2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

[LookBackTime]

EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX

19 JUN 2016
Baku, Azerbaijan
6.001km / 3.728 miles

Weather: Warm and dry
Temperature: Air: 31-33°C Track: 38-46°C

Race Notes
• Valtteri Bottas finished sixth and Felipe Massa 10th in the European Grand Prix
• Valtteri made a one-stop strategy work and ran as high as third before making his stop on lap 19. He was able to manage his tyres and strategy well to stay ahead of the two-stoppers and finish sixth
• Felipe had to run a two-stop strategy due to tyre graining. He was fifth before his first stop on lap 7, and sixth before his final stop on lap 28, but he continued to struggle with his tyres and finished 10th
• The team collected nine points in the Constructors’ Championship, while Valtteri retains seventh in the Driver’s Championship and Felipe drops to ninth behind Perez

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: That was nowhere near what we expected from this race. Valtteri being ninth in that first stint didn’t help us, but he was able to make a one-stop strategy work, as were all the top six. Felipe was struggling with rear graining in the first stint. Valtteri had a little bit of the same, to a lesser extent, and then his tyres came back and he was quite strong towards the end of that stint. He was going quicker and quicker so we could leave him out and he was able to get up to sixth, but it’s still a disappointing result. The team did a fantastic job with the pitstops, the strategy worked out and gained some positions for Valtteri but unfortunately we couldn’t do it for Felipe as well because of tyre degradation. The team is working really well, it’s the car’s pace that’s let us down. The main thing we need to take away from this race is that we were out of position, in terms of pace, compared to Force India. We’ve got to go away and understand why we weren’t quick enough, so that’s what we’ll concentrate on. We’ve got Austria coming up so we need to look forward.

Valtteri Bottas: Overall, it was a good day for us because the pace we had today wasn’t enough for any more. It felt like a good race from my side, and we managed to do the one-stop strategy which was definitely the best one today. I’m glad we could manage the tyres and get it to work because that made the sixth place possible. The team did a really good job with what we had today, the strategy and the pitstop. Now we need to work hard because we need better positions than this. We need to make the car quicker and then we can fight for another podium soon.

Felipe Massa: It was a really terrible race for me, one to forget. I struggled massively with the tyres. I couldn’t make them work, I was having a lot more degradation on the rears than I thought I would. One point is more than it could have been because I couldn’t drive the car in the proper way and I couldn’t save the tyres either. We maybe need to change something in the car to make the tyres work in a different way here in the future

[LookBackTime]

DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award: they've outdone themselves. @WilliamsRacing break the 2-second barrier at #F1Baku

[tomazy]

DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award: they've outdone themselves. @WilliamsRacing break the 2-second barrier at #F1Baku

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ClVRcDLUoAI9rP6.jpg

This is simply icredible, they only made 3 stops, and all of them are in top 4 fastest.

[Stalker1]

Silly season has been started early this year. Found this article on Sky Sport

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... son-button

I do not know, what to think about Button. Maybe better than Massa, but overall better package... I am not sure. However, if they want to win and fight for championship (with this budget, nearly impossible), they need top line driver. I mean, Bottas is doing great job. He almost never makes a mistake, always brings the points home and seems to be a nice chap. Good second driver probably. I think this should be the last year for Massa, though. Constantly being beaten by Bottas shows that he is not as fast as he used to be a year or two ago.

Baku results... All thing considered, good! I think that the speed of Perez and Force India overall showed importance of grip, especially considering the almost 90 degree corners, where traction is crucial for good acceleration. Although, I wonder about the grainign problems, especially with Massa. I wonder, what caused that?

[Mr Brooksy]

I'm of the opinion that Button would be a better choice than Massa. Button has proven to be able to fight it out with M Schumacher in an inferior package; fight and equal to a great extent Hamilton; wipe the floor with Barrichello; and keep Alonso honest. Now disregard all the fan boys out there of the relevant drivers, that is an impressive resume. Massa on the other hand beat Raikkonen, who is either totally on form or not; lost badly to Alonso for various reasons and has been edged out by a clearly talented Bottas (who unfortunately is yet to be properly tested against a WDC).
Call that brutal or unfair as many will, but Button seems like the better and faster option. Not to mention what a WDC brings to the table for marketing, sponsorship etc that Button has. Which Williams is severely lacking to take on the teams with at least double their budget. That alone for Williams is worth considering IMO.
Otherwise Perez is looking handy. But a big risk given his McLaren year... which seemed to early. And then there is the South American $ that can be brought to the table.
All things considered Massa has been quite good, but now it seems to me at least that there are better options on the table for the team moving forward.
Just my opinion, and I don't claim to be the 'be all and end all' of F1 knowledge.

[Sevach]

I agree that Button is better than Massa, yet i don't see much point in hiring him...
At this point Perez, Sainz, Grosjean or even Vandoorne would be more interesting.

Unfortunately the youngsters that have some form of contract with Williams (Nasr and Lynn) don't seem all that great.
Maybe Stroll will be the one.

[bill shoe]

Calm is fast. Massa is nearly comatose coming to a stop and then pulling away. No burning rubber or fishtailing, just going on about his business. Really quickly.

