2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

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https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/stat ... 3332875264

[FrukostScones]

he shouls ask him how he lost 2nd. did he lift too early like it seemed .....

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he shouls ask him how he lost 2nd. did he lift too early like it seemed .....

Rob answers the question!
They went back (looking to data) to see what went wrong and the answers they found was: Valteri had freshen tyres!

[FrukostScones]

he shouls ask him how he lost 2nd. did he lift too early like it seemed .....

Rob answers the question!
They went back (looking to data) to see what went wrong and the answers they found was: Valteri had freshen tyres!

it sounds a bit like an excuse but maybe STR was just a bit unlucky, and maybe 2nd would have rocketed him too high anyway so everything was fine, as 3rd in a GP for him would have been something weirdly unbelievable some weeks ago.

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https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/stat ... 9141138433 Paddy is taking about new updates too!

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AUSTRIAN GP PRACTICE
07 JUL 2017

FP1
Weather: Warm and humid
Air & Track Temperatures: 23-28°C / 34-46°C
F Massa, FW40-03, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:07.550 (11th)
L Stroll, FW40-02, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:08.041 (15th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:05.975

FP2
Weather: Warm and humid
Air & Track Temperatures: 29-31°C / 38-43°C
F Massa, FW40-03, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:07.065 (14th)
L Stroll, FW40-02, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:07.468 (16th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:05.483

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: We were carrying out tests across the garage on suspension and aerodynamics with some new parts that we brought this weekend. Both cars ran wide at Turn Nine in the morning session and suffered some damage unfortunately, but we were able to put that right for FP2. We’re doing more work with set-up in FP2 and we ended the day with a lot of good data, indicating the direction to take tomorrow. There is some analysis to do this evening but we hope to be in good shape tomorrow.

Felipe Massa: It definitely wasn’t an easy Friday for us. We were struggling with balance in the car, with some difference between high speed and low speed. I just wasn’t happy with the balance and there’s work to do to improve for tomorrow. I really hope our lap times are better and we can be more competitive in qualifying.

Lance Stroll: The field is very tight. We are missing a bit so there are bits and pieces to work on overnight. We don't look as competitive as we were in Baku, for example, but that can change. It is such a short lap round here and a couple of tenths can get you quite a few places. We are going to work to try and solve it for tomorrow, as we are lacking a bit of grip everywhere and are just not able to push the car as hard at some of the others. I haven’t debriefed with the engineers yet, but I do think we have a good race car

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AUSTRIAN GP QUALIFYING
08 JUL 2017

Red Bull Ring, Spielberg
4.326 km / 2.688 miles

Weather: Warm and dry
Temperature: Air:28-30°C Track:38-44°C

Q1
F. Massa 1:06.534 (17th)
L. Stroll 1:06.608 (18th)

Q2
L. Stroll -
F. Massa -

Q3
L. Stroll -
F. Massa -

Qualifying Notes

Felipe Massa qualified 17th and Lance Stroll 18th for the Austrian Grand Prix
Both drivers went out in Q1 on the ultrasoft tyre, but were knocked out of the session having struggled for qualifying run performance over the course of the weekend
Felipe’s best time of the session was 1:06.534, with Lance setting a fastest time of 1:06.608


Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: It wasn’t a good day for us. We simply weren’t quick enough, there’s not much more to say than that really. We’ve had good and bad balance through the weekend so far, but in the end it’s not about the balance, we just simply aren’t quick enough today. We did a lot of work overnight trying to understand the pace from yesterday but none of the things we’ve tried really adjust the fundamental issue, so we need to go away and analyse that further to see where we are. On the positive side, when we ran high fuel yesterday we looked to be in our normal competitive position and so we’re hopeful we can make some progress during the race tomorrow.

Felipe Massa: We definitely struggled to make the tyres work and get the best lap out of the car, so it was a disappointed qualifying for me and the team. I had a lot of oversteer in Turn Six, which cost me a couple of tenths. But we need to concentrate on the race tomorrow. We know that the race pace is much better than qualifying pace, but starting 17th definitely makes our life tricky and quite difficult for the race, so we need to concentrate 100 percent on that.

Lance Stroll: It is not the best day for the team as we just didn’t improve from yesterday. We have been struggling with the car all weekend and have been trying to work on the balance to improve it. We are simply losing time in the high speed corners to some of the other cars. On the positive side, we are better on our long runs than we were in qualifying on our short runs and that gives us hope going into the race. Tomorrow the race will be long and all we can do is see what happens.

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Massa puzzled by dire Williams qualifying performance
By: Charles Bradley, Global Editor-in-Chief
1 hour ago

Felipe Massa says he’s perplexed by Williams’ struggles in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, three years on from his pole position at the track.

Massa – who led a Williams qualifying lockout at Spielberg in 2014 – will start 17th, one place ahead of Azerbaijan GP podium-finishing teammate Lance Stroll.

The Brazilian says the team needs to understand why it couldn’t ‘switch on’ the Pirelli tyres in qualifying when they were new.

“We struggled the whole weekend to make these tyres work when they are new,” said Massa. “Just struggling massively.

“Today was really tricky in qualifying to make the tyres work, it’s really disappointing because we’re not supposed to be where we are, we’re supposed to be more in the front fighting the proper way.

“It’s strange, because on old tyres on the long run the car was behaving well yesterday, but just not on new tyres. We need to understand why.”

Teammate Stroll was just 0.074s off Massa’s fastest lap, and also bemoaned a lack of balance on new rubber.

“It’s just tough for us this weekend,” said Stroll. “We’ve been trying to work on the balance and improve the car, but we’re simply losing time in the high-speed corners compared to some of the other cars.

