Speculation about Paddy Lowes future at Williams. But if they sack him, where else would they get a world championship winning technical director from? I love Williams having seen Mansell at Silverstone in 1992, and really want them to do well, but presumably they are only going to be running car at testing?
Vettel is already 2 seconds faster than the fastest day one time from last year’s first test.
There was snow on the ground at the first day of testing last year, conditions can make a big difference to the lap times.
you do wonder how much longer Claire Williams will keep her job.
Not a fantastic start for Williams 🙁
I watched that documentary too and have more respect for Claire but there is no doubt the team is not performing and are falling behind more and more every year. I don't know enough of what's happening so don't know if its just a money thing or lack of technical leadership or lack of overall leadership that is the issue. Either way I think something needs to change to turn them around.
Sad to see Mac and Williams doing so badly in recent times. They must have some of the best track records of any teams in F1. Hopefully they can both turn things around soon and start challenging for wins again.
So 1.5 seconds slower at the start of the development programme - when the first of their 2019 models hit the windtunnel. That was ages ago. They will have recovered most if not all of that by now. Come the first race of the year the cars will not be 1.5 seconds slower than at the same point last year. Any that are may as well pack up and go home.
It's hear say so take it with a large spoonful of salt but...
I've spoken with three Williams personnel (two are trackside, one is factory based) and here are the facts about missing T1:
Parts were 'released' too late to be manufactured on-time and that's the only reason we're missing T1 D1. The missing parts are composite so they are possibly suspension or bodywork related but I wasn't told exactly...and didn't ask. When she/he said the parts were not 'released', they mean the part was not approved and sent out as a full scale model which is then taken to the composite laminators or machining group for manufacture.
Overall morale in the team is "low af". "We're being worked like dogs, treated like shit, and HR is a ****ing joke"
"We're often wondering who's in charge around here"
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/arxd4g/williams_insider_missing_testing_is_purely_from/
Funnily enough, there’s a chap in my village who has some connection with Williams - he’s friends with the son of a former Williams driver. He told me that apparently the car was still unbuilt (at least it was a fortnight ago)...I dismissed this as exaggeration, but it would seem that he’s right.
To put the rumours into context I have a friend who had worked at Mercedes HPE in Brixworth. Just before the first tests of the hybrid era his contacts told him that they'd barely managed to get a single pu running on the dyno, let alone a couple of team's worth in their cars. We all know how that worked out.
I can see that happening, but nonetheless it seems unlikely they'd miss a days shakedown and a days testing if they were anywhere near ready?
Make that two days of testing they're missing...
They don't make it easy to be a fan. The fw36 was a good car, then since then they've just gone backwards every year. 😣
Oops, Albon parks it in the gravel 4 corners into his F1 career. That's got to be a record, surely?
Nice to see McLaren putting some decent laps and times in. On one of the slower compound tyres too.
Yes, I'm wondering what the chances are of Alonso changing his mind on retirement if the Mac turns out to be remotely decent.
We have an F1 rookie in a McLaren with today's fourth fasted laptime and third in the lap count standings. The time was set on second hardest (C2) tyres, Giovinazzi's third place time was set on the second softest (C4) tyres. Hmmm...
Obviously a seasoned F1 watcher pays little heed to testing, but I'm allowed a little hope.
Same here - Merc and Red Bull are still the new boys to me! McLaren where my childhood team.
Also hoping Williams have found a massive loop-hole in the regs and do a 'Brawn'! 🙂
Norris is second fastest on the softer tyre!
#ItsOnlyTesting 😉
Looks like Williams will get the car to Barcelona tomorrow morning but it'll be a good result if they do more than a couple of installation laps in the afternoon.
I wander if Merc are sandbagging.
Of course, last year Merc weren’t terribly quick in testing but won both titles. That’s why reading too much into testing is a fool’s errand...but c’mon McLaren!
Deliberating over test times is the most exciting part of the season - it’s be rude not to!
Williams have made it to Barcelona, then & are beavering away to get a car out on track this afternoon! Fingers crossed.
