2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

[LookBackTime]

https://twitter.com/andihaupt1/status/8 ... 6712669185

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TOP SPEEDS: Mercedes-powered cars ~5kph quicker than new Ferrari units. Renault level w/ Sauber's old units.

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RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
29 APR 2017

Sochi Autodrom, Russia
5.848km / 3.634 miles
Weather: Warm and dry
Temperature: Air 21-24°C Track: 38-41°C

Q1
F. Massa 1:35.828 (10th)
L. Stroll 1:36.279 (13th)
Quickest time: V. Bottas 1:34.041
Q2
F. Massa 1:35.049 (5th)
L. Stroll 1:35.964 (12th)
Quickest time: V. Bottas 1:33.264
Q3
F. Massa 1:35.110 (6th)
L.Stroll -
Quickest time: S. Vettel 1:33.194

Qualifying Notes
- Felipe Massa qualified 6th and Lance Stroll 12th* for this weekend's Russian Grand Prix
- Both drivers cleared Q1 with no issues, Felipe in P10 and Lance in P13
- Lance set his fastest times of the first two sectors of his final lap of Q2, but a snatch of oversteer at Turn 15 cost him time and the lap was only enough for P12
- Felipe's first run of Q3 put him P7, but he improved again on his second run to move ahead of Verstappen into P6
- Lance will be promoted from 12th to 11th, due to a grid penalty for Carlos Sainz for an incident in the last race

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: It is absolutely fantastic to get sixth place on the grid with Felipe. We have split the Red Bulls which should make things interesting tomorrow, especially since we think our race pace looks competitive. On Lance’s side, given that this is a new circuit and there was a lot of learning to do this weekend, he has done a very respectable job to get the car to 12th. The tyres have been very tricky for everybody, as they have been every year here because of this smooth surface, so there has been a lot of learning along the way to get that final lap in qualifying. We look forward to an exciting race tomorrow. Well done to the team for what has been a trouble free weekend so far. Finally, congratulations to Ferrari for their first front row lockout since the 2008 French GP, back when Felipe and Rob Smedley were still part of their team!

Felipe Massa: It was a great qualifying for us. It's so nice to see that we are in the middle of the two Red Bulls. They were better than us in the first three races, on qualifying and race pace, but this is a good track for us and we are fighting with them. I'm happy with the position we're starting, but I'm also happy that maybe tomorrow we can fight with them again. I will try everything I can, I'm very motivated and I hope everything will be right for us to have a good race tomorrow.

Lance Stroll: It was a bit unfortunate at the end as I think Q3 was possible, but I just missed out at the end of my lap in Q2. I didn't get to do the warm up lap I wanted, and around here it is quite important to get the tyre working properly. I had a good start to the lap and then I lost a lot of grip in the last sector, made a couple of mistakes and just lost the rear, which wasn’t great. I was a couple of tenths up but didn’t manage to hold it. There is more in it. I think this weekend is quite tricky with tyres and getting them to work properly, but we can race from P12 (P11). It is a long race tomorrow, we will see what happens and hopefully luck is going to be a bit more on our side.

[Webber2011]

Nice showing by Massa !

There's life in the old boy yet

[LookBackTime]

https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/stat ... 3323138048

[Stalker1]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mass ... ce-898573/

I'm sorry but the bar of expectation on Lance Stroll's performance is ridiculously low.

Pundits and media types (e.g. ted kravitz) are routinely congratulating him on the most modest achievement, like qualifying 10th.

let's be clear: we can all agree, I'm sure that Felipe Massa is passed his best; whether his best was ever absolutely top tier is a separate debate but, whilst he's still capable of providing a good benchmark, any young driver who has any hope of being anywhere near a race winner should immediately be on his pace and soon be ahead of him. The baseline of the car is clearly the 4th best in the field and for Stroll to be any lower than 8th on the grid is not good - let alone what he actually ends up doing.

I'm not saying the team should do anything else but support him now they have him, and i also understand the economics of why they did, but for external people to set such low expectations is a bit ridiculous. I wonder also whether the budget he brings to the team is cancelled out if they finish behind FI/Renault/TR/Haas (or perhaps all 4!)

I do not understand your frustation! Qualifying 10-th in Shanghai was a well-earned achievement for Stroll, especially after the dissapoitment in Melbourne. Why should pundits and media types expecting more from him in the beginning of his first season when he isnt considered "the next best thing?" I think they are seeing him as a talented rookie who deserves praise for achievements like 10-th place in qualifing.

[f1316]

Because he's a formula 1 driver - they're supposed to be the best drivers in the world.

