2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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LookBackTime
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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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Paddy Lowe leaves Mercedes, set to join Williams for 2017 F1 season

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... m=referral

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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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LOWE LEAVES MERCEDES FOR WILLIAMS

http://www.grandprix247.com/2017/01/10/ ... -williams/

British media outlets are reporting that Mercedes technical director Paddy Lowe has left Mercedes to join Williams despite his contract with the World Champion team set to run until May of this year.

Lowe’s departure comes amid Mercedes’ quest to sign Valtteri Bottas to replace retired Nico Rosberg which is now apparently a step closer to being confirmed.

The post Lowe will take up at Williams is yet to be confirmed, however it is expected that he will be the team principal, with Claire Williams taking over as President from her father Sir Frank Williams.

Lowe is expected to become a shareholder of the team.

The 54 year old Englishman, who was instrumental in Mercedes’ unprecedented success which began when he joined in 2015, started his Formula 1 career with Williams as Joint Head of Electronic in 1987.

He spent six years with the team, during which time he oversaw the development of active suspension which helped Nigel Mansell win the 1992 World Championship.

With Pay Symonds retiring, Lowe is likely to head up the technical department at Williams with immediate effect to lay the foundation for their next technical director who is rumoured to be Toro Rosso’s James Key. The latter will only be able to move to Williams at the end of this season.

Report in progress…

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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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A little more details!

Paddy Lowe: Mercedes technical boss leaves team and is set for Williams

By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/38571408


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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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Why Williams is Paddy Lowe's chance for an Adrian Newey-esque legacy
by Maurice Hamilton


http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/184 ... que-legacy

If you see Paddy Lowe looking lost down the garden centre, you might want to give him a few pointers. You could do worse than suggest that the former Mercedes technical boss reads the latest thoughts of Alan Titchmarsh.

I never realised the gardening guru followed motor racing but he clearly had Paddy in mind when giving advice on winter activity. "Now is the time," writes Titchmarsh in his column, "to take stock of the year's successes and failures and to get on with planning for next year. It's a great time to start construction jobs so that new features will be ready for the start of next year's season."

Spot on, I would have thought. Not too many failures for Lowe to worry about after three championships at Brackley and plenty of fertile ground (yep, pun intended) not far across the fields of the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border. The 2017 Williams-Mercedes is done and dusted, giving 'Green-fingers Lowe' ample time to think about next year's car without taking the rap for what is likely to be another disappointing year at Grove.

That's the point, of course. Although Lowe is too modest and decent to publicly beat his chest, the competitive streak burning within his small stature has driven him towards a tall challenge that will be entirely his to overcome.

If you examine Lowe's career, landmark achievements at McLaren and Mercedes have been built on foundations created by others. Having been largely responsible for the trick active suspension that assisted Nigel Mansell to win the 1992 title in a Williams that was seen as the property of Adrian Newey and Patrick Head, Lowe moved to McLaren as head of research and development before rising through systems development to become engineering director.

By the time Lowe had been appointed technical director in 2011, McLaren had won what remains their last championship (with Lewis Hamilton) three years before. Even though Lowe played a prominent part in the design of the 2008 MP4-23, in typical McLaren fashion, the credit was spread across a number of individuals.

Nonetheless, Lowe was associated with 83 victories at Woking before leaving in 2013 to join...Williams, thanks to the entreaties of Toto Wolff, then a minority shareholder at Grove. But when Wolff became team boss at Mercedes F1, he persuaded Lowe to come with him. Lowe's arrival was not unconnected with the messy departure of Brawn, whose good work with Andy Cowell at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains Lowe would refine to a meticulous and methodical degree.

While all of this was going on, Newey was enjoying the credit coming his way thanks to making Red Bull champions for the fourth successive year. Lowe will have noted that and it's a fair bet the appeal of doing the same for Williams has driven this latest career move. He's done all there is to do at Mercedes; time to accept another challenge.

