Williams' lack of pace

[Lightspeed]

The Williams F1 team's pace has been disappointing to say the least. The Cosworth engine is widely regarded as the most powerful and highest revving one on the grid. The FW28's was described as "aerodynamically very very special" during its launch. Patrick Head has spoken of a revolutionary "seamless shift" gear box that would reduce lap times by 0.3 to 0.4 seconds. In Mark Webber they have a very quick driver. Nico seems quick as well. The team has several impressive sponsorships as well.

And yet, Williams are no way near the front of the pack and are far from challenging for the championship.

Any explainations

[johny]

From my point of view i expected much more behind, they're doing well specially after loosing a big manufacturer helping them, those privateers teams have a very very difficult future and it seems that williams is managing it so well

[DaveKillens]

Wow, I don't see it that way at all. First off, look at the competition, the teams with much larger resources and budgets. Ferrari, Mclaren, Toyota, Honda. Not to mention BMW, STR, and Red Bull.
In Bahrain they qualified 7th and 12th, but finishing 6th and 7th, both scoring points. In Malaysia they qualified 3rd and 5th, but sadly neither finished the race. In Australia the qualified 7th and 15th, but again, DNF. IMola saw them qualify 10th and 13th, and finish 6th and 11th.
Not great, but then again not bad. The Cosworth has shown unreliability, but it's a stout engine that will develop into a contender. The car and drivers show pace, and at times run near the front. Looking at the constructor's points, after taking away the big four who are supposed to be contenders (Renault, Mclaren, Honda, Ferrari) you see Williams and BMW battling for 5th and 6th. Right now BMW is 5th after scoring points in Imola. But all in all, I think Williams are doing OK, and once they get the Cosworth sorted, much more dangerous to the competition.

[se7725]

Hmmm,
New engine supplier
New tyre supplier
New gearbox design
New head of aero department
New areo philosophy, switched from high nose and low side pods to low nose and high under cut side pods.
New race and test driver
New suspension design, single keel to no keel
Loss of two main sponsers

I am amazed at William’s pace and how competitive they are. Most teams’ design philosophys and partnerships are a continuations of last years except BMW. Look at Toyota and the difficulty they had in just changing tyre suppliers well Williams came out of the box with some great speed.

At the moment they are working on a few reliability issues but even with that they still got a 6th place at San Marino and might have done better if it hadn’t been for mark’s off road excursion.



So, Lightspeed, if you were expecting Williams to start the season beating much better funded teams whom have cars which are developments of last years race winning machines you might be expecting a bit too much.

[Lightspeed]

Cosworth 'series 4' V8 gets nod
28 April 2006
Cosworth's first major race engine update of the season got the thumbs up after its final test this week at Silverstone. The new V8 engine ran faultlessly and the team is aiming to introduce it at next week's European Grand Prix.

"Silverstone was a crucial evaluation of the latest CA2006 developments prior to the first in-season race engine upgrade," said Simon Corbyn, head of F1 race engineering. "We had no issues associated with the new components at this week's test. As per Cosworth convention, the race versions of the upgraded engines will be designated 'Series 4'."

Article >>

[Lightspeed]

Here is some perplexing speculation .... Williams is gonna get engines from Toyota for 2007 !!!

Check this

...With current partner Williams likely to race into Toyota's clutches in 2007....

http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/en/headlin ... 5819.shtml

I wonder why ?. I only hope Williams are not expecting to get the same spec engines as the Toyota team.

[Tom]

se7725, who is it in the top pic?

I assume its Roseburg but hope its Webber. Also is that Ralfy off the track in the toyota or is he still on the black stuff?

[NickT]

But Cosworth has not yet given up on retaining Frank Williams' business, with Tim Routsis saying earlier that his job is to make it 'bloody hard for them to want to go' elsewhere.

Cosworth haven't given up on Williams yet Personally I think it would be very unwise for Williams to become a Toyota B team, I certainly cannot recall a customer team beating its supplier, certainly not on a regular basis

However, Toyota still don't have the results and they have invested more than any other manufacturer in recent years, perhaps supplying Williams will allow them to withdraw as a team and save face by becoming a supplier to a top team capable of winning

However, if Honda start winning then........

......who knows what will happen to the management at Toyota

[joseff]

se7725, who is it in the top pic?

I assume its Roseburg but hope its Webber. Also is that Ralfy off the track in the toyota or is he still on the black stuff?

The car with the red camera housing is Mark Webber's. Nico Rosberg's helmet is mostly yellow with blue streaks.

@NickT: Frank says the engine decision is "technical and commercial", maybe one of their current sponsors want a Toyota connection.