugs ironed out, then why is it slower in lap times than last years car. Nobody else is posting slower times than last year in reality.

I agree though some bugs do appear to be ironed out but like kubica said new ones have been created

I thought there might be half a chance to do something here but . . . apparently not.

I think it was Sirotkin's highest Q last year? 13th with a 1.12,5

Quite some ups and downs between sessions so FP3 will be interesting.

Impressed by Norris, because Sainz usually goes well here.

Quote:

CLOVERLEAF 888
F1 Fan. If it was last years car with bugs ironed out, then why is it slower in lap times than last years car. Nobody else is posting slower times than last year in reality.
I agree though some bugs do appear to be ironed out but like kubica said new ones have been created

Hi Cloverleaf 888, I only meant some of the bugs. At a guess I would say that its down to the basic 2019 aero package being made to work with the 2018 mechanical layout.

I do wonder if this was the car that Paddy Lowe intended. He's quoted somewhere before he took "leave of absence" as saying they'd designed a stable platform which they could then develop. They have a relatively stable platform, but as others have pointed out, the aero is basic and they've consequently taken a backward step. I'd be interested to know if he had a series of upgrades lined up, but went before they were put into production, the team having lost faith. A bit like last year really, but worse.

Yeah that's an interesting point you raise about planned updates. Guess we will never know now. The whole paddy thing has gone very quiet in general. Guess it's in the hands of the lawyers now.

Indeed Clover,... No word on Paddy. I wonder what he's up to.

Back to the vexing question of updates and development... I think we should also point out that even if Williams set up a perfect development program they can still produce another embarrassing car. It's not just about following a program; it's about making the most out of it.

I think Paddy is most likely sitting back hoping that he can get a big payout from Williams after his unexpected departure.

But for me despite all the criticism of Claire Williams I put this years@#$%&car squarely on his shoulders as he was after all the technical Head.

Even for me and I am normally quite optimistic about things the situation at Williams is just getting worse not better. As other teams progress we seem to be getting further behind.

I was encouraged a little bit by the FP1 times but then FP2 comes and as everyone else goes quicker both Williams drivers simply can't match this and we are at the back again by a massive margin.

So where to now. I suppose it is a case of hoping that we get to see some updates that work on the car hopefully sometime soon. Beyond that not a lot we can do apart of hope for the best.

Good morning,

Most of the discussions about Williams' recent problems focus on is Claire doing a good/bad job as well as did Paddy Lowe.

I've never fully understood why these two are singled out and Mike O'Driscoll (CEO), Doug Lafferty (CFO) and Brad Hollinger (big shareholder) always get omitted.

Possibly even Nick Rose (chairman) Mark Biddle (Secretary/Legal Counsel) but these may be more figurehead/statutory roles.

I get that these are names that are less well known and it is possible to say that the Williams Group was run by Claire and Paddy and the rest just provide support and fulfil legal roles.

It is also possible to say that MO'D, DL and BH run the group and effectively assigned resources and tasks to CW and PL.

Having seen lots of interviews with CW and read a lot of driver interviews it does seem plausible that the bias is more towards the second scenario.

If this is the case then maybe nothing will ever improve until that is changed, in this scenario bringing on board Bob Fernley as suggested would not work as his powers and responsibilities would be limited.

If we consider Stewart, Jaguar and Red Bull we see a start up that made a lot of progress and even won a race, become managed by a large company and fail and then go on to success as Red Bull.

Which is why I believe that Patrick Head is the only person who has the understanding of how an F1 team needs to operate and the credibility to recommend changes to Sir Frank.

Patrick may possibly need a little bit of advice in the areas that he may be slightly out of date on and this could be an issue if he doesn't believe that.

As some may have come to know from other posts I believe that the F1 team is of equal or lesser importance to the group than growing WAE.

Assuming that I am right in this and if PH's recommendations were to restructure the group putting the F1 team first and under the control of CW and PLs replacement with the group CEO/CFO mainly there to service this goal then they may be a lot of toys thrown out the pram. :-)

Bye

Ian