This is a tough one. Williams are in a state of limbo, having progressed so far in recent years, but gone no further. In fact, they've slipped back in the light of Force India punching impressively above their financial and numerical weight. Pat Symonds has departed Williams, a polite way of saying he was abruptly shown the door a year ahead of his intended retirement date, leaving one or two unhappy technicians in his wake. And then there's the future financial and management structure of a team headed by Sir Frank Williams (75 next April) but now heavily funded by a businessman [Lance Stroll's father, Lawrence] equally ambitious as a racing dad.

Alan Titchmarsh concludes his seasonal advice by saying: "Get rid of slimy patches by scrubbing and blasting with a pressure washer." In other words Paddy, when wandering around the garden centre, get yourself a decent pair of wellies and a stiff new broom. There's a chance you might need them.

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FrukostScones
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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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Stroll still taking driving lessons(aka "private test"):

http://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/willia ... ng-865193/
Finishing races is important, but racing is more important.

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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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Paddy Lowe could become Williams F1 team boss

http://www.thisisf1.com/2017/01/13/padd ... sF1.com%29

LookBackTime
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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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New details!

Stroll already testing ahead of 2017 season

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/ ... 17_season/

...
Secrecy has surrounded the tests to date, but word is that Stroll is amassing impressive mileage, amounting to several grand prix weekends at each venue.
...

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Gridlock
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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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I went to a track day once too!

Seriously though, what a crazy situation the testing ban has created. Want to be better prepped for F1? Just run a client car around the world! Only a few mill.
#58

LookBackTime
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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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Claire Williams:

16:43 On the subject of drivers: "As soon as Nico made his announcement, I knew that the call was going to come from Toto."

16:41 Henry asks about the structural changes in store for Williams in 2017, Claire tells him that they're regrouping and that they're working out what the next step is following the departure of Pat Symonds at the end of last year.

16:48 Claire jokes that Nigel Mansell and Juan-Pablo Montoya would be her ideal driver line-up for 2017 before leaving the stage to cheers from the crowd.
Last edited by LookBackTime on 15 Jan 2017, 16:54, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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Claire Williams: Announcement on Valtteri Bottas' future this week

Finn expected to join Mercedes after Nico Rosberg's retirement; Williams confirms interest in signing Paddy Lowe
By William Esler

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/27993/ ... rce=Direct

...
We are nearly there, we are at the tail end of it and hopefully we’ll be able to make an announcement this coming week.

“But it has to be right for Williams, whatever we do will always be the right decision for Williams no matter what other people’s opinions might be.”
...

...
Williams also admitted the team are very interest in signing Paddy Lowe. The Briton recently departed Mercedes and has been heavily linked with the Grove team, but Williams insists any negotiations with Lowe are separate from those with Bottas.

“For us the two are separate. We obviously need a technical director now that Pat Symonds has departed the team that come in and put us back to where our ambitions lie at Williams and that is to win races and world championships,” she said.
...
Last edited by LookBackTime on 15 Jan 2017, 16:56, edited 3 times in total.

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FrukostScones
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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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Paddy Lowe to be team principal at Williams... ?

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... t=&act=url
Finishing races is important, but racing is more important.

LookBackTime
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Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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Bottas F1 2017 move to Mercedes in final stages, admits Williams

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/botta ... ms-865734/

Sevach
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Joined: 07 Jun 2012, 17:00

Re: 2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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FrukostScones wrote:Paddy Lowe to be team principal at Williams... ?

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... t=&act=url
First i hear about Fry and Furbatto(Fry as far as Fry to Williams and Furbatto... I never heard of him point blank)... It seems to me that Paddy would like to build a Mercedes like structure with many key guys.

Dirk de Beer i've seen mentioned before.

I hope 2017 isn't too bad since the team is making a whole bunch of moves that seem aimed at the future.


Moving on to another subject, here is Stroll talking about the challenges he faces.

http://www.planetf1.com/news/stroll-a-h ... challenge/


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