Williams Martini Racing have today announced the appointment of Dave Redding to the position of Team Manager. Dave will be responsible for the overall management of the operational and sporting aspects of the Williams racing team.
This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
Williams denies 2018 Alonso talks - "I know nothing about it"
31 August 2017 - 10h36, by GMM
Williams has played down reports it is close to signing up Fernando Alonso for 2018.
Reports have suggested Alonso, the frustrated McLaren-Honda driver, could announce imminently that he is moving to the customer Mercedes-powered team next year.
But Williams deputy Claire Williams told Bild newspaper: "I read that with astonishment.
"I know nothing about it. I never negotiated with him — never sat at a table with him," she insisted.
Williams also dismissed suggestions Alonso’s huge 2017 salary would be paid by billionaire Lawrence Stroll, who wants the very best teammate to pair with his son Lance next year.
"Forget it," Claire Williams responded.
"Mr Stroll is a successful businessman because he does not throw money around like that."
Williams denies 2018 Alonso talks - "I know nothing about it"
31 August 2017 - 10h36, by GMM
Williams has played down reports it is close to signing up Fernando Alonso for 2018.
Reports have suggested Alonso, the frustrated McLaren-Honda driver, could announce imminently that he is moving to the customer Mercedes-powered team next year.
But Williams deputy Claire Williams told Bild newspaper: "I read that with astonishment.
"I know nothing about it. I never negotiated with him — never sat at a table with him," she insisted.
Williams also dismissed suggestions Alonso’s huge 2017 salary would be paid by billionaire Lawrence Stroll, who wants the very best teammate to pair with his son Lance next year.
"Forget it," Claire Williams responded.
"Mr Stroll is a successful businessman because he does not throw money around like that."
Alonso defies logic because he is Alonso.
he'd do the biggest troll on Massa in history though.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
What's Alonso's preference-- Complaining about the engine or complaining about the chassis? This will determine if he drives for McLaren-Honda or Williams-Mercedes next season.
FP1
Weather: Warm and dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 22-23°C / 24-28°C
F. Massa, FW40-01, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:23.561 (10th)
L. Stroll, FW40-03, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:23.991 (13th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:21.537
FP2
Weather: Warm and dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 25-28°C / 33-41°C
F. Massa, FW40-01, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:22.985 (10th)
L. Stroll, FW40-03, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:23.403 (15th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:44.753
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: We managed to run our whole programme in FP1 and FP2 without any issues, running a number of different aerodynamic configurations, with both drivers pretty happy with the balance of the car. Quite quickly, Lance was familiar with this track. So the pace for both drivers looks to be in reasonable shape for qualifying and the race. It’s going to be an interesting qualifying as it always is at Monza. Lance flat spotted his supersoft tyre in FP2 so he couldn’t do his long run on that tyre, concentrating on the soft instead, but apart from that everything was normal. We’ve had some difficult Fridays in the last few races so it’s nice to get one where things have gone to plan.
Felipe Massa: It was a much better Friday than we’ve had in the last few races, so I’m really optimistic that the car can be more competitive here in Monza compared with how it was in the last races. We tried some different bodywork options and different wings plus we managed a lot of laps on the tyres so I really hope everything comes together to have a much better weekend.
Lance Stroll: Today we were much more competitive, and it looks much better this weekend than in the past events. I had a good day on my side, but spun on my good lap in FP2, which was a bit frustrating, and I didn’t get to put my lap time on the board with the supersofts. However, everything is feeling good and hopefully we will say the same tomorrow. I think we can be very close to Q3, if not in it, so we just have to make sure everything works out and we will see what happens.
Williams “can’t have another year like this”
2017 Italian Grand PrixPosted on 1st September 2017, 16:52
Author Keith Collantine
Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams says the team has undertaken a root-and-branch examination of its operations to raise its game in 2018.
The Mercedes customer team is enduring a difficult season having taken a single podium finish so far in Azerbaijan. It lies fifth in the constructors’ championship with 45 points, less than half of what it had 12 races into last season.
Williams said Paddy Lowe, who joined the team from Mercedes as chief technical officer, has been investigating what the team needs to do to become competitive again.
“As you would expect someone of Paddy’s calibre has a plan,” said Williams in today’s FIA press conference.
“Ever since he joined us back in March this year he’s been undertaking a full analysis of the team back at the factory but also the race team operations on the ground track-side in order to understand where the weaknesses lie. We’ve gone through that as a board. And now we’re looking at how we allocate resources forward into 2018 so that we can address those weaknesses.”