Excellent! It would be great to see McLaren mixing it up near the front.
I really do hope things improve for Williams, sad to see them where they are.
So the Williams is ready to drive. How many laps until it implodes? I say twenty two.
2
Quite excited by the Williams as they seem to have gone for the most extreme upwash front wing, against the "straight through" front wings of Ferrari, alfa, torro rosso etc, but with a massive outwash vane on the top element, paired with a cut out in the endplate.
Just hope that they've got a solution that works on their car, and not one that has been tried and rejected by the other teams.
I'm also hoping that the incomplete aero package is the reason they're about 5seconds off the day 1 best times...
It's notable how (apparently) reliable everything's been so far. A couple of gremlins here and there, but that's what testing is for - certainly nothing like the McHonda woes of a few years back. Of course we don't know whether one of the teams has been doing a full engine and gearbox change every night.
Hopefully Williams was all about systems checks today, the sort of work most teams do on their "filming days".
Reliability?...
I've also heard the Mercedes engine is very powerful, but fragile. Not meeting targets for how long it needs to last.
I’ve also heard the Mercedes engine is very powerful, but fragile.
they managed 174 laps today
The fact that the car is built is nothing short of miraculous, I suspect that most of the team have pulled all-nighters for days.
Today seemed to be a series of installation laps, the onus is going to be on making sure that nothing is loose and that they won't lose yet more track time to silly stuff (the sort of things that befell McLaren last year). I did see a clip of Russell catching a slide mid-corner (I forget which), it seemed an odd place for the car to let go.
I won't read much into today's Williams laptimes given the above, but the same source who told me that the car wouldn't be ready also said that the team was WAY behind with the schedule of planned upgrades - the car is pretty much a placeholder until meaningful aero updates appear at around race sixteen. Yep, I was incredulous too, I'm not entirely convinced but the guy was bang on about the strife within the team and the late car. We'll see what happens.
*idle speculation*
It seems plausible to me that Williams' had already started on the 2019 car early in 2018 but the sacking of Dirk De Beer at the end of May last year meant that the team were forced to restart development with a clean sheet of paper. During early Sept 2017, McLaren ditched Honda and had to design the MCL33 around the Renault engine at the very last minute - we saw some fundamental problems during testing last year. Williams have also had to understand why the FW41 was a dud and to try to avoid those conceptual mistakes in the new car.
So to summarise, this year could well be a write-off. I hope that I'm proved wrong.
Love the detail on the Renault rear wing...
https://twitter.com/AlbertFabrega/status/1097797468555788288
they managed 174 laps today
...not quite 7 race weekends though!
I did say apparently reliable - impressive lap counts for most pu's so far - but we don't know what goes on in the garages or how much they can push the performance.
So that's it for the first test. What do we think we know?
Ferrari looking strong, but they have a habit of doing that at the start of the season
Merc looking slow but they never crank up the ponies in testing
Redbull surprisingly trouble free on the track, and pace is competitive with the midfield at least
Sauber Romeo doing a better job with ferrari gear than Haas
Mclaren waay better than last year, in the midfield mix
Williams still struggling to pull together a complete car, and off the pace
Renault and torro rossi flattering to deceive
Haas hiding in plain sight
Racing point seemingly a step behind the midfield, or just taking a leaf from the Mercedes playbook?
Any more?
What do we think we know?
Not very much, really.
Ferrari seem fast, likely to be in top two over the year.
Merc have a new engine. At this stage they won't have tried qualifying mode so they will obviously have a lot of pace left to show, but so will Ferrari too. Likely to be in top two over the year.
Red Bull, Renault, and McLaren seem to have decent basic cars and the resources to keep developing through the year, so they should fill out positions three to five. No idea how the Honda and Renault engines will compare in qualifying mode and reliability wise, so bit of a lottery really. Renault have a very strong driver pairing, two drivers who reliably collect points. Not clear if Max has the psychological stability to keep his shit together for a whole season.
Williams seem certain to finish last. The others a bit of a lottery, but probably Torro Rosso 9th because of the Honda engine.
