2018 Williams F1 Racing - Mercedes

[bit1817]

What If Villeneuve s sabotage guess ist right in its core?
All of the real Driver beasts like Hamilton, Schumacher, Alonso and others have developed the Cars to a specific behaviour that is sometimes almost undrivable Form their teammates.
What If Kubica has given a Special direction in development and Setup Work that is perfect for his driving Style and Talent, and brings the Car further and makes it faster though it has a bad basis at all, but is a huge Problem for less talented and also more unexperienced drivers?

[netoperek]

What If Villeneuve s sabotage guess ist right in its core?
All of the real Driver beasts like Hamilton, Schumacher, Alonso and others have developed the Cars to a specific behaviour that is sometimes almost undrivable Form their teammates.
What If Kubica has given a Special direction in development and Setup Work that is perfect for his driving Style and Talent, and brings the Car further and makes it faster though it has a bad basis at all, but is a huge Problem for less talented and also more unexperienced drivers?

That could be the case if LS and SS complained about a car understeering, because that used to be the prefered balance on RK cars. One of the reasons Petrov complained he can't benefit from Kubica's setup.

[Raleigh]

From the sounds of it the car is inconsistently losing front or rear downforce on turn-in, I imagine it’s difficult to drive when you don’t know how much grip you are going to have going into the corner.

Most of the aero is Mercedes or Ferrari inspired but the combination is new, I’m cautiously optimistic that this is just a case of figuring out the new approach and getting parts to play nice together rather than a fundamentally slow car.

You probably already have read that but PlatinumZealot wrote a couple of pages ago: "Pitch sensitivity of the aerodynamics. On braking when yhe ar pitches forward all the detailed vortices and flow structures go out of whack. In other words they have a lot of work to do on the front wing and the bargeboards!"

Lowe admitted after the test in Barcelona, that they got lost with finding the right setup. It seems to me that the issues are not set-up related but rather design related, including suspension design. Maybe the problems with keeping consistent airflow over the cars surfaces are also related to the problem that the suspension does not hold constant ride height during braking and acceleration periods.

Ah, that’s probably better, at least then Williams understands the problem and it’s a matter of bringing updates to unlock the lap time.

Makes you think though, if simple pitch from braking can wipe a car’s downforce by disrupting the interplay between aero devices it’s no wonder cars struggle to follow each other.

[Stalker1]

Overheating problem for the Williams:

https://www.f1technical.net/news/21568

[bill shoe]

At least they are pushing limits. Doesn't make the overheating any easier to fix.

[Mr Brooksy]

At least they are pushing limits. Doesn't make the overheating any easier to fix.

True, but at the end of the day the car is slow and unpredictable. I get the feeling they have gone too far without understanding it. If we were still in the days where teams could test to their hearts content then the car could be more easily and more quickly understood. But to have to learn on the race weekends, it's a very public way to make mistakes and learn from it.

If Williams can't turn this around with this car by Barcelona, I'd hate to be trying to get sponsorship to cover the hole that Martini will leave!

Sorry to be Mr negative, but I had high hopes for the car at least this year (as many Williams fans did I'm sure). But it's currently hard to see Williams cure their issues at a race weekend being spanked by basically everyone who isn't running a Honda.

[netoperek]

I don't know about Honda. Gasly looked quite ready to spank Sergey.
I think arctic weather in Barcelona covered the issue . Had it been warmer then, those issues might very well be corrected by now without impacting performance related components. Now they will probably aim for overdoing the cooling system just to be sure they won't run into problems next race.

[sprint car76]

They struggled last year with setup on a car design that they had been developing for a few years and now they have a car that is very different from last years car and they have the same problem. To me, this seems to point out they are lacking engineering personal to figure out whether it's aero or suspension. They had testing and now one race and it seems they aren't any closer to understanding the car. They have a veteran driver (kubica) that hasn't helped. They need to find a solution quick before they become irrelevant.

[PhillipM]

There's no way kubica will have had enough time for feedback on anything bar at-the-circuit setup. The lead times are too great.

[sprint car76]

This is not a driver input problem, this is a design problem. You can not have three different drivers, 6 test days and one race and still have a handling problem. To top it off they had an overheating problem. Does this sound like a team with top notch personal? I'm really surprised that lowe has not got a handle on this problem. You would think that having worked for two of the top teams in F1 that he would understand what is needed to sort these types of problems out. Maybe mercedes not fighting hard to keep him should tell us something. For williams fans like me this might be a depressing year.

[bill shoe]

For williams fans like me this might be a depressing year.

Ah, you're not a true fan! This season will involve challenges and improvement opportunities , not depression.

[DK20]

This is not a driver input problem, this is a design problem. You can not have three different drivers, 6 test days and one race and still have a handling problem. To top it off they had an overheating problem. Does this sound like a team with top notch personal? I'm really surprised that lowe has not got a handle on this problem. You would think that having worked for two of the top teams in F1 that he would understand what is needed to sort these types of problems out. Maybe mercedes not fighting hard to keep him should tell us something. For williams fans like me this might be a depressing year.

I totally agree. I am also a Williams fan, and i am extremely sad to see every year the team going back in the bottom...

[netoperek]

If they keep to the schedule, Kubica will be in a car during FP1 in Barcelona, but I guess it's mainly going to be to get a feeling of the upgrades with his own butt and relay that feeling to the engineers plus verifying sim accuracy, not to prepare setups for his younger comrades. Apart from that it's only sim for him in the near future. Heck, they said plain and simple, that during last test Kubica's priority was to gather info needed for comparison with sim data to make it more relevant. I hope they don't want Kubica now to virtualy also do what SS and LS should be doing in a real car by themselves (set the car for them).
Robert has been doing sim development for Mercedes in 2013 -2014, while he was working on their 2014 contender and it turned out good, obviously. I'm afraid though, that Williams is not as capable as Mercedes in most aspects, so I don't exactly expect them to suddenly win the WCC Robert sure should still be a valuable asset in development and problem solving area, but troubleshooting, accurate feedback and most of all circuit setup is a race driver's job and it's vital that they do their job properly for other departments work as they should.
This was only the first race. Let's not write whole season off and call Paddy uncompetent because of a slow start. I won't say I agree with certain Williams decisions, as You have probably noticed by now, but still it's too early for definite judgment.

[Raleigh]

They struggled last year with setup on a car design that they had been developing for a few years and now they have a car that is very different from last years car and they have the same problem. To me, this seems to point out they are lacking engineering personal to figure out whether it's aero or suspension. They had testing and now one race and it seems they aren't any closer to understanding the car. They have a veteran driver (kubica) that hasn't helped. They need to find a solution quick before they become irrelevant.

There was no setup problem last year until mid-season when the first big update arrived and changed a lot of the car, it took a few races and some more updates but Williams bounced back, brought some more new parts, figured out the setup, finished the season scoring decent points on a regular basis.

This year the car is radically changed and from what people are saying there are definitely good points to the car but also a problem, which is loss of downforce when the car pitches forward on braking. That's an aerodynamic problem not set-up, Williams is going to have to go back to the factory, work some more on aero performance under pitch and bring updates to the track before things get better.

[godlameroso]

It's a recurring theme this year, diffuser instability. It's obvious this happens on the Williams, their diffuser hasn't been developed to the degree Mercedes has. It takes a lot of funding and lead time to clear up that area. The suspension, transmission, coolers and bodywork all have to be redeveloped. Sadly it's harder for Mercedes customer teams to develop this area due to the engine installation and lack of funds. Williams still uses an aluminum gearbox which is both heavier and bulkier than a carbon case. This robs diffuser real estate and forces you to compromise it's ultimate potential.