I don’t think it can be said that Williams had a decent car in 2013. Moreover, though, they had absolutely no idea of what was wrong with it and how to improve it. The tech dept under Coughlan was utterly shambolic, randomly bringing illogical collections of new parts and 2012 bits to hang on the car in the vague hope something turned out to be faster. I don’t know why people find it so hard to accept but it was when Claire took charge that things began to turn round. Maybe there were some things that Toto put in place, but they sure as hell weren’t in the tech dept, which was sorted out by Pat Symonds and Rob Smedley, both Claire appointments.Raleigh wrote: ↑06 Mar 2020, 01:14Toto wasn't leading Williams in 2009, he joined as a shareholder and slowly ramped up involvement to become executive director in 2012, which is still to date the teams last win. And then 2013 was a bit of an unfortunate fluke, the team had a decent car but never really got the hang of the coanda exhaust, they struggled with inconsistent downforce that could drastically change midcorner. Reverting to a conventional exhaust saw the team suddenly leap from backmarkers to solid midfielders, sadly this only happened in the last 2 races of the year.
The Toto Wolff period at Williams was 2012 onwards with an official departure in 2013 but still with a lot of influence in 2014 and some influence through 2015 up until he sold the last shares in 2016.
Don't forget all the talk in 2014 and 2015 about Williams being tailgunners for Mercedes and having a special relationship the other customers did not have.
Not sure what influence Toto had after leaving, other than helping to persuade WR to switch from Renault to Merc, and possibly to take Susie as development driver. What input to shareholders usually have when they don’t have a specific management role too?
I don’t remember talk of a special relationship, no. IIRC the Williams Mercs were slightly down on power relative to everyone else’s because they were using Petrobras fuels and lubricants, rather than the Petronas ones it was designed for. When did they ever act as ‘tail gunners’? I don’t recall Williams doing anything other than their own race.