2018 Williams F1 Racing - Mercedes

[netoperek]

Quick wrap of RKs job today. He said that they were testing things that no one did or normally would with an F1 car to stimulate the car and give some valuable data to all of the departments. He was driving an old PU, as it was not about absolute lap time anyway but doing the stuff to give the engineers some answers. He said why they waited with such move until he got into the car: "of course You don't want to do it with regular drivers, as You don't want to waste time... they need to prepare for the weekend" (I loled at that point) "As I'm not driving, of course I'm the one to try those strange ideas"
Robert said that the car felt pretty good, high speed balance was ok and that it went even better than he hoped, though he added it has more to do with a different track layout than actual car development. He also said that he doesn't know how well the drivers will do, especially given that he has not driven a same car as they will, but a completely different setup than anyone would possibly want to run.
There was also a moment, when Kubica has been asked if there's a cure for a car like FW41: "There is one big cure for an F1 car. It's called the downforce"
Later on he stated that his goal has not changed - he wants a drive next year and it doesn't have to be Williams.

[Big Tea]

Quick wrap of RKs job today. He said that they were testing things that no one did or normally would with an F1 car to stimulate the car and give some valuable data to all of the departments. He was driving an old PU, as it was not about absolute lap time anyway but doing the stuff to give the engineers some answers. He said why they waited with such move until he got into the car: "of course You don't want to do it with regular drivers, as You don't want to waste time... they need to prepare for the weekend" (I loled at that point) "As I'm not driving, of course I'm the one to try those strange ideas"
Robert said that the car felt pretty good, high speed balance was ok and that it went even better than he hoped, though he added it has more to do with a different track layout than actual car development. He also said that he doesn't know how well the drivers will do, especially given that he has not driven a same car as they will, but a completely different setup than anyone would possibly want to run.
There was also a moment, when Kubica has been asked if there's a cure for a car like FW41: "There is one big cure for an F1 car. It's called the downforce"
Later on he stated that his goal has not changed - he wants a drive next year and it doesn't have to be Williams.

Hmm. Food for thought.
My immediate thought is Williams do not have a clue. No matter if they do not understand the car, just get in and thrash about 'preparing' for the race

[sprint car76]

Reading roberts interview is distressing. I agree with big tea that this team doesn't seem to have a clue. A third of the way through the schedule and they are playing around with crazy setups. I think robert is right when he says they need downforce, probably lots more downforce.

So for the fans of " a veteran driver would be faster or give robert a chance" maybe now you can understand how bad this car is.

[netoperek]

Reading roberts interview is distressing. I agree with big tea that this team doesn't seem to have a clue. A third of the way through the schedule and they are playing around with crazy setups. I think robert is right when he says they need downforce, probably lots more downforce.

So for the fans of " a veteran driver would be faster or give robert a chance" maybe now you can understand how bad this car is.

It certainly looks like they have no clue. Few more quotes to support that claim: RK: "I focused mainly on checking extreme solutions to collect more data and put a car in an extreme window so the areas where car doesn't work could be emphasised. It was very weird to drive but I think it was worth it" (my free translation from Polish)
There's also a post from an interview with someone from WMR staff by Jean-Michel Desnoues where a guy asked if they switched development to 2019 already, said that he still work on this car, because You can't develop a quick car if You don't know what makes You slow with the current one. They don't understand this car and don't want to see same mistakes made come next february.

To Your last sentence, look at this the other way. They were waiting for veteran driver to assess the problem instead of doing it week in week out. Robert's last FP1 has been all about sim data correlation. Straight from the test Robert went to Grove, few weeks passed and they come up with some crazy test schedule, probably to verify what has been the product of that previous work. Who knows, maybe problems could be identified much faster with a veteran driver as a regular?
Paddy was happy to have Robert in the car:
"It was good to have Robert back in the car as it was the first time since the Barcelona test. As always, his feedback is invaluable especially after a few weeks out of the car." It almost seems as it's not frequent enough for his liking

[sprint car76]

No knock on robert. He is in a no win position. He can give them his feedback but unless they have the personal to use it to understand the car it's just the waste of another test. Morale must be at a all time low at williams.