“A lot of our weaknesses appeared at the mid-point of last season and we can’t go into another season having the same issues we’ve had. So we have full trust in Paddy but also we brought in a number of other senior personnel to work alongside him. Dirk de Beer heads out aerodynamic department as well, comes from Ferrari this year to us. And some other senior engineers that are hopefully going to turn things around for us. But as I said we can’t have another year like this.”
Felipe Massa announced his retirement from at F1 at Monza 12 months ago but returned to drive for the team after Valtteri Bottas moved to Mercedes. Williams would not be drawn on whether he might continue at the team for another year.
“Felipe’s done a fantastic job,” she said, “it’s been a bonus year for us.”
“He very kindly came back and he’s really delivered for us. Obviously the last couple of races have been tough for him with his medical issue. But we’re through that now and we’re looking forward to him delivering for the rest of the year. ”
“And we really just have to wait and see. I think I’ve made it really clear the team at the moment are focusing on the constructors’ championship.We need to make sure that we consolidate our P5. I don’t think we’re going to close the gap to [Force India], unfortunately, but there’s a lot of teams behind us that would love to overtaking us and we can’t afford that.”
“So for us the focus has to be on track performance at the moment rather than diluting that effort with thoughts about driver line-up. There’s still eight races to go, there’s plenty of time to be thinking about next year.”
Williams denies 2018 Alonso talks - "I know nothing about it"
Williams has played down reports it is close to signing up Fernando Alonso for 2018.
I am a big fan of Alonso. Personally I hope he is in F1 next year. The way he was overtaken in Spa in a clearly inferior car possibly made it more likely he would leave unless he can get a deal with another team.
Decent showing from the team, especially in these conditions! Congrats to Lance - youngest driver ever to start on the front-row! It was disappointing to see Felipe so much off the pace in the entire session, it could've been at least P5 for him. Hopefully he will make up some ground tomorrow.
Nevertheless, I smell some trouble at the front, with Ocon starting 3rd. And I expect Lance to fade in race trim, unfortunately.
Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy
5.793 km, 3.599 miles
Weather: Cold and wet
Temperature: Air: 14-15°C Track: 15-18°C
Q1
F. Massa 1:38.338
L. Stroll 1:37.653
Q2
F. Massa 1:37.456
L. Stroll 1:37.002
Q3
F. Massa 1:38.251 (9th)
L. Stroll 1:37.032 (4th)
Qualifying Notes
- Lance Stroll qualified fourth with Felipe Massa ninth for the Italian Grand Prix
- Qualifying was red-flagged for several hours due to poor weather conditions but both cars displayed excellent pace when the session restarted
- Lance and Felipe both qualified on the wet tyre
- Due to engine penalties, Lance and Felipe gain two positions for tomorrow’s starting grid meaning they will start second and seventh respectively
- Lance will become the youngest ever front-row starter
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: It has been a long afternoon but from our point of view, it was worth the wait. It was a terrific result to get both cars into Q3. We had great pace in the car, especially with Lance, who is my driver of the day. We were briefing him this morning before FP3, asking him if he wanted extra practice in the wet because he’s never driven an F1 car in full wet conditions but he said “No, I’ll just take it as it comes” and that’s what he did today. We saw some great talent out there. Good performance in the wet is one of those things that’s very difficult to test or develop, so it’s one of those surprises that can unfold positively or negatively on the day. Tomorrow, we have Lance on the front row, which is great in his first year of F1 - a tremendous achievement. We’ll see what he can do in the race. Felipe did a great job too in very difficult circumstances and will line up seventh on the grid. So we are aiming for some good points to end the weekend.
Lance Stroll: It feels great. I didn't expect that coming into today, but racing is full of surprises and you never know what will happen. They were difficult conditions out there, but we really handled it well as a team and pulled it off. I felt confident, felt good with the car and put it all together. Tomorrow is the race and that is where it counts, and I am just going to run my race like I always do. I am starting from a bit of a different position, but anything can happen and we have just got to be on top of our game tomorrow. The car just seems more competitive this weekend. I know the conditions weren’t really normal. We expected coming into this weekend with more straights and less high speed corners we would be a bit more competitive and it just seems to be that way.
Felipe Massa: It was definitely a great qualifying for the team. For many years, our car has been difficult in wet conditions and today the car was great, which for me was very important in qualifying. I was happy to be in Q3, but not so happy with my position because for sure I would have been happier to be in Lance’s position. He did a fantastic job, an amazing lap and qualifying. It was great to see what he managed to achieve in terms of laptime. I’m so happy for him. We are starting P2 and P7, so we are in a good position for the race tomorrow and we will try everything we can to have a good race with both cars.
Last edited by LookBackTime on 02 Sep 2017, 21:21, edited 1 time in total.
