[ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Lotus102
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Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Ah, OK. Here is the rule (according to Wikipedia)
Beginning in the 2019 Formula One season the FIA introduced a requirement for drivers participating in free practice sessions to hold a stand-alone Free Practice Only Super Licence with the holding of a standard Super licence not automatically granting a Free Practice Only Super licence. The criteria are as follows:

A minimum age of 18
An existing holder of an International Grade A competition licence
Completion of either six races in Formula 2, or accumulated 25 Super Licence points in eligible championships during the previous three years.
...So Nissany gets in by dint of having done six races in F2

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Lotus102
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Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Claire Williams sounding very positive in Motorsport Week
The key target now is getting the car to the test on time, at the lights when they go green, if not before. I have absolute confidence that will happen. As everyone knows, we brought in a whole new planning function last year that works from the start of the process, to the beginnings of the start in aero, right to the end of car assembly. We’ve built ourselves a huge amount of contingency. There's time to ensure that if something does go wrong, you know we’re OK and we’ve got some cover there.

One of the first signs of success for us over the winter was we passed all our crash tests, most of which we did at the first attempt. Rather than last year, where we failed many of them, even at the sixth attempt we were failing them, which obviously puts even more pressure into your system, because then you’re having to deal with why you failed the crash test rather than worrying about getting the parts out.
https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/25830

I didn't realise things had been so bad with the crash tests last year. All in all for Williams to have come out with a car that was slow, late, illegal and unsafe is quite an achievement. I don't quite understand how things got to that point from 2017, when the team was perhaps slightly underperforming but a solid midfield outfit, to 2019 when it was a complete clown-car shambles. The elephant in that particular room has to be Paddy Lowe, in my view.

Manoah2u
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Joined: 24 Feb 2013, 14:07

Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Lotus102 wrote:
15 Jan 2020, 15:19
Ah, OK. Here is the rule (according to Wikipedia)
Beginning in the 2019 Formula One season the FIA introduced a requirement for drivers participating in free practice sessions to hold a stand-alone Free Practice Only Super Licence with the holding of a standard Super licence not automatically granting a Free Practice Only Super licence. The criteria are as follows:

A minimum age of 18
An existing holder of an International Grade A competition licence
Completion of either six races in Formula 2, or accumulated 25 Super Licence points in eligible championships during the previous three years.
...So Nissany gets in by dint of having done six races in F2
Let's not ignore the $$$$$$ thrown towards Williams.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"

f1Aussie2017
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Joined: 03 Jan 2018, 07:34

Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Let us see how the new car performs before we make any more negative comments please.

I have followed Williams since the Alan Jones days, and I don't like where the team is now.

The race team seems to have performed very well last year.

The design team in 2018 seems to have completely dropped the ball.

In particular the failure to repeatedly pass the crash tests, as well as the illegal front suspension.

To me it seems fair that Paddy Lowe take the blame for this, as it was on his watch, and he was the head of design and engineering. Do we know what he is doing now???

So Williams is NOT a complete shambles as you regularly continue to state.

I don't think that Frank is really involved in the day to day affairs of running the team.

And Claire is now the public face of the team.

It would seem that an individual like a Siedel would be an advantage, with a really big broom.

Adrian Newey's book and reference to what he found at Red Bull was fascinating.

Yes Williams has a glorious past, but it must look towards the future.

I see no reason why Claire can't be a part of that.

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Lotus102
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Joined: 26 Feb 2018, 22:29

Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Manoah2u wrote:
17 Jan 2020, 23:42
Lotus102 wrote:
15 Jan 2020, 15:19
Ah, OK. Here is the rule (according to Wikipedia)
Beginning in the 2019 Formula One season the FIA introduced a requirement for drivers participating in free practice sessions to hold a stand-alone Free Practice Only Super Licence with the holding of a standard Super licence not automatically granting a Free Practice Only Super licence. The criteria are as follows:

A minimum age of 18
An existing holder of an International Grade A competition licence
Completion of either six races in Formula 2, or accumulated 25 Super Licence points in eligible championships during the previous three years.
...So Nissany gets in by dint of having done six races in F2
Let's not ignore the $$$$$$ thrown towards Williams.
I was talking about eligibility on the basis of the Free Practice Superlicence introduced a year or two ago. Several teams have paying test drivers, that’s nothing new.

