2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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LookBackTime
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Joined: 19 Feb 2013, 20:33

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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14 MAY 2016
Barcelona, Spain
4.655kms / 2.892 miles

Qualifying Notes
• Valtteri Bottas qualified seventh and Felipe Massa 18th for the Spanish Grand Prix.
• Both drivers had one planned run in Q1, with Valtteri posting a time of 1:24.251 to comfortably progress through into Q2, and go on to compete in the top ten shootout.
• Felipe didn’t get a clean lap in Q1, with some traffic at the start of his timed lap. The team reacted in the closing minutes, but unfortunately there wasn’t sufficient time left to enable Felipe to start another timed lap.

Weather: Warm and dry
Temperature: Air: 21-23C Track: 42-45C

Q1
V. Bottas: 1:24.251 (7th)
F. Massa: 1:24.941 (18th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:22.000

Q2
V. Bottas: 1:24.023 (8th)
F. Massa: No time set
Quickest time: L Hamilton 1:22.159 (1st)

Q3
V. Bottas: 1:23.522 (7th)
F. Massa: No time set
Quickest time: N Rosberg 1:35.417

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: Overall it’s a disappointing qualifying session. Our fastest car is in seventh position which is where we predicted we would get to, but it’s not enough. Valtteri did everything that he could with the car to get to that position, and we’re quite close to the Ferraris, which is positive. Felipe didn’t get his lap right and we didn’t have enough time to do another run, so we need to look at what’s gone wrong on his lap, because we had eight tenths of a margin to get through into Q2, and then we have to look at what we could have done better operationally as well. We’ll dissect everything, be open and honest, and do better. What we have to concentrate on now is the race tomorrow. Valtteri’s starting from a good position, and hopefully he can get some good points and get amongst the cars in front. With Felipe we need to be a little clever with the strategy, and think about what we can do in order to get into the back end of the points with him.

Valtteri Bottas: I was hoping for a bit better result, but it was a good lap so I am pleased with how we did in Q3. It’s a shame about Felipe. Tomorrow, we need to set the bar high and aim to be in the top five in the race. It’s possible with a good start and our strategy, so we’ll try to make up as many places as we can.

Felipe Massa: I’m so disappointed about what happened. I had traffic on my first run so I couldn’t do a clean lap. We didn’t have time to go out on another set of tyres. Traffic or problems on the lap can happen, but we still need to ensure we can react accordingly. It’s a long race tomorrow though, so we still need to aim to challenge for points.

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FoxHound
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Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 16:50

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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Juzh wrote:
bill shoe wrote:Williams have a better engine despite spending much less money than Red Bull.
Prime reason why they have it.
They had it before they knew it was any good. Contracts signed in March 2013.

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport ... -1-5145414
JET set


NL_Fer
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Joined: 15 Jun 2014, 09:48

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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Exacly, Merc knew Williams could never really compete with them. That's why the have the engine. They got really close in 2014 on some races, though

Stalker1
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Joined: 08 Dec 2015, 00:53

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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LookBackTime wrote:Williams needs to take very serious the driver selection for 2017 !!!

getting bread crumbs from big teams is not good anymore !!!
I agree. But what are their options? Massa is experienced, stable and if the car is quick enough, almost always brings some points home. Bottas is also safe bet, he is younger and quicker, probably capable of winning races with the right car, but thats it. At the moment, massa has 13 more points than Bottas, but Bottas has had the lionshare of bad luck. Massa is getting older and probably retires in 2018, if not 2017. Bottas has said he wants to win, so he probably would like to get a seat in a team competing for victories. Although, I do not see anyone, who would hire him. They both are decent drivers and get the most out of the car, but nothing more.

Talking about other options, I personally would like to some young talent in Williams. Wehrlein or Vandoorne, for example. Or maybe even Kvayt or Sainz. I think they have more raw speed than Bottas and would like to see, what the Williams cars are actually capable of. Bottas also needs a reference point for himself and for others to see, how good he actually is.

At the other hand, Bottas and Massa work well together and maybe with the rule set and new cars it is best to retain these two for another year, if possible.

Stalker1
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Joined: 08 Dec 2015, 00:53

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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I am wondering about todays qualification. Massas Q1 exit was a mistake, thats for sure, but he has been lacking the pace all the weekend. Probably the maximum would have been P12-13. Is it the problems with car setup or the new nose and front wing alter the behavior of the car so much?

