2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

[LookBackTime]

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
25 MAR 2017

Albert Park, Melbourne
5.303km / 3.295 miles

Weather: Warm and humid
Temperature: Air 28-30°C / Track 32-35°C

Q1
F. Massa 1:25.099 (7th)
L. Stroll 1:27.143 (19th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:24.191

Q2
F. Massa 1:24.597 (7th)
L. Stroll -
Quickest time: V. Bottas 1:23.215

Q3
F. Massa 1:24.443 (7th)
V. Bottas -
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:22.188

Qualifying Notes

Felipe Massa will start the Australian Grand Prix in seventh after a strong qualifying session at Albert Park, with a fastest lap of 1:24.443.
Lance Stroll was 19th quickest in his first Formula One qualifying session, but will start the Australian Grand Prix from the back of the grid after receiving a penalty.
Both drivers joined the majority of the grid on the new-for-2017 ultrasoft tyres in all qualifying sessions.
An incident at Turn 10 for Lance in FP3, causing damage that required a gearbox change, meant that the Canadian received a five-place grid penalty and will start tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix from the back of the grid.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: Unfortunately it wasn’t a great day for Lance with his accident in FP3. It really set his whole day off to a bad start, from which it was difficult to recover. There was a lot of work needed on the car; we changed the entire back end as well as most of the front suspension. The team worked very hard to get the car ready for qualifying but there was only time for him to get one run in the first session. Under huge pressure and with not very much practice in the car in any sort of qualifying format I think that Lance did a good job to get that time on the board. On Felipe’s side it was actually a very good day. We were hoping to get a position in the top 10 after a good session in FP3 with some long runs to gather the data we missed yesterday. Then it was a solid qualifying session for him with quite a tight fight in the top 10. Felipe did a great job to get P7 on the grid. I think Felipe can put up a good fight for points tomorrow in the race. Realistically for Lance, the race will be difficult but it will be a good opportunity to gain experience and put him in a better position with more confidence for China. Congratulations to the team for producing a car that is able to compete strongly in the top 10 from race one. The 2017 season is underway!

Felipe Massa: It was a good qualifying session. I am happy with my qualifying and the laps I was doing. It’s the first qualifying session of the season and the first time I have used the new ultrasoft tyres, after missing some laps on those yesterday. All in all I was happy with qualifying. Sixth would have been a great position for us today but I think Romain did a very good lap, which I was not able to beat. That said, I am sure we can fight in the race and I’m really looking forward to making the first race of the season a good one.

Lance Stroll: The day started off tough and it was hard to recoup from that. What happened in FP3 was a little touch and it led to a lot of things. The qualifying session was in a rush and we didn’t get to do what we had planned. However, the team did a great job to get me out in qualifying so a big thank you to them. I think we have to forget about today, especially as our pace was much better than that, and in FP2 we were over half a second quicker than in qualifying. Obviously it is a long race and, played intelligently, we can do something but we will work that out tonight and see about tomorrow. I now want to put the day behind me and move on to the race, which will be interesting starting from the back.

[Mr Brooksy]

Williams referred to stewards over gearbox

12:31 – Williams has been referred to the Australian Grand Prix stewards after failing to notify the FIA of its intention to replace the gearbox in Lance Stroll's FW40.

Stroll hit the wall on the exit of Turn 10 during the closing stages of Saturday's final practice session, with Williams forced to change his gearbox due to the damage sustained in the crash.

However, Williams did not inform the FIA of the replacement, which was fitted prior to qualifying, in which Stroll set the 19th quickest time.

Article 23.5c of the Sporting Regulations states that "after consultation with the relevant team, the FIA will attach seals to each gearbox prior to it being used for the first time at an event, in order to ensure that no significant moving parts can be rebuilt or replaced."

Stroll is set to take a five-place grid penalty due to the gearbox change, but this has not yet been applied, due to Williams' failure to inform the FIA of the situation.

FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer has referred the matter to the stewards.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/3509 ... r-gearbox/

Stroll's debut is going from bad to worse.

[edu2703]

Another shitty year for Williams

No victories, no pole, no podiuns and maybe no chance of getting at least 4th place in the constructors' championship.

That's all, folks. See you in 2018.

[PlatinumZealot]

I believe so too. The car is good, but Strolldonado is a weak link in the chain, when the nearest rivals have good drivers in both cars. Stroll's lines were just awful in Q. Not sure if the Kid is ready for these cars.

[Sevach]

Another shitty year for Williams

No victories, no pole, no podiuns and maybe no chance of getting at least 4th place in the constructors' championship.

That's all, folks. See you in 2018.

The car is solid to be best of the rest, but with just one driver scoring points it's gonna be tough to say the least.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Williams have been quite disappointing so far, what happened to all that speed they seemed to have in testing? Stroll seems pretty terrible, maybe Williams should be looking at drivers like Hulkenberg as a potential replacement?

I think the car has potential, but it's not being exploited by a useless rookie and a driver looking to retire.

[Stalker1]

Well, if we are looking at the qualifying results, Williams in the hands on Massa is just where it should be according to the pre-season test results. He achieved P7 only because Ricciardo crashed out; otherwise he should be at P8.
Grosjeans pace in Haas was impressive, but as we saw last year, Haas had ups and downs during the whole year, so I wouldnt read into that to much right now.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.htm ... fying.html

That was placewise; timewise the situation looks rather dull. About 2.2 seconds of the pace of Mercedes and about 1 second of the pace of Red Bull. If do not think Massa manages to hold off Riccardo tomorrow or overtake Grosjean, so P8 and some points would be a great start to the season.

[Stalker1]

Stroll... For the sake of his mechanics, Williams budget and his future, I just hope he finishes the GP.