In the third/final perspective you can see one of the crew get really excited after Massa pulls away. They've drilled so much he can tell the difference between 2.1 vs. 1.9 seconds without a watch. He knows they nailed something special.

[LookBackTime]

Williams data shows Baku pit stop a new record

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/willi ... rd-790776/

By: Jonathan Noble, Formula 1 Editor
40 minutes ago
Williams has revealed that its record-equalling pit stop at the European Grand Prix was actually faster than official timing claims.

The Grove-based outfit matched Red Bull’s all-time record from 2013 with a 1.92 seconds stop for Felipe Massa in Baku last weekend.

However, analysis conducted by the team at its factory from in-car data has revealed that the stop was in reality slightly quicker.

The data suggests that the pitstop time was actually 1.89 seconds – which lifts it slightly clear of Red Bull’s best effort.

ln his column for Motorsport.com, Massa said that his team was not yet satisfied that it had reached the peak and was targeting going even quicker.

“Last year we were not one of the quickest teams to change tyres, due to a problem in the phase of the stop involving unscrewing the wheel nut that had overheated out on track,” he said.

“Over the winter months, the team invested heavily in both equipment and in preparation of the staff who conduct the pitstops.

"The result has been some really exceptional performances – but we think there is time to be found. The team is still working to improve!”

[LookBackTime]

AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX PRACTICE

01 JUL 2016
Spielberg, Austria
4.326 km / 2.688 miles

FP1
Weather: Warm and Dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 19-22°C / 31-40°C
V Bottas, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid, 1:08.998 (10th)
F Massa, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid, 1:08.824 (7th)
Quickest time: N. Rosberg (1:07.373)

FP2
Weather: Warm and Wet
Air & Track Temperatures: 17-24°C / 25-43°C
V Bottas, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid, 1:08.941 (9th)
F Massa, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid, 1:09.184 (12th)
Quickest time: N. Rosberg (1:07.967)

Objectives: Aero evaluations, set-up and tyre work.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was a bit of a disjointed session because of the weather. We ran at the start of FP2 to try to beat the weather like everyone else, but it wasn’t possible. It rained very heavily for a long period before we decided to go out on the intermediate tyre, where we tried different set-up options. Once we managed to get a clear lap in, we were reasonably competitive. I’m quite happy with how competitive we are on the dry tyres. We were able to go out at the end of the session and learn a little bit about our set-up for qualifying and the race, and if we’d been able to get our laps in before the virtual safety car we would have finished the session higher. There are a lot of unknowns going into the rest of the weekend, as there always are on disjointed days like today, but that’s good because we’ve got some upgrades coming tomorrow which we’re going to try and get on the car that should move us forward. The new asphalt offers a little more grip than before, but not a huge amount. The kerbs are a lot lower and the drivers reported that the track is particularly quick because of that. We’re still learning about the asphalt and its interaction with rubber, and we will continue to do so as it evolves throughout the weekend. We understood it today, but the trick with new asphalt is understanding how it evolves, what it’s going to be like on Sunday and therefore what the delta is going to be between tyre compounds, and the degradation.

Valtteri Bottas: It was a bit of a tricky day in terms of car balance. Obviously with the rain in FP2, we struggled to set-up the car, but I’m sure before FP3 tomorrow we can still improve the car and our laptimes. I think it was a good idea to go out in the rain to check the balance, because there’s a possibility of rain for the rest of the weekend. We now have a good idea of how the car works in wet conditions and we will know what adjustments we need to make if it does rain.

Felipe Massa: It wasn’t a perfect Friday due to the weather, but at least we had some laps in the wet as well as the dry to understand the car in both conditions, so it wasn’t bad. We couldn’t learn everything we would have liked because of the weather, but the feeling of the car was ok in the wet, with half the track very wet and the other half quite dry, so it was actually a reasonable Friday to understand the car. The track is much quicker than before because the asphalt grip is a little bit higher and the kerbs are flat, so you can use them a lot more than in the past. You can have a tricky moment if you use too much, but it’s up to you how much you use. Now we need to wait until tomorrow to understand where we are once everyone is on similar tyres and fuel loads.

[LookBackTime]

[LookBackTime]

AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING

02 JUL 2016
Spielberg, Austria
4.326 km / 2.688 miles

Qualifying Notes

• Valtteri Bottas qualified eighth and Felipe Massa 10th for the Austrian Grand Prix
• Q3 began wet but dried through the session to allow drivers to switch to dry tyres with five minutes to go
• Felipe was the first car out on the ultrasoft tyre in Q3 and was provisionally P3, before falling to 10th as the cars behind him had improving track conditions on the final lap
• Valtteri was unable to match the pace of the cars around him as he struggled with tyre temperature on his last lap

Weather: Warm, damp/dry track
Temperature: Air: 26-28°C Track: 35-54°C

Q1
V. Bottas: 1:07.148 (5th)
F. Massa: 1:07.419 (8th)
Quickest time: N. Rosberg 1:06.516

Q2
V. Bottas: 1:06.991 (6th)
F. Massa: 1:07.145 (8th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:06.228

Q3
V. Bottas*: 1:10.440 (8th)
F. Massa: 1:11.977 (10th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:07.992

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was a disappointing session, the conditions at the end just didn’t work for us. It could have worked out in our favour if we’d got another lap in, but we didn’t. Felipe was the second car out with the dry tyre, so he had a little bit of a disadvantage there because we just missed getting that third lap, which Hulkenberg got. Valtteri was fourth last across the line and it wasn’t too bad for him, but we expected a little bit more from today. We’ve got to look forward to tomorrow, the car is quick on high fuel and was quick this morning when we were about half a second off Mercedes and pointing towards the front, right in the mix with Ferrari and Red Bull. With a dry day tomorrow, we can be competitive.