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Mr Brooksy
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Location: Australia

Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Lotus102 wrote:
17 Jan 2020, 19:26
Claire Williams sounding very positive in Motorsport Week
The key target now is getting the car to the test on time, at the lights when they go green, if not before. I have absolute confidence that will happen. As everyone knows, we brought in a whole new planning function last year that works from the start of the process, to the beginnings of the start in aero, right to the end of car assembly. We’ve built ourselves a huge amount of contingency. There's time to ensure that if something does go wrong, you know we’re OK and we’ve got some cover there.

One of the first signs of success for us over the winter was we passed all our crash tests, most of which we did at the first attempt. Rather than last year, where we failed many of them, even at the sixth attempt we were failing them, which obviously puts even more pressure into your system, because then you’re having to deal with why you failed the crash test rather than worrying about getting the parts out.
https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/25830

I didn't realise things had been so bad with the crash tests last year. All in all for Williams to have come out with a car that was slow, late, illegal and unsafe is quite an achievement. I don't quite understand how things got to that point from 2017, when the team was perhaps slightly underperforming but a solid midfield outfit, to 2019 when it was a complete clown-car shambles. The elephant in that particular room has to be Paddy Lowe, in my view.
I didn't realise how bad we went last year with the crash tests either. I really was a big believer in Paddy Lowe, and have defended him many times... Pat Symonds seemed to get the most out of the team in his 3 year tenure, maybe as has been speculated many times, Lowe tried to change things to the Merc way of doing stuff to quickly, or even that system isn't what Williams needed in the first place.

No one is really going to know except those in the inside.

Regarding Brundles comments, I'd have to agree to an extent. I think someone else needs to run the team from an operations perspective, it's been very up and down under her watch. And no 2014-15 weren't TOTALLY about the Merc V6T. Most intelligent arguments I've read come to that conclusion.
But at the same time there's no denying she can pull cash out of thin air, I think her running the PR and image of the team with someone else in operations would be a better situation.
WilliamsF1 fan since 1989

aral
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Joined: 03 Apr 2010, 22:49

Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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I have had to remove a number of comments as they were of a personal nature about members of the Williams team. There is no need for some of the comments made. They could be very hurtful to some, so please calm down and try to stay on topic.

izzy
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Joined: 26 May 2019, 22:28

Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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They're liking Dan Tictum so far apparently:
“And I know when we put him in our simulator, the guys said he was one of the best drivers they’ve ever seen.
https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/25833
sounds like he must be faster than Jamie. He could be a good bet if they lose George, perhaps, if he gets decent points in F2 - and he's growing up a bit :)

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Lotus102
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Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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izzy wrote:
18 Jan 2020, 18:24
They're liking Dan Tictum so far apparently:
“And I know when we put him in our simulator, the guys said he was one of the best drivers they’ve ever seen.
https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/25833
sounds like he must be faster than Jamie. He could be a good bet if they lose George, perhaps, if he gets decent points in F2 - and he's growing up a bit :)
I really hope he does grow up a bit. I have to say I was more bothered by Williams taking Ticktum on than Nissany, on the basis that he's had several chances and blown them - but if he can prove he's truly learned his lesson and acts in a team-spirited way (I think he could learn a lot from Russell and Latifi in that respect, as they both seem to have excellent attitudes) then there's no reason why he couldn't be a real asset to Williams in the future.

As far as Jamie is concerned, I wouldn't write her off just yet - she's at a different stage of her career to Ticktum and a lot less experienced, but she just won a lights to flag victory in Asian F3 (frustratingly dropped to 8th in the results as her car moved slightly on the grid) and she's got time on her side.

