2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

[Sevach]

As said, RedBull is gonna have a engine upgrade in Barcelona and have an offensively bigger budget to smash into their car compared to Williams.

That's slightly incorrect, Red Bull will test an improved Renault at the Barcelona tests after the GP, they will get the improved engine in Canada.

[Manoah2u]

ah thanks, must have gotten that wrong somehow, thanks for the clarification!

[Sevach]

Probably subconscious, you read a story on "new Renault in Barcelona" you think they will race it...

Anyways, here's a podcast with Frank Dernie mainly talkingabout his time at Williams.
http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/opini ... ie-podcast

[Juzh]

I think Williams are just encouraged by their recent upgrades. They were after all half a second quicker then the Red Bull in qualifying in Russia.

Strat 1 will do that for you.

[bill shoe]

Strat 1 will do that for you.

I assume that's an engine mode?

Look, everything counts. Doesn't matter where they got their advantage.

They have the currently-stronger Merc engine because they are more politically savvy than Red Bull. Williams have a better engine despite spending much less money than Red Bull. When the lights go out Sunday at 2pm, the results you see are the pointy end of a huge stream of effort, preparation, political maneuvering, etc. It all counts.

[Juzh]

Williams have a better engine despite spending much less money than Red Bull.

Prime reason why they have it.

[LookBackTime]

[LookBackTime]

Felipe Massa's Williams motorhome cribs tour with Sky Sports F1 & Natalie Pinkham

[LookBackTime]

[LookBackTime]

WILLIAMS ANNOUNCES NEW PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH GLOBAL FINANZ ORGANISATION

http://www.williamsf1.com/racing/news/w ... ganisation

[LookBackTime]

Massa unhappy with Friday but aiming to battle Red Bull
Thomas Maher 15 mins ago F1 News

Spanish Grand Prix – Williams’ Felipe Massa finished P16 in Friday’s FP2 session, and said that there’s work to do before Saturday. Speaking to media including FormulaSpy after practice, Massa explained his day. Neither Williams finished in the top ten in FP2, with Bottas finishing P11 & Massa P16.

“I think that was a not fantastic Friday, we’re trying to understand the tyres and understand the car.” the Brazilian explained.

His best time was 2.5 seconds off the pace set by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, but Massa said that this wasn’t representative: “I also made a mistake on my best lap with the Soft tyres, I went outside the track and couldn’t do my best lap on the first lap which is “the lap”.

“So then I put on Mediums and went six tenths slower as my best lap, so I’m not as happy here as I was after practice in Russia.”

Despite the problems, Massa said there’s no reason to think Williams can’t be around their usual level and fight with Red Bull Racing:

“I’m trying to understand the tyres and the limit; for sure, the speed will happen. I expect to be competitive, maybe in the position to fight with Red Bull. They have a good car here but, we’ll try…”

[LookBackTime]

SPANISH GP PRACTICE

13 MAY 2016
Barcelona, Spain
4.655km / 2.89 miles

FP1
Weather: Warm and Dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 16-19°C / 23-34°C
V Bottas, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid, 1:25.672 (7th)
F Massa, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid 1:26.186 (9th)
Quickest time: S. Vettel (1:23.951)

FP2
Weather: Warm and Dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 19-21°C / 36-43°C
V Bottas, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid, 1:25.708 (11th)
F Massa, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid, 1:26.491 (16th)
Quickest time: N. Rosberg (1:23.922)

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

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: We’ve had an interesting day. We’ve mainly been concentrating on the car set-up, and trying to find different areas to work on which would suit this type of circuit. It’s a very low-efficiency type of circuit, where the benefit of low drag and high power is less favourable, so we’re trying to find a way to claw back a little bit of performance. We were a little bit more competitive in FP1 than we were in FP2, so we need to look at what changes we made between the sessions and understand if they have affected that. In the long runs we looked OK, not where we want to be yet, but it was reasonably competitive. On the lower fuel runs we’ve got some work to do overnight, especially in sector three, as the cars were not very well balanced.

Valtteri Bottas: I think today was OK. We knew it would be a bit trickier here, but I’m sure we can be better tomorrow than what we’ve seen from the laptimes today. We still have some things we can turn up for qualifying. I reckon it’s going to be very close in terms of laptimes, and in Q3. Whatever small things we can find today, with both the set-up and driving-wise, will be a big help tomorrow.

Felipe Massa: It wasn’t a very fantastic Friday. I managed to understand the tyres which is the most important thing. I made some mistakes on my laps on the new tyres, which is why I couldn’t do a better laptime. It wasn’t like the Friday we had in Russia, but we are working hard for tomorrow to be as fast as we can.

[LookBackTime]

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

getting bread crumbs from big teams is not good anymore !!!

[Paul]

You mean they should get Hamilton and Alonso? As the gaps between engines get smaller they naturally fall back down the order. Even if they stumble upon next greatest driver ever they are only going to be a stop-gap for him/her. They need more money, better organization and another twenty things before drivers become a concern.

[superdowg316]

You mean they should get Hamilton and Alonso? As the gaps between engines get smaller they naturally fall back down the order. Even if they stumble upon next greatest driver ever they are only going to be a stop-gap for him/her. They need more money, better organization and another twenty things before drivers become a concern.

They need some better strategists to begin with