Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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Mark4211
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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I hope I don't look stupid with my inferences and personal opinions with what's mentioned about the FW38:

"I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made in design and aero"
"The FW38 will have more downforce and with that comes drag. We've worked hard to maintain efficiency targets"
  • Possible significant changes to aero compared to FW37 (Mercedes/Toro Rosso/McLaren/Red Bull/etc shaped front wing main plane maybe?).
"We’ve identified some problems (slow corner weakness), we’ll evaluate the changes in testing"
  • Possible changes to mechanical grip, maybe changes to front suspension from last years increase in front anti-dive amount.
"Valtteri Bottas declared last week that he thinks winning in 2016 is “quite possible” for the Grove based team."
  • Something has changed with the car, possibly quite significantly, hence Bottas' opinion. Though it's still very early to say.

LookBackTime
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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"significant changes to aero compared to FW37" - ScarbsF1 thinks the main aero changes will involve the rear of the car!

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Mark4211
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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Quoting from this article: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/new-w ... ey-668620/

"Essentially it's an evolution of [the FW37] design"
"You're going to see some quite interesting developments around the front wing area and underneath the chassis."
"There are some really interesting developments around the back end of the car that you're going to see as well."
"...what could we do to improve our wet weather performance? That essentially is car set-up, it's how you use the tyres."

So essentially, they are hinting at a possibly a new front wing design (if their budget doesn't hold them back), hoping for more rear downforce and stability (probably preventing the rear wing stall we saw in China, Mexico 2015), and improving in mechanical grip

LookBackTime
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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just a concept livery! pretty cool actually !

Image

LookBackTime
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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"Williams optimistic but would a Honda engine be better?"

http://www.formula1blog.com/f1-news/wil ... be-better/

some extracts from article:

...

The chance to take the fight to not only Ferrari but Mercedes as well seems like a daunting task yet the team feel positive about their chances as Felipe Mass said:

“I think so, that is what we are working for,” he told Sky Sports when asked if he could win in 2016.
“We are really near, we were on the podium a few times last year and maybe more times the year before in 2014 and we really hope we can get back to the victories, get back to a car that is really competitive to fight for the victory. I really hope it can be possible.”
Team technical director Pat Symonds feels equally optimistic and suggests that there are some achilles heel areas for Mercedes:

“I’m not an optimistic person but I know the improvements we’ve made to the car are greater than we made last year,” he said.
“I have to say I am quite pleased with the improvements on paper that we’ve made with the car.”

...

Sevach
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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Both Symonds and Smedley are showing quite a lot of confidence in their evolution 8)

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TAG
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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It smells like that to me as well, Williams are liking their chances. It may very well be that Mercedes' best defense against a resurgent Ferrari is a strong performance from Williams.
माकडाच्या हाती कोलीत

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djos
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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LookBackTime wrote:just a concept livery! pretty cool actually !

Image
I love that livery, looks incredible!
"In downforce we trust"

Stalker1
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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It seems to me, they have abandoned their low-drag high-speed design for more downforce inducing design philosophy. I hope this will enable them to have more options for car set-up on different type of circuits. I maybe wrong, but their tyre wear last season were inferior throughout the season to Ferrari and Mercedes. Hope they have found solution for these problem too.

trinidefender
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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Stalker1 wrote:It seems to me, they have abandoned their low-drag high-speed design for more downforce inducing design philosophy. I hope this will enable them to have more options for car set-up on different type of circuits. I maybe wrong, but their tyre wear last season were inferior throughout the season to Ferrari and Mercedes. Hope they have found solution for these problem too.
They did mention in an article that while the goal of next years car is to have more downforce and hence more drag, they still want it to be an efficient design. I am under the impression that they still want to have a car that is near the top of the speed traps yet still has enough downforce and crucially balance (balance was named in other articles from quotes as something they are working on that was not properly achieved in either 2014 or 2015) no not get so easily overtaken in the braking zones and corners.

bill shoe
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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If you're shooting for 3rd in constructors then OK downforce with low drag is a reasonable place to be. If you are really trying to give the big dogs a run for their money then you need approximately the most downforce on the grid, and the drag can fall where it may.

I'll miss the unconventional Williams rear end from the past few seasons, but I hope they take a new and aggressive twist on whatever they do for 2016. Maybe a size "-1", to steal McLaren terminology, or maybe a raised butt that's similar to the raised nose. Can't wait.

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turbof1
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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Guys, PU talk should be in the PU topic: http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... =4&t=23688. I have moved the posts to there.
#AeroFrodo

LookBackTime
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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turbof1 wrote:Guys, PU talk should be in the PU topic: http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... =4&t=23688. I have moved the posts to there.
Sorry!

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turbof1
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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LookBackTime wrote:
turbof1 wrote:Guys, PU talk should be in the PU topic: http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... =4&t=23688. I have moved the posts to there.
Sorry!
No problem. For the record, it was a great find! Great input; me moving it is not criticism, but a matter of keeping things structured and organized.
#AeroFrodo

LookBackTime
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Re: Williams FW38 Mercedes Speculation Thread

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Symonds ‘very pleased’ with progress of 2016 Williams
By Chris Medland, 25/01/2016 at 09:35 News

Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Singapore Grand Prix - Qualifying Day - Singapore, Singapore© XPB Images
Williams technical director Pat Symonds says he is “very pleased” with the numbers being produced by the team’s 2016 car.

Having secured third place in the constructors’ championship in 2014, Williams matched that performance last season despite opting to switch focus to its new car at an early stage. Symonds says he made the call to take such an approach before the 2015 season had even started but is confident with the results it has produced so far.

“We’re coming off the back of two fabulous years,” Symonds said at the Autosport International Show. “For a team like Williams finishing third is an enormous achievement, we really are racing right at the front now against people with enormous budgets, such bigger teams, and I think we should be very proud of what we have achieved in the last couple of years.

“During 2015 we did back off a little bit in our development to try and get 2016 in a better state. It’s a difficult decision to make and it’s a decision I actually made after testing and implemented after the third race. It did leave me with a few sleepless nights towards the end of the year when you could see the others closing in on you, but the first part of the objective was achieved. We kept our third place and that was the first part of the objective.

“The second part of the objective of course is to produce a better car in 2016 than we produced in 2015. Have we done that? Well I can tell you that maybe in April or May but certainly the numbers we work with I’m very pleased with and I really think we’re going to have a strong year.”

Williams is set to launch its 2016 car on the morning of the first pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 22.

http://en.f1i.com/news/39810-symonds-ve ... liams.html

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