Strange that mclaren now find themselves in much the same position with an aero problem that they can't seem to pin down. I'm sure that the top teams with more personal and diagnostic tools are in a much better position to solve these type of problems.

[djos]

Reading roberts interview is distressing. I agree with big tea that this team doesn't seem to have a clue. A third of the way through the schedule and they are playing around with crazy setups. I think robert is right when he says they need downforce, probably lots more downforce.

So for the fans of " a veteran driver would be faster or give robert a chance" maybe now you can understand how bad this car is.

The thing is Williams have two inexperienced drivers who can't develop the car in the right direction, that's why they need Robert in the car instead of one of the other two. I'd keep Stroll (money) and ditch the Russian - stroll showed glimmers of talent when he was working with Massa so I think with an experienced team player helping him learn, he could become a useful number 2 driver.

[Zynerji]

Quick wrap of RKs job today. He said that they were testing things that no one did or normally would with an F1 car to stimulate the car and give some valuable data to all of the departments. He was driving an old PU, as it was not about absolute lap time anyway but doing the stuff to give the engineers some answers. He said why they waited with such move until he got into the car: "of course You don't want to do it with regular drivers, as You don't want to waste time... they need to prepare for the weekend" (I loled at that point) "As I'm not driving, of course I'm the one to try those strange ideas"
Robert said that the car felt pretty good, high speed balance was ok and that it went even better than he hoped, though he added it has more to do with a different track layout than actual car development. He also said that he doesn't know how well the drivers will do, especially given that he has not driven a same car as they will, but a completely different setup than anyone would possibly want to run.
There was also a moment, when Kubica has been asked if there's a cure for a car like FW41: "There is one big cure for an F1 car. It's called the downforce"
Later on he stated that his goal has not changed - he wants a drive next year and it doesn't have to be Williams.

It looks like they read my post about trying crazy stuff on the set up. I said it few days ago that I used to win Sim leagues because I would try crazy stuff that no one else would and I would find lots of lap time with it. He didn't sound like the crazy changes were a bad thing either...

[sprint car76]

Judging by roberts lap times "crazy setups" didn't help him any.

[netoperek]

It has been the best that Williams shown in quite some time, so maybe they DID find something they're only 2 - 2.5s off the pace now :/

[sprint car76]

Managed to get out of Q1 but no improvement in Q2. This track is good for them with short lap and few corners. Stroll really good start but car just doesn't have the pace to stay ahead of anyone. Last again.

[sprint car76]

Could things get any worse for williams? They have to change the floor and the back wing and start from pit lane because it's stalling out. What the H### has happened to this team that used to win championships. Hiring paddy was supposed to fix this but the team seems to be worse than ever.

[Zynerji]

They were lucky not to get wiped out leaving the pit lane at the start!

[Big Tea]

Could things get any worse for williams? They have to change the floor and the back wing and start from pit lane because it's stalling out. What the H### has happened to this team that used to win championships. Hiring paddy was supposed to fix this but the team seems to be worse than ever.

Its not only Williams caught out here

[roon]

Problem is Paddy Lowe is a very "inconsistent" technical guy - in my view.

At McLaren, he was up and down from year to year. Always trying to create a "spaceship" to race with.

Personally i believe Williams needs an aggressive guy to get out of the rut they are in.

I'm not sure Paddy is that guy, though as you say, Mclaren was the "tricky novelties" team back when he was their TD.

I agree. They've had a string of fairly conservative cars, in recent memory. It might benefit them to have a spaceship designer.

I was a little too optimistic.

[Sevach]

To be fair even in my most pessimistic days i didn't expect things to be this bad.