Valtteri Bottas: Qualifying was a special case today with the conditions in Q3. Everything was looking good in Q1 and Q2 in the dry, but tyre warm-up was difficult in the mixed conditions. In the beginning we struggled with the intermediate tyres, and once we got onto the slicks the main problem was to try to get heat into the tyres. But the race is tomorrow and there is the possibility to overtake here, so I’m sure we can have a better day. I think in any conditions we need to try to aim to have both cars in the top five, that’s a good target for us tomorrow.

Felipe Massa: The conditions in Q3 were very tricky, one lap you’re third, then the next lap you’re 10th. It’s very difficult to understand the situation when the track is improving so much. I was the first car to start the last lap, so the last car had the track a lot drier. But that’s the way it is, so let’s concentrate on tomorrow to try to have a good race, a good strategy and finish with very good points.

*Valtteri will start P7 as a result of Sebastian Vettel’s five-place grid penalty incurred due to a gearbox change

[LookBackTime]

AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX

03 JUL 2016
Spielberg, Austria
4.326 km / 2.688 miles

Weather: Warm and dry
Temperature: Air: 15-17°C Track: 26-28°C

Race Notes:

•Valtteri Bottas finished ninth in the Austrian Grand Prix, while Felipe Massa retired
•Valtteri ran inside the top 10 for the duration of the race on his two-stop strategy, but was unable to gain positions as he struggled with tyre graining
•Felipe started from the pitlane due to a front wing change following structural damage sustained in qualifying
•Felipe was also on a two-stop strategy and had climbed into the points before he was force to retire with high brake temperatures on lap 63
•Valtteri retains seventh in the Drivers’ Championship and Felipe drops to ninth behind Perez, while the team stays fourth in the Constructors’ Championship

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: Our race with Felipe was dictated by our first priority, which is safety. We found some structural damage on his front wing, which we believe was caused by vibrations over the kerbs. We changed it for safety reasons which meant he had to start from the pitlane, so his race was never going to be easy. We started him on the option tyre and ran for as long as we could before he had graining. Then we put on the prime and he was looking good. Unfortunately, he picked up a puncture due to a cut in the tyre, so we had to pit and put him back on the option. We subsequently had to retire him because of brake wear when the temperatures rocketed while he was behind Gutierrez, so that was the only safe thing to do. Valtteri’s race wasn’t as eventful but we were only able to get a couple of points. He struggled with graining, so his pace wasn’t where he should be because the way he manages tyres is usually one of the best in the pitlane. Unfortunately, as a group, I don’t think we’ve understood this asphalt and rubber combination, so that’s the first thing we need to do.

Valtteri Bottas: We definitely expected more points today. The main problem was getting the tyres to work and to last, so that is something we need to understand before Silverstone because the temperatures could be similar to what they were here today. I don’t think our car was too bad this weekend, we just really struggled to get the tyres to work. It was a disappointing day, but it’s going to be very important to learn from today to move on.

Felipe Massa: The race was going ok for me, I was fighting and gaining positions from the start and I had a very good pace during most of the race. Unfortunately, I had a puncture and had to pit for new tyres. I had been saving the brakes for the whole race, but at the end I was close behind Gutierrez so the temperatures rose even more and I had to stop.

[LookBackTime]

"A Formula One pit stop is much more than just stopping, changing tyres and accelerating away. Absolute precision, perfect teamwork and split-second decisions are needed for a smooth pit stop. Pit stops are possibly the most visual evidence of why Formula One racing is a team sport. The DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award was established in 2015 to recognise outstanding teamwork and performance from the ‘unsung heroes’ who make a critically important contribution to the drivers’ success on the track."

Grand Prix Team Driver Fastest Stop
Australia Williams Valtteri Bottas 2.35s
Bahrain Williams Felipe Massa 2.27s
China Williams Felipe Massa 2.10s
Russia Williams Felipe Massa 2.23s
Spain Williams Felipe Massa 2.12s
Monaco Williams Valtteri Bottas 2.43s
Canada Williams Valtteri Bottas 2.11s
Europe Williams Felipe Massa 1.92s
Austria Williams Felipe Massa 2.16s

[LookBackTime]

Williams F1 chief admits team was 'pretty mediocre' in Austrian GP

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... in-austria

[Mr Brooksy]

Embarrassing is the word that was going through my mind watching my boys trundle around with the Toro Rossos, Force India's, Haas and McLaren's.