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Lotus102
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Joined: 26 Feb 2018, 22:29

Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Mr Brooksy wrote:
18 Jan 2020, 07:53
Lotus102 wrote:
17 Jan 2020, 19:26
Claire Williams sounding very positive in Motorsport Week
The key target now is getting the car to the test on time, at the lights when they go green, if not before. I have absolute confidence that will happen. As everyone knows, we brought in a whole new planning function last year that works from the start of the process, to the beginnings of the start in aero, right to the end of car assembly. We’ve built ourselves a huge amount of contingency. There's time to ensure that if something does go wrong, you know we’re OK and we’ve got some cover there.

One of the first signs of success for us over the winter was we passed all our crash tests, most of which we did at the first attempt. Rather than last year, where we failed many of them, even at the sixth attempt we were failing them, which obviously puts even more pressure into your system, because then you’re having to deal with why you failed the crash test rather than worrying about getting the parts out.
https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/25830

I didn't realise things had been so bad with the crash tests last year. All in all for Williams to have come out with a car that was slow, late, illegal and unsafe is quite an achievement. I don't quite understand how things got to that point from 2017, when the team was perhaps slightly underperforming but a solid midfield outfit, to 2019 when it was a complete clown-car shambles. The elephant in that particular room has to be Paddy Lowe, in my view.
I didn't realise how bad we went last year with the crash tests either. I really was a big believer in Paddy Lowe, and have defended him many times... Pat Symonds seemed to get the most out of the team in his 3 year tenure, maybe as has been speculated many times, Lowe tried to change things to the Merc way of doing stuff to quickly, or even that system isn't what Williams needed in the first place.

No one is really going to know except those in the inside.

Regarding Brundles comments, I'd have to agree to an extent. I think someone else needs to run the team from an operations perspective, it's been very up and down under her watch. And no 2014-15 weren't TOTALLY about the Merc V6T. Most intelligent arguments I've read come to that conclusion.
But at the same time there's no denying she can pull cash out of thin air, I think her running the PR and image of the team with someone else in operations would be a better situation.
I haven't ever really rated Brundle's opinion and I doubt he has that much close insight into Williams, so I can't accept that what he has to say carried any particular weight. It seems an odd time to be making these kinds of comments now when we have no idea if Williams is on course for another disaster or is going to start showing the green shoots of recovery. We'll know in a couple of weeks.

We'll never really know which individuals were most at fault for 2018 and 2019, but I find it hard to accept that what had been a reasonably functioning team in 2017 got to where it was in February 2019 through no fault of Paddy's. As you say, Pat Symonds seems to have made a difference - things were increasingly chaotic under Mike Coughlan in 2011-13, stabilised dramatically in 2014-17 (despite taking a bit of a downward turn at the end of that) and then went completely chaotic in 2018. I don't accept that the success in 2014 was entirely down to the Merc V6 - for one thing, Williams soundly beat McLaren and Force India who were using the same powerplant, and at times ran the Merc works team extremely close. The view at the time was that the FW36 had superb stability in high speed corners, so it was not just a dead simple chassis with a good engine. I've heard it said from authoritative sources that Williams started that period with extremely good correlation between wind tunnel/CFD and it got steadily worse through that period. This isn't the fault of any individual or few individuals - but the slow response to it probably is. The stability of the chassis seems to have eroded over the same period, and rather than trying to fix it, and with what was by then poor correlation, the design team seems to have tried to take a big step forward. It was a recipe for disaster. I spent 2018 defending Paddy Lowe and believing that he was the factor the team needed to start heading up the grid again. By the start of last year, I could no longer accept that he was doing a good job. That's just my opinion. I understand that a lot of people take an alternative view and am not going to insist to them that them they are wrong, but I can only call things as I see them.