Reasonably happy with Bottas results. P7 seven is ok, although the gap to leaders was a little bit dissapointing. I am expecting a fight with Toro Rossos and McLaren. Red Bull and Mercedes are at their own league, not sure about Ferraris.

I am happy with the improvements in pit-stops, overall race strategy and team work. However, they need new ideas about car design and suspension design. FW-36 was a good car, FW-37 and 38 are good evolutions, but thats it. I think, even with limited budget, they can do better work than that. Sauber in 2012, Lotus in 2012 and 2013.
Last edited by Stalker1 on 14 May 2016, 21:52, edited 1 time in total.

LookBackTime
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Joined: 19 Feb 2013, 20:33

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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Right now I am thinking : Vandoorne (difficult to get), Sainz (may be his contract is not so tight) and even Perez !!!

Stalker1
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Joined: 08 Dec 2015, 00:53

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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Vandoorne have also said, that his first choice would be McLaren. If Alonso beats Button this season, he may get what he wishes. I thought about Sainz because of his stability, speed and the thick air in Red Bull teams. Perez... Perez has been impressive, beating Hulkenberg, getting some podiums last season, extracting the maximum out of FI-s. Yeah, maybe he would be nice addition to Williams.

Magnussen probably has at least two year contract with Renault, Palmer is not better than Massa or Bottas and I do not believe in the other available drivers.

domh245
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Joined: 12 Mar 2015, 21:55
Location: Nottingham

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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You've got to remember that Williams have got Alex Lynn in GP2 - I wouldn't be surprised to see him in one of the seats next year. Ideally he'd be partnered with one of the current drivers.

Stalker1
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Joined: 08 Dec 2015, 00:53

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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NL_Fer wrote:Exacly, Merc knew Williams could never really compete with them. That's why the have the engine. They got really close in 2014 on some races, though
Toto Wolff was also one of the shareholders in Williams during that time. I think that it also helped. I remeber some months ago reading an article about Mercedes refusing to supply Red Bull with engines. I think it was Wolff who said, that they asked, what are the commercial benefits aside economical benefits of suppling Red Bull and endangering Mercedes lead? The benefits probably werent enough, although I think they never really considered giving their engines to the Red Bull. It would be suicide.

I think Mercedes would not mind, if Williams would be taking a couple of race wins in during a season and besting Red Bull and Ferrari in the process.

Stalker1
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Joined: 08 Dec 2015, 00:53

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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domh245 wrote:You've got to remember that Williams have got Alex Lynn in GP2 - I wouldn't be surprised to see him in one of the seats next year. Ideally he'd be partnered with one of the current drivers.
Totally forgot him. I just looked and it seems he did just fine today in the opening race of GP2.

http://www.gp2series.com/results/

Last season, he also took two wins and two podiums, although the results show that the season was somewhat mixed. 6-th place at debut season is, howewer, good result, I think.

Stalker1
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Joined: 08 Dec 2015, 00:53

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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A user named Mekki post it in the McLaren team therad.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e3fy8gb4xwenn ... n.PNG?dl=0

It is interesting to see, that largest improvest compared to last year have been made by Force India, RB and McLaren. 3.8, 3.55 and 3.4 seconds accordingly. Williams improvement is in the case of Bottas 2.452 seconds. Decent, but all teams ahead of them have been improved more. Could someone comment about that, how much is down to PU and how much to the chassis improvement?

domh245
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Joined: 12 Mar 2015, 21:55
Location: Nottingham

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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Another fastest pitstop for Williams. It's starting to get tedious! :lol:

http://i.imgur.com/flkNIEm.png

LookBackTime
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Joined: 19 Feb 2013, 20:33

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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domh245 wrote:Another fastest pitstop for Williams. It's starting to get tedious! :lol:

http://i.imgur.com/flkNIEm.png
Rob Smedley said: 1.9sec or 2.0 sec :)

Sevach
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Joined: 07 Jun 2012, 17:00

Re: 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

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I wonder if Bottas was pushing in the final 3rd of the race? 4th almost fell on his lap.
Massa probably needed 2 more laps to get by Perez.

Ok race in the end, fighting with Red Bull and Ferrari remains unlikely.

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