“On the positive side I think our long runs were better than our qually runs – that gives us some hope going into tomorrow. But this was a hard day for the team.”

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Paddy Lowe likens Williams slump to Merc at Singapore 2014
by Nate Saunders

SPIELBERG, Austria -- Williams technical boss Paddy Lowe has likened his team's inexplicable lack of pace in Austria to that of former team Mercedes at the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix.

That Singapore race remains one of the few anomalies from Mercedes' unmatched dominance of the first three years of the V6 turbo, as it found itself mysteriously off the pace. The German team had no immediate explanation for why it struggled at the time and only learned the lessons after a thorough investigation.

Williams is facing a similar mystery this weekend, having qualified 17th and 18th on a circuit which should suit its car, which is also featuring a big upgrade package this weekend.

"We were immediately slow starting [Friday]," Lowe said. "That was clear. We were doing different bits of testing across the garage in the normal way but it was obvious the pace wasn't in the normal ranking.

"So we did a lot of trials through FP2 and felt we had a good direction actually from that. We then put all our best thinking and analysis and effort into FP3, and we changed the balance of the car but we didn't actually make it any quicker. We tried a few more things going into qualifying which also didn't make it quicker, so the honest answer is we're not quick here but we don't know why at the moment. Because if I did know why we'd have done something about it. So all our best ideas were already deployed, either in P3 or in qualifying so we'll have to go away and spend a lot more time analyzing the situation."

When asked if the situation felt similar to Singapore in 2014, he said: "Not in terms of explanation, but in terms of how it feels. These days are sent to test us, and in my experience if you make good use of them you learn a lot, and it makes you stronger for next time."

Williams' last pole position came at the Red Bull Ring in 2014 and the circuit has been seen as one of the team's strongest in recent seasons, adding to the confusion around the team's performance so far.

"That's the surprising thing. One of our jobs is to try and undo that characteristic association so you can be quick everywhere, but this would have been one track where typically we have been quick in the past. We had the front row in 2014 and the philosophy within the team is not dramatically different since then, which is one of the elements that we need to consider."

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https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/stat ... 8120861696

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AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX
09 JUL 2017

Red Bull Ring, Spielberg
4.326 km / 2.688 miles

Race Notes:

- Felipe Massa finished ninth and Lance Stroll tenth at the Austrian Grand Prix, securing three championship points for WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING
- Both drivers had impressive starts to the race, managing to avoid a number of incidents on the opening corners
- In the opening lap, Felipe gained seven places up to P10 and Lance moved up seven places into P11
- By lap 48, both Lance and Felipe had come in for ultrasoft tyres with 2.3-second pitstops
- Lance moves up to 11th in the Drivers’ Championship, while Felipe remains 10th. The team holds fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with 40 points

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: A double-points finish is a great achievement for us today. Congratulations to Felipe and Lance for producing that result, especially given the fact that they started in 17th and 18th. It was a pretty eventful opening lap, which put us immediately into 10th and 11th. From there, we managed to pick up more places in overtakes and move up to ninth and 10th. Our strategy was to run for longer on the harder tyres and then finish with a shorter stint on the ultrasoft, which meant we were able to attack Esteban Ocon at the end, but we were unfortunately unable to make the position. Equally, Lance defended really well against Magnussen and Palmer to take his third points finish in a row. So overall, we certainly ended the weekend on a much better note than it felt like we would yesterday.

Felipe Massa: For sure you cannot celebrate a ninth position but starting 17th it was a fantastic race for me. I had a really good start, getting through the issues that were happening in corner one, and overtaking cars. It was a fantastic first lap as the pace was great, compared to qualifying, which is something we need to work to understand so that we don’t repeat starting out of position like today. At the end of the race it was a bit disappointing not to be able to pass Ocon, but I was just losing a lot of grip in the high-speed corners behind him, and he had good speed on the straight so it was quite difficult. I’m so happy with my race and it’s good to have both cars in the points.

Lance Stroll: It goes to show anything can happen in a race and it is not over on a Saturday. I am feeling very positive as I started 18th, finished 10th and picked up another point. It wasn't an easy race, although the start was good and we managed to gain some places. I knew after the start we were in a good position, so it was just a matter of staying focussed, not making any mistakes and saving the brakes and tyres towards the end of the race. First, there was Magnussen putting pressure on me and then at the end Palmer, but I just needed to defend as I know around here it is quite difficult to overtake. We just need to figure out what happened to us this weekend in qualifying and try to cure it for the next race. The next race is Silverstone, the home race for the team, so I am really looking forward to it.

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F1 Power Rankings

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Williams keen Massa stays but not committed to 2018 deal

“I don't see why not [Massa to stay], he's done such a great job this year,” Williams said. “We were very fortunate that he decided to come out of retirement – the shortest retirement ever – and help us out.

“We were really lucky with that and he has more than delivered this year on so many levels for us. Whether that be delivering the points haul that he has, supporting the other side of the garage and helping Lance, being a really strong team player and working with Paddy and looking at all the areas that can be improved with his level of experience that he has.

“I think as a driver, any driver needs to be motivated to continue in F1 and that's his decision whether he still has the motivation to continue, but seeing him this year, I don't doubt he has motivation at all.”

Despite Williams sounding settled on an unchanged driver line-up for 2018, Williams hasn't ruled out the possibility of negotiating with other drivers later in the season if required. When quizzed whether the team would still look at other drivers even if Massa said he wants to stay she responded:

“It's only July isn't it? It's only July. It's only July, that's my answer.”

Read more at http://www.crash.net/f1/news/268991/1/w ... tqQI7It.99

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https://twitter.com/paddylowe/status/884816065460674560