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Author Topic: Williams really are a team in crisis  (Read 11200 times)

guest3164

  • Guest
Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #30 on: February 20, 2019, 07:29:56 AM »
The story of Frank Williams Racing Cars show that in part, that idea is right.  Frank's team was not successful although losing Piers Courage undoubtedly hit him hard.  Obviously it all ended up with Walter Wolf eventually getting involved and then removing Frank from the team. 

1977 saw Head and Williams found Williams Grand Prix Engineers, but Frank was apparently more the business guy (ironic after getting involved with Wolf) and Head was the engineer, building his first car in 1978.  It was when Frank Dernie got involved in the aerodynamics that the team began to really win races and titles. 

But yes, Williams on his own is not really an engineer, he needed/needs excellent people working with him.  The same is the case now and you do wonder if Lowe is that person.

guest3164

  • Guest
Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #31 on: February 20, 2019, 07:33:03 AM »
Anyway, the positive news is the FW42 is now at the circuit and the team 'hope' to get it on track after lunch.  When you look at the lap count by other teams, it is not as if Racing Point with 109 laps after two days are a million miles ahead (only 315) and Haas are only a few laps ahead of that.  Williams can catch up. 

Offline Calman

Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #32 on: February 20, 2019, 08:15:05 AM »
Just watched some old footage from 2014 .... a season where Williams were reaching podiums with both Massa and Bottas on a fairly regular basis.  Seems a lifetime away, not just 5 years ago!!!!

.. and here we are in 2019, where Bottas could see his Mercedes drive at risk.

Best Regards,
Cal :)
Anyone Have A Decent Pen?

guest3164

  • Guest
Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #33 on: March 06, 2019, 08:28:31 PM »
Paddy Lowe has apparently stood down from his role temporarily due to personal reasons.  Hopefully it is temporary, that he is not unwell and that he can return and help get the team out of the hole it is in.  The team does not need another technical shake up after so many in the last 10 years.

Offline Calman

Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #34 on: March 06, 2019, 08:38:04 PM »
Hmm, I would gamble that it's not immediate (or primarily) health reasons.    Regardless of where Williams are at right now, both Claire & Paddy have clearly been under a lot of pressure during the winter, so who knows??

Best Regards,
Cal :)
Anyone Have A Decent Pen?

guest3164

  • Guest
Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #35 on: March 06, 2019, 08:44:35 PM »
The consensus is he is not coming back...

Offline Calman

Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #36 on: March 06, 2019, 09:20:30 PM »
Really???

Hmm, I remember several discussions during pre-season testing, looking back at Williams's dismal 48 months, where talk regarding "where the problems began" ... came up several times, with fleeting mention of Claire ... and more so, Paddy!!!

Of course, it takes several people to make a team work, just as it does to fail ... but who ultimately takes the blame when everything goes sour?

Best Regards,
Cal :)
Anyone Have A Decent Pen?

Offline Alianora La Canta

Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #37 on: March 07, 2019, 06:46:05 AM »
The trouble is that the root of the problem seems to go back to the BMW days. Whatever went wrong, started going wrong then...
Percussus resurgio
@lacanta (Twitter)
http://alianoralacanta.tumblr.com (Blog/Tumblr)

Offline Scott

Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #38 on: March 08, 2019, 02:53:19 PM »
I think they need to call back Symonds, but as long as they give him 2-3 years to sort out the car.
The Honey Badger doesn't give a...

Offline Jericoke

Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #39 on: March 08, 2019, 05:13:51 PM »
I think they need to call back Symonds, but as long as they give him 2-3 years to sort out the car.

I don't really understand why it takes 'years' to develop an F1 car.  Each year has new rules, they build a brand new chassis.  Even if Ferrari or Mercedes showed up with last year's cars hacked up to run the 2019 rules I doubt they would be competitive.

In the past McLaren would have two completely different teams leapfrogging each other to work on next year's car without impacting the team working on 'this year's' car.  I don't know if they still do this (two teams producing back markers doesn't sound very efficient), but it really shows that if you're running a clean organisation, each car is its own project.

Offline Scott

Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #40 on: March 09, 2019, 04:00:37 PM »
I think there are likely fundamental problems with the entire tech department at Williams and they will need time to really analyse it and rebuild it.
The Honey Badger doesn't give a...

guest3164

  • Guest
Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #41 on: March 13, 2019, 07:56:41 AM »
Williams have gotten TATA back on board as a partner, so things are maybe not quite so bad.

Offline John S

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Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #42 on: March 13, 2019, 04:01:45 PM »
Rumours swirling around that Paddy couldn't be dismissed immediately as it would cost a fortune on his contract, a leave of absence may run down his end payment considerably. Sounds like Paddy may be going along with it rather than push the Team's finances to the edge.  :DntKnw:
 
There may also be complications from his Share options award rather than any shareholding he has purchased.

Racing is Life - everything else is just....waiting. (Steve McQueen)

guest3164

  • Guest
Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #43 on: March 13, 2019, 05:39:35 PM »
I think he was not entitled to any shares for another year or so, but he is a director which makes things trickier. 

Offline Alianora La Canta

Re: Williams really are a team in crisis
« Reply #44 on: March 18, 2019, 11:01:40 AM »
I think they need to call back Symonds, but as long as they give him 2-3 years to sort out the car.

I don't really understand why it takes 'years' to develop an F1 car. 

Depends on how fast you want the car to go.

If you just need it to comply with regulations, it can be done in just under 100 days. The Force India guise of Racing Point did this at least twice (2009 and 2015, I think).

If you need it to be optimally competitive from Race 1, but aren't expecting to win a race with it due to other constraints (which is what Williams should be aiming for), 6-9 months are needed.

If you want to get everything out of the regulations into your car, to the extent that a title fight is probable, at least a full year is necessary. 18 months optimal. This is why the big teams design two (or in Mercedes' case, three) cars simultaneously for significant phases of the season.

A designer/technical designer arriving after the summer break ends is likely to need to combine ideas with the predecesor - if not be limited to simply carrying out what was previously devised (depending on hiring date).

If you have a new designer/technical director, often the first attempt misses the mark some (this should, in any case, never endanger the first goal in the list, the way Paddy Lowe's car apparently did this year). Thus they will need an extra year to show what they are really capable of doing.

Hence, it can take up to 3 years to tell the full scope of someone's ability... ...and sometimes not even 1 to determine some people are in the wrong job in a given team.
Percussus resurgio
@lacanta (Twitter)
http://alianoralacanta.tumblr.com (Blog/Tumblr)

 


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