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In nearly all the GP's this year Williams have run their cars heavy for qualifying why do they do this?
Do they value stratergy over track position or does their car handle better of heavy fuel?
Especially on a track like Imola why did they run Webber heavy when he could have easily been as high as 5th and had good track position but instead he was down lower and we could not see his true pace.
What do you guys think
Funny how Sam Michael said exactly the same thing after Bahrain, and they qualified relatively well for the following 2 GPs. However their car doesn't seem to be working at Imola this time around.
The car just doens't have the outright pace to compete on a short two stop strategy. Yesterday Williams's fastest laps were 9th and 13th (IIRC) - just not on it even with low fuel.
I also think they are a little cautious with the engines even though they don't want to destroy the aura that the Cosworths are 'the best on the grid'.
Webber commented heavily about tyres yesterday - not in the positive or negative, but general comments just mean they were weighing heavily on Williams's decisions.
I agree that Brigestone has probably his word to say here, but I would have see it the other way around. I mean Brigestone's tires are criticized most because of their durability than their pace on short stints, so I find it curious if BS encourages their teams to run longer stints.
The other reason is probably that the design of the car id made to be efficient with heavy load more than very fast on fumes, but I'd have thought you can change this particularity with suspention and anti roll bars set up, etc, but it may be more complicated if it's due to chassis global stiffness.
btw I heard yesterday that Renault could not go on a one stopper with Fisichella because their fuel tanks are too small !!! so this kind of things can influence strategy a lot too!
well i think they are running heavier cars to kill a bit of the acceleration and make the revs lower to conserve the engines..but if this really is the case, then its high time cossies wake up !!!
Im guessing there strategy for this race was the longer one, I dont know why mclaren this year are always running heavy. I think that Williams is out of the championship race this year, as the development of the car is not to pace as Mclaren, Renault, Ferrari and Honda. Maybe Williams and Mclaren do not want to stress out the cars so much, i.e low fuel runs and the drivers giving it there all and might crash into something. I remember Webber complaining on the Malaysian GP that the heavier run was a mistake and Sam Michaels confirmed that.
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