Merc don’t look slow, there were sizeable lift-offs seen in the last sector
Any predictions for the next 4 days then?
Williams to find some pace? Merc to unload the sandbags and set a time? Honda to finally go pop?
At least they've all stayed on the black stuff for the first 5 mins today.
Any predictions for the next 4 days then?
Alonso to not make a comeback.
Renault and Red Bull to make snarky comments about each other.
Merc complaining of balance issues, especially Bottas/seat waster (getting his excuses in early?).
Could this be "the Red Baron/Finger Boy's" year or will the apprentice become the master?
Will Lewis implode under pressure as the red cars romp away?
Guess who's just sacked Sky off, brilliant timing Ming, brilliant timing🤬
Ming the Merciless
Subscriber
Merc complaining of balance issues, especially Bottas/seat waster (getting his excuses in early?).
Gary Anderson said he could see that they had problems with (IIRC) high speed understeer from the onboards.
McLaren seem all at sea again which is a real shame.
Well - the morning session over and the Williams doesn't look a million miles off. And on a middle compound tyre too.
Any news on what stopped the McLaren this morning?
Also, Russell in the Williams is showing progress...sixth fastest.
McLaren ave apparently said it was loss of hydraulic pressure. Which covers a whole multitude of possibilities from finger trouble on a fitting to a large mechanical part lunching itself.
Oh and Alonso's turned up. Still felling confident hols2? 😀
Disappointing that Sky are not track-side all afternoon this week, in fact a quick browse of the telly guide doesn't suggest any testing programs!
And is anyone setting up the STW Fantasy F1 this year?
Oh and Alonso’s turned up.
If he decides to drive, you can bet the McLaren will turn out to be a turd. If he doesn't, it'll probably win races.
.
Nothing to see here!
Mclaren looking quite good today and Vettel's had a little trip into the wall at turn 3.
That's a funny place for someone like Vettel to bin it, looks like he might've gone straight in too?
mashr
Member
That’s a funny place for someone like Vettel to bin it, looks like he might’ve gone straight in too?
Yeah, there was some talk of component failure. Don't think Ferrari have confirmed anything yet.
vid: https://streamja.com/aowa
ETA: ferrari confirm component failure:
https://twitter.com/ScuderiaFerrari/status/1100708997584293893
There is a video of the off which seems to show a failure at the rear of the car...perhaps suspension.
I would wet myself laughing if McLaren win with the Renault engine this year! 🙂
Mr Horner's face would be a sight to behold.
At the risk of sounding cautious, I'm trying not to read too much into McLaren's laptimes this week. Although both Norris and Sainz have set fastest laptimes in the MCL34 using the soft(ish) C4 tyre, I have no idea about comparative fuel loads or engine mapping data. The likelihood is that they represent a "Glory Run" with empty tanks and a pressing need to attract the attention of potential sponsors.
PJM1974
Member
At the risk of sounding cautious, I’m trying not to read too much into McLaren’s laptimes this week. Although both Norris and Sainz have set fastest laptimes in the MCL34 using the soft(ish) C4 tyre, I have no idea about comparative fuel loads or engine mapping data. The likelihood is that they represent a “Glory Run” with empty tanks and a pressing need to attract the attention of potential sponsors.
True but nonetheless, Sainz has posted a faster time (1:17.144s) than Alonso did for Q3 last year (1:17.721) so they are at least going in the right direction.
...or some haterz will no doubt say Alonso was basically phoning it in and isn't actually that good any more.
And remember #ItsOnlyTesting - no idea if that's a glory run with low fuel, underwright car etc IIRC Williams were the pace setters a few years back when they had that nice dark blue testing livery, but then failed to show up for the season.
Tru dat.
Speaking of williams, they've racked up a fair amount of laps the last couple of days, so at least the car is looking reliable. Slow AF so far though, hopefully they've not tried for fast laps yet.
or some haterz will no doubt say Alonso was basically phoning it in and isn’t actually that good any more.