[Mr Brooksy]

I agree with the comments on Stroll, watching the onboard during qualifying I think it was, he was no where near smooth. He was making more steering corrections than a primary school student taking entry level university exams! Way out of his depth.

My brother has been staying in the same hotel as many of the Williams mechanics, and they all seem very excited about the car (from what they've said), which is a great sign. But with Massa's recent history of hot and cold form, and Stroll still at least half a year away from being comfortable.... Points are going to be very precious.

Paddy and his expertise should help lift the team above the midfield in terms of speed, but I doubt they can catch the top 3. Or indeed struggle to earn the points needed to reflect the quality of the car hence struggle to fight for 4th overall.

I hope Stroll can get it together soon. But his form on this Street circuit is laughable.

Please can we have Alonso next year. He surely won't stay at McLaren, Renault won't have a car fast enough by then, Ferrari won't take him back and Mercedes will most likely take Vettel if Bottas doesn't cut it. RBR have their own guys coming through too, which leaves only Williams really. At least he drag another 3-5 tenths from the car.

[Sevach]

Well, if we are looking at the qualifying results, Williams in the hands on Massa is just where it should be according to the pre-season test results. He achieved P7 only because Ricciardo crashed out; otherwise he should be at P8.
Grosjeans pace in Haas was impressive, but as we saw last year, Haas had ups and downs during the whole year, so I wouldnt read into that to much right now.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.htm ... fying.html

That was placewise; timewise the situation looks rather dull. About 2.2 seconds of the pace of Mercedes and about 1 second of the pace of Red Bull. If do not think Massa manages to hold off Riccardo tomorrow or overtake Grosjean, so P8 and some points would be a great start to the season.

Massa had a tough weekend, Qualifying was the first chance he got to feel the car on low fuel and ultra softs.

Given that he actually did OK, also i think the team shouldn't have used 2 ultra softs in Q1, that was overkill and unnecessary, saving a set would've allowed Massa to run twice in Q3 which might've done the deal.

[ctdrftna]

They should get Button to take over from Lance, Then Williams can be the retirement home

[GTO99]

Another shitty year for Williams

No victories, no pole, no podiuns and maybe no chance of getting at least 4th place in the constructors' championship.

That's all, folks. See you in 2018.

Wow, they haven't even completed the 1st race & you've already written off the whole team & this F1 season. You must have one amazing crystal ball. If you're hoping for Williams to get victories or poles, you might be waiting a little longer than 2018. See ya.

[LookBackTime]

https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/stat ... 4229102592

[Sevach]

My thoughts:
The distance to Red Bull is looking pretty unassailable.
The distance to the Toro Rossos and Force India is fairly good.
Massa is still a solid driver.
Stroll needs to be better than that because that was an embarassing performance.

[LookBackTime]

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
26 MAR 2017

Albert Park, Melbourne
5.303km / 3.295 miles

Race Notes

Felipe Massa finished the Australian Grand Prix sixth, securing eight points for the team, whilst a front left brake failure for Lance Stroll cut his Formula One debut short
Felipe’s race got off to a strong start as the Brazilian took P6 from Grosjean at lights out on a set of used ultrasofts. Meanwhile, Lance made an impressive start to his first ever Grand Prix, making good progress up to P14
The 18-year-old also had a fantastic start, avoiding a collision between Giovinazzi and Ericsson on the opening lap, which caused a flat spot on his supersoft tyres and meant he had to pit early for a new set of ultrasofts
Whilst Felipe held sixth after the pitstops, Lance pitted again and battled with drivers on a one-stop strategy, running as high as 13th, before an issue with his front left brake forced him to retire from his Formula One debut
Felipe’s result secures eight points, placing him sixth in the Drivers’ Championship and WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING kick off the opening race of the 2017 season P4 in the Constructors’ Championship

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: The first race is always very important and it’s great to get good points with sixth position for Felipe. He had great pace the whole way through the race, and was very controlled with a strong start, good first corner and so managed to get ahead of Grosjean. His tyre management was also very good so we were able to do the one stop that we had planned all along. Probably even more important though, was to see solid pace that keeps us in touch with the three teams at the front. It is a shame for Lance, who put in a good first drive with some overtakes in his first race in Formula One, so it is a shame that he then had to retire with a brake failure. Clearly that’s an issue we need to get on top for the races to come and make sure we don’t have a repeat. But, overall, congratulations to the team back in Grove who have built a great car to launch our 2017 campaign.

Felipe Massa: It was definitely a good race. I knew the most important thing for me was to overtake Grosjean at the start, because the competition was looking more with him than with the other guys in front who I knew would be very difficult to beat such as Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. I had a very good start and passed him, then my race was free from there until the end. The result was just great. I was so happy with the whole race. The way I was managing the tyres, the consistency, the work from the whole team, the pitstop - everything worked really well. We managed to beat the teams behind us in the right way. This is something we can really think about in terms of working towards the World Championship. I’m really happy with the result today, so thanks to the whole team. Not bad for an old boy!

Lance Stroll: Today we were running a decent race and the pace was pretty good. I had a good start, which was risky although I didn’t plan on it being quite so risky! Some guys braked quite early in front of me and I managed to gain some places, but then I had a flat spot so had to stop early and, strategy-wise, we changed to a two-stop. Then we managed to have a surprisingly good race. It was my first race, and first weekend, so there are a few positives to take out of it. We had what I believe was a brake disc failure. I just hit the pedal, it went long and I was lucky it was in a place where there was a lot of run-off. Unfortunately, that incident yesterday cost us a lot of positions in qualifying, but today I enjoyed myself and so a big thank you to the team.