Williams family bows out of F1

[Everso Biggyballies]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Having witnessed them racing as a garagiste team in the early 70's, entering a Politoys and a March 711 at Brands for Pesca and Pace back in 1972, I have a special place in my heart for them.

[MonteCristo]

Something has gone drastically wrong in a relatively short period of time.

Having pants drivers never helps. But yes, something has gone rotten with their design team.

[kals]

Has it gone wrong in a short space of time? No, it hasn’t. Williams has been on the decline since 2016. End of story.

[DoubleFart]

I have a totally different feeling to the rest.

Williams never really had an upturn, they simply stayed at the same level as 2013 but moved forwards because of the Merc engine and an early change to designing the ,2014 car.

McLaren also moved forward in 2014 because of the engine, as did Force India. McLaren then took an alternative route, whilst Force India continued to be strong but have fallen off slightly.

Williams have consistently performed at the same level and other teams/engines have taken away the advantage.

You're all saying something's gone wrong, but that would mean at some point things were going right. Not the case for me.

[Picci]

They also have had correlation problems with their windtunnel for quite a while now. They’ve been mentioning this since the pre-Merc days. The other team that had similar issues in the past was Honda in 2007-2008 and we know where it placed back then!

[Everso Biggyballies]

Things at Williams have gone down another notch at Silverstone. The cars now seem genuinely undriveable and a new fault sparked by aero updates seems to have been the culprit of their Silverstone qualifying errors that saw both cars launched into the dirt, Stroll bogging down and out whereas Sirotkin dragged himself out of the dirt to just be slow.

This comment from Paddy Lowe from the MotorSport GP review describes the issue.

The Williams proved to be almost undriveable, with a DRS-associated total stall of the floor when fitted with its latest rear wing. This pitched Lance Stroll into the Brooklands gravel on his out-lap without a time on the board and caused Sergey Sirotkin a similar off at Stowe. Sergey was able to extricate himself and get back to the pits. He then managed a single incident-free lap just a couple of tenths off Vandoorne.

Paddy Lowe explained it as “a phenomenon that we have not seen all year, or indeed ever before, whereby the DRS activation intermittently causes a complete loss of aerodynamic floor loading which does not recover at the entry to the subsequent corner. In the case of both spins, the cars entered the corner with no load in the floor, which had obvious consequences.

"We came to this event with a number of new bodywork items, which we evaluated during FP1 and FP2. This new DRS-related phenomenon was seen only once in FP1 on one of the cars but was incorrectly diagnosed to be related to a particular configuration, which we chose not to carry forward into FP2 and for qualifying and the race. We must now understand exactly what change in the cars caused this phenomenon which is entirely related to the use of DRS."

It sounds like driving the car at Silverstone was a frightening experience and not all of the issues are down to the drivers, who must wonder what the hell will happen next. Hardly confidence inspiring.

[John]

It's a pandoras box right now, where (attempting to) fix one issue only leads to new ones cropping up elsewhere. Gotta feel sorry for the drivers (yes, even Stroll).

[Michkov]

By now they may as well use the car as a test mule for next years attempt

[Picci]

I really don't understand what the hell is going on there. They should just revert to last year's car or buy a chassis from another team! Seriously.

[Everso Biggyballies]

...... or buy a chassis from another team! Seriously.

Williams blocked that option for all back in the days that F1 was looking at customer cars!

[Everso Biggyballies]

Williams need a new 'Head of Performance'.

To replace Rob Smedley, who has thrown the towel in, to spend time with his family whilst evaluating the future options. I guess that means he is on gardening leave.

05 NOV 2018
Williams can confirm that Rob Smedley will leave the team at the end of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship season.

Rob joined the team in 2014 as Head of Performance Engineering, making his first appearance at the Bahrain Grand Prix to help guide the race operations team at a time of transition following a poor 2013 campaign. The team went on to finish third in the Championship for two consecutive years before finishing fifth in 2016 and 2017.

Commenting on the decision Rob said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Williams. The team has been through great change since I joined in 2014 and it has been a pleasure to have played a part in that. Williams is a very special team within the F1 community and I’m certain that with all the talent that we have here they will go on and do better things. The team will always remain close to my heart. After 20 years in Formula One, however, I feel it’s the right time to reflect on things and evaluate what the next move is. I’m thoroughly looking forward to spending more time with my family before deciding on future opportunities.”

Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal added: “It has been a pleasure having Rob in our team for the last four years and we will miss him both personally and professionally. He agreed to join us at a time when our performance was low, and we are grateful that he saw the potential for us to turn things around at that time. During his time with us, he has made a significant contribution to the team through his role, but he’s also been just a great person to have at Grove, inspiring many with his enthusiasm and passion for Formula One. Rob’s been in the sport a long time, so we totally understand and respect his decision to take some well-deserved time out to spend with his wife and boys. We wish him all the best and thank him wholeheartedly for the time, passion and fighting spirit he’s given to Williams.”

https://www.williamsf1.com/racing/news/ ... e-williams

[kals]

Williams need 'Performance'.

There. Fixed it.

[caneparo]

Williams has financial problems and no real direction for the team. Today you need load of money to spend in dead end alternatives to find the right solution to implement in the car. Hours of trials and development which williams cannot afford.
We have junior teams doing the development for the senior team (toro rosso honda for example): williams failed ti secure such a junior team status and is now in deep shit

[PTRACER]

What about getting rid of their two useless drivers? It would be a start.

[kals]

Williams has financial problems

Are they?

williams failed ti secure such a junior team status and is now in deep shit

Did they? When?

What about getting rid of their two useless drivers? It would be a start.

Well there's a 100% chance neither will be with Williams for 2019.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Is Sirotkin defitely out? Ocon in? or AN Other with a budget.

I have heard of the possibility that might see BWT transferring their sponsorship from FI to Williams to help fund Ocon driving there but have heard no confirmation. Have I missed something?