He utterly destroyed that other guy who was his teammate last year. Alonso sounds like a right prick, but I don't think anyone doubts that he massivly outperformed the car last year. Obviously can't read too much into laptimes from testing, but seems safe to say that the McLaren and Renault engine are a solid improvement over last year.
McLaren faster than the Red Bull - both on the softest compound! 🙂
Please, please, please - don't be running underweight.
#PrayForMclaren
Albon in the Toro Rosso faster than them both by three tenths 👌
Starting to see some quick times now, wondering if we'll see anything in the 1:15 area...
Grrr - I've always followed testing with the Autosport live feed but this morning it's popped up with 'To continue enjoying covereage please register'. It's the first time for the entire test that this has happened. The exact same feed is still available without registering on Motorsport.com but it's just an example of how Brown's mob are slowly withdrawing access to features and trying to monetise all their 'reporting'. I don't mind paying for decent content (have subscribed to Joe Saward's GP+) but a lot of their stuff is just regurgitated press releases and speculative drivel with clickbait titles. Harrumph.
Anyhow, will we see everyone (including the silver cars) go for quick laps today? Will that tell us anything about the actual order?
Karun Chandhok's adjusted lap times, looks like Ferrari a bit ahead, then a group that are too close to really separate. Obviously, by the time they get to Melbourne, things might look a bit different, Merc and Red Bull will be working pretty hard on improvements.
thepurist
Subscriber
Grrr – I’ve always followed testing with the Autosport live feed but this morning it’s popped up with ‘To continue enjoying covereage please register’. It’s the first time for the entire test that this has happened. The exact same feed is still available without registering on Motorsport.com but it’s just an example of how Brown’s mob are slowly withdrawing access to features and trying to monetise all their ‘reporting’. I don’t mind paying for decent content (have subscribed to Joe Saward’s GP+) but a lot of their stuff is just regurgitated press releases and speculative drivel with clickbait titles. Harrumph.
Seems to be working for me, maybe they made a mistake when publishing it (or they got a backlash and changed their minds!)
seems like mercedes have turned the wick up, running 3 tenths quicker than that adjusted time up ^^ though it doesn't say what tyre it was on.
Klunk
Member
seems like mercedes have turned the wick up, running 3 tenths quicker than that adjusted time up ^^ though it doesn’t say what tyre it was on.
They did 16.5 on the C5, however Seb put in a 16.7 on the C3.
All depends on what mode the PUs were in too. We don't know if Merc are running 'all day every day' mode and Ferrari are in 'we can run it like this but it'll kill the motor in an hour' mode, or if Merc are actually in full 'TURN THIS OFF AFTER ONE LAP' mode.
Bring on P1 in Oz when we start to see signs of the truth rather than the smokescreen of testing.
Vettel 1:16.221 c5
Hamilton 1:16.224 c5 or perhaps c4
thepurist
Now, I’m no F1 engineering god but given Honda’s history of tight packaging & heat management in the McLaren, would you be pushing the limits on your first foray with their PU?
You called it.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/141872/honda-engine-packaging-a-bit-too-aggressive
Oof. Honda can't wait for 2021.
Just set up a fantasy F1 league over on grid rivals.com, league name STW.
jamesy01
Just set up a fantasy F1 league over on grid rivals.com, league name STW.
In!
I'm in!
https://thejudge13.com/2019/03/05/fia-stamps-down-on-williams-for-illegal-car/
The team from Grove were not only late for the test in Barcelona, but it also appears that Paddy Lowes car is illegal and must be changed before the first race in just under two weeks.
The FW42 has had a difficult birth, with TJ13 being told by insiders at the team that a big reason that the car was late happened to be some bad decisions made by upper managers last year when they tried to sack staff, the result of which backfired massively.
Paddy Lowe is taking a "leave of absence" from Williams! Cannot help but think they are in deep, deep shit!
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/141929/lowe-takes-leave-from-troubled-williams-team
Remind me: why only 1 car per team at pre-season testing these days?
Remind me: why only 1 car per team at pre-season testing these days?
Cost cutting.