Take quali yesterday: 36 year old Felipe Massa splits the Red Bulls and qualifies 6th; it's my opinion (and arguably the generally held opinion given lots of teammates against whom to judge him) that Massa is not one of the fastest in the field, pulling stunning laps out of a recalcitrant car, rather he is a good benchmark for what the car is capable of.

But Stroll puts the other car in 12th. So rather than having two cars fighting the red bulls (and being in the best place to profit if Ferraris or Mercedes have problems) and scoring 8 or 10 points each, you have one car doing that and the other lucky if he gets one point.

That means you can potentially be outscored by a Force India or a Haas that gets both cars in the points, despite clearly having a better car. If those teams then reduce your advantage through the season - and FI have a good record of developing cars recently - you miss your chance to pull away and if finish behind them in the world championship it could cost you more money than Stroll is paying for his seat.

In short, it's not good enough for f1; it's not good enough for a team that's won the second most drivers championships in the history of the sport ; it's not good enough for the brand or the sponsors who want to project success ; and it may not even make economic sense if he doesn't start performing like an F1 driver soon.

I'm not actually frustrated - i personally prefer Renault and Haas to do well - i just think it's not the best use of a competitive seat that some of the F2 guys would make better use of.

[LookBackTime]

Felipe Massa using lessons from mentor Michael Schumacher to teach Lance Stroll

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/192 ... nce-stroll

.

[LookBackTime]

RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX
30 APR 2017

Sochi Autodrom, Russia
5.848km / 3.634 miles

Race Notes:
• Felipe Massa finished ninth and Lance Stroll 11th as misfortune hindered WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING in the Russian Grand Prix
• Felipe passed Ricciardo at the start and kept him at bay through the opening corners to hold sixth, while Lance made up two places off the line but dropped back to P14 with a spin later during the first lap
• Felipe ran sixth for most of the race but was forced to pit for a second time on lap 41 with a slow puncture, which dropped him to ninth place
• Lance managed to pass Kvyat for 11th, thanks to some quick laps before his only pit stop, and he was catching Sainz to challenge for the final points position in the closing stages
• Felipe also caught Hulkenberg and Ocon towards the end, but ran out of laps before he was able to regain any of the places lost to his puncture
• Felipe scored two points but drops to eighth place in the Drivers’ Championship, behind Perez, while WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING remains fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, now 13 points behind Force India

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: It was a very disappointing day because we were in great shape for some good points. Felipe drove a fantastic race, but we had two slow punctures on his car. The first one wasn't too damaging because it came at a reasonable time for a one-stop strategy, but the second one took him well out of position to ninth, which is a much worse result than the sixth place he was on for. On Lance's side, he had an unfortunate spin very early on, but drove a good, solid race after that and narrowly missed out on the points. Without the spin he could have certainly been in the points, but he put in some pace when he needed to and gained a position through the pitstops, and it's great that he's got his first race finish of his career. Overall we're disappointed, we need to understand the reasons for the punctures as there may be more to it than bad luck. We'll look into that, and look forward to getting better results in Spain, which the car and the drivers deserve. Finally, congratulations to Valtteri for his first race win. We consider him a home driver, he learned a lot of his craft at Williams and we're delighted to see him get his first victory in Formula One.

Felipe Massa: I'm disappointed, we were just unlucky with the tyres. I was really taking care of the car and the tyres, keeping the gaps in the right place, and we had a sixth position in our pocket today. It is unfortunate and painful for the team that we have lost good points, but we can't do anything about it. The car felt good, it was consistent with a good pace, I had a good start and first lap. I was around eight seconds ahead of Perez, we were just unlucky. I'm so happy that Valtteri managed to get his first victory. I knew when he signed for Mercedes that he was going to do a good job there, like he did for Williams, and he's doing it. He will be a different driver now with that first victory in his pocket.

Lance Stroll: It was so unfortunate. I had a really good start and think I was around P8 at one point, and then I got squeezed on the kerb, there wasn’t much grip and the car just got away from me. I knew I didn’t have any damage, but I fell to the back and it was just one of those things that happens. After that, it was a difficult first stint because I had that spin and then had to spin the car round to keep going, and I overheated the rears quite a bit so I had poor grip. But then I recovered a bit on the second stint and saw the chequered flag for the first time, which was nice. It was a bit disappointing with the spin, as I think it could have been quite a bit better, but we will take our first finish.

[Manjhi]

Because he's a formula 1 driver - they're supposed to be the best drivers in the world.

Take quali yesterday: 36 year old Felipe Massa splits the Red Bulls and qualifies 6th; it's my opinion (and arguably the generally held opinion given lots of teammates against whom to judge him) that Massa is not one of the fastest in the field, pulling stunning laps out of a recalcitrant car, rather he is a good benchmark for what the car is capable of.