But, as has been pointed out above, there are positives, which indicate that the whole team is not a basket case. The performance of the race team has been consistently high, and the commercial team has continued to bring in sponsorship and other funding despite increasingly poor performance on the track (and a rather stagnant world economy and a lot of uncertainty), the importance and difficulty of which is not to be understated. (As far as things like losing the Martini sponsorship is concerned, OK, but the Martini deal was down to Claire in the first place, and the decision to switch to Mercedes rather than stick with Renault was also Claire's).

izzy
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Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Lotus102 wrote:
19 Jan 2020, 18:38
I really hope he does grow up a bit. I have to say I was more bothered by Williams taking Ticktum on than Nissany, on the basis that he's had several chances and blown them - but if he can prove he's truly learned his lesson and acts in a team-spirited way (I think he could learn a lot from Russell and Latifi in that respect, as they both seem to have excellent attitudes) then there's no reason why he couldn't be a real asset to Williams in the future.

As far as Jamie is concerned, I wouldn't write her off just yet - she's at a different stage of her career to Ticktum and a lot less experienced, but she just won a lights to flag victory in Asian F3 (frustratingly dropped to 8th in the results as her car moved slightly on the grid) and she's got time on her side.
oh wow Jamie won on the road? How awesome. i'm trying not to get my hopes up too much about girls in F1, but building expectation is such a big part of it isn't it so this kind of thing is huge. i must watch the race

Dan, well people exaggerate the original thing with Collard (not that it was great but it wasn't the crime of the century either, some people make like he actually ran somebody over) so i'm inclined to keep my mind open about him. Not that he's been too charming in interviews either so far, but... Credit to Williams afaic that they've given him another chance and i'm hoping it might pay off for them

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Mr Brooksy
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Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Williams gets to have the number 6 back on the car! Latifi has chosen the number 6. All we need now is a red 5... And a fast car.
WilliamsF1 fan since 1989

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bigblue
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Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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Some good news for Williams ?
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/will ... t/4677702/
The Grove-based outfit has announced the appointments of David Worner and Jonathan Carter [...]

Worner will be named chief designer - a position previously held by Wood - and is arriving from Red Bull. He had served as the deputy chief designer there since 2014, [...]

Meanwhile, Carter - who along with Worner had previously worked for Arrows - had most recently served as head of composite design at Renault. At Williams, he will be deputy chief designer and head of design.
Full article at the link.

Are those job titles accurate ? What's the difference bewteen chief designer and head of design ?

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bauc
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Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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If Williams can get in the midfield battle next year we are in for a epic season...
Формула 1 на Македонски - The first ever Macedonian Formula 1 YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJkjCv ... 6rVRgKASwg

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Lotus102
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Re: [ 2020 ] Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

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bigblue wrote:
28 Jan 2020, 17:00
Some good news for Williams ?
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/will ... t/4677702/
The Grove-based outfit has announced the appointments of David Worner and Jonathan Carter [...]

Worner will be named chief designer - a position previously held by Wood - and is arriving from Red Bull. He had served as the deputy chief designer there since 2014, [...]

Meanwhile, Carter - who along with Worner had previously worked for Arrows - had most recently served as head of composite design at Renault. At Williams, he will be deputy chief designer and head of design.
Full article at the link.

Are those job titles accurate ? What's the difference bewteen chief designer and head of design ?
Yes, accurate - that's what the Williams press release says

https://www.williamsf1.com/news/2020/01 ... nical-team

Not sure what 'head of design' entails, but it's a role that was held by Adam Carter since March last year. There also seems to be a 'design director' (Doug McKiernan - who was brought in as head of aero but took on chief designer duties when Ed Wood left).

Last year Claire said the following at the British GP Friday press conference. Not sure if it sheds any light, but there it is:
We’ve talked about our technical structure over the past few weeks in that we have now a technical management team in effect, that are effectively running the engineering side of the business and that consists of our Chief Aerodynamicist, Doug McKiernan, Dave Robson who is Head of Engineering Operations and then Adam Carter who is our Head of Design, and they are running it very collegiately, in a fantastic way and they are making real progress, which is great to see. But obviously they have 650 people below them who are all working incredibly hard to make sure we deliver what we need to deliver over the next few races.
I'd be interested to know how the structure works. My guess is that 'head of design' is a managerial role, meaning day to day management of the design office, while the chief designer manages the actual design process without having to worry about person management - but that's not based on anything concrete, other than that I can't see any other way it makes sense that the deputy chief designer is head of design rather than the chief.

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