But Stroll puts the other car in 12th. So rather than having two cars fighting the red bulls (and being in the best place to profit if Ferraris or Mercedes have problems) and scoring 8 or 10 points each, you have one car doing that and the other lucky if he gets one point.

That means you can potentially be outscored by a Force India or a Haas that gets both cars in the points, despite clearly having a better car. If those teams then reduce your advantage through the season - and FI have a good record of developing cars recently - you miss your chance to pull away and if finish behind them in the world championship it could cost you more money than Stroll is paying for his seat.

In short, it's not good enough for f1; it's not good enough for a team that's won the second most drivers championships in the history of the sport ; it's not good enough for the brand or the sponsors who want to project success ; and it may not even make economic sense if he doesn't start performing like an F1 driver soon.

I'm not actually frustrated - i personally prefer Renault and Haas to do well - i just think it's not the best use of a competitive seat that some of the F2 guys would make better use of.

I think Stroll bring lot of money to the team, may be in the range of $ 30-35 million. That wouldn't affect the team financially if they don't get P4 in constructors. The difference in the payment is hardly $ 5-6 million, so Stroll just pays for it.

I know its frustrating to see some talented driver sitting outside and this boy gets the seats and continues making mistakes from the beginning. Williams should have rather consider giving him more friday practice before the seat.

One reason for Williams making mistakes while choosing a pay driver is that they are a big team unlike Force India, where there are roughly 325 people and they have small factory, so they don't have to maintain lots of things, while Williams has a big factory, more staffs and different programs running as well and they need money for that and they divert their attention.

They should think about their model.

[marmer]

i think claires eyes lit up when she saw the $s coming in and forgot that talent matters so far he has shown almost nothing that would set him part from a Will stevens or a max chilton. you would expect lance to have sorted out qualification now 4 races in. instead
6 19 Felipe Massa WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:35.828 1:35.049 1:35.110 (actually went quicker in q2)
12 18 Lance Stroll WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:36.279 1:35.964

last season massa only out qualified bottas 4 times. this season he has managed that already so its not like he is a world beater at 1 lap pace

race pace and craft you can understand just down to experience but the qualification gap is worrying.
he fidgets on the wheel when you see him on-board and generally seems like he is unsure about his car
the other near rookies are much better pascal missed a lot of running and looks faster that Marcus already.
ocon went just as quick as pascal last season when he arrived part way and has scored in every race this season in what is believed to be a worse car.
the only driver doing a worse job at the moment is palmer but even then its a worse car going up against HULK who i would say is faster now than massa is if perhaps not as fast as massa was in 08

[LookBackTime]

https://twitter.com/MassaFelipe19/statu ... 2502001664

[Sevach]

i think claires eyes lit up when she saw the $s coming in and forgot that talent matters so far he has shown almost nothing that would set him part from a Will stevens or a max chilton. you would expect lance to have sorted out qualification now 4 races in. instead
6 19 Felipe Massa WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:35.828 1:35.049 1:35.110 (actually went quicker in q2)
12 18 Lance Stroll WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:36.279 1:35.964

last season massa only out qualified bottas 4 times. this season he has managed that already so its not like he is a world beater at 1 lap pace

race pace and craft you can understand just down to experience but the qualification gap is worrying.
he fidgets on the wheel when you see him on-board and generally seems like he is unsure about his car
the other near rookies are much better pascal missed a lot of running and looks faster that Marcus already.
ocon went just as quick as pascal last season when he arrived part way and has scored in every race this season in what is believed to be a worse car.
the only driver doing a worse job at the moment is palmer but even then its a worse car going up against HULK who i would say is faster now than massa is if perhaps not as fast as massa was in 08

The worst part is, this wasn't a one off, he hasn't been within half a second of Felipe in quali thus far, it's really an unnaceptable level of performance.

[LookBackTime]

Massa column: Puncture costly in Ricciardo points battle

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mass ... le-901820/

...
"European season

We are now heading to the start of the European season, which is going to be a very interesting time for F1.

The Barcelona weekend will be an important one to assess the technical updates that many teams will bring to the race track, and I am eager to see what Williams can do.

We have confirmed our position in the first races of 2017 as behind the top teams, so we will be working hard to improve. I’ve seen many good ideas at the factory, so it will be fascinating to see how things pan out in Spain.

Let’s just say I am confident about how things will go – even if that puncture meant I couldn’t leave Sochi standing sixth overall in the drivers’ championship."
...

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https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/stat ... 1975597056