Opinion: Are Williams Really That Bad??

[Paul Jeffrey]

Following a less than impressive Australian Grand Prix weekend, the big question is are Williams really in trouble this year, or can the British squad recover lost ground?

In all honesty Williams have been fighting hard for a number of years to raise the performance bar of this once great team, sadly falling short of the rare heights of the 1980's and early 90's, despite having the dominant Mercedes power unit strapped to the back of the Martini backed machine.

With former race winner Felipe Massa now gone and two rookies behind the wheel, it was always going to be a year of rebuilding for the Grove outfit, however following one of the least impressive weekends in recent memory for the team, is the 2018 FW41 really as bad as it first appeared, and can Williams do something about the struggle ahead before losing what reputation the team has left in Grand Prix circles?

As a long time fan of the sport I see the demise of Williams as a very sad story, hopefully one that can have a happy ending before the season comes to a close...

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Do you think Williams are as bad as they appeared in Australia? Can the team recover over the season? What next for Williams? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Jordan Dion]

I think they are not great this year too..
Punition for not selecting Robert Kubica.. it's a shame...
Money can't buy anything... no ?
We will see, but I think they need to change many aspect of the orgasnisation

 

[kondor999]

> Are Williams Really That Bad??

Yes.

 

[SennaHonda_1988]

Since 2012-13 Williams are not progressing, they are staying on place what ever changes they do... You need to remember that Williams is an "independant team", there is no money coming for road cars like Mercedes and Ferrari. Their budget is not big enough to bring people that can make the team win again like in the 80s-90s. They have 2 rookies as drivers that doesn't help too and Martini is leaving after this season so i think this season and next ones will be like the 4-5 past ones.

 

[Mr Latte]

Williams of old is not Williams as of now.
Then again formula one of old is not as now neither.

I see Force India potentially beating them this year, (better and more experienced drivers) even though it too as a car was lacking in the first race.

It would be great if Williams / Force India / Renault / Mclaren were all close but clearly we may see Renault and Mclaren start to move beyond the smaller independent teams.

Ferrari seem to of given Haas components from last years car, to help them reduce Mercedes points towards the constructors? The Haass is where Id of liked to of seen Williams performance in the first race.

 

[adriandiaz19]

Yes, it is.
However, the problem is not only the unexperienced and untalented pair of drivers they have, the problem is that they also have a bad car, which is very difficult to drive.
I don't see them fighting for something more than trying to finish above of Toro Rosso in the constructor's championship

 

[samcar304]

I think its unfair to say both drivers are untalented... they have achieved results and titles in lower formula and are more successful than most drivers. its why they are their. People like to kid themselves that pay drivers are a thing of this generation... you are poorly mistaken...

 

[Andrew Harper]

However, the problem is not only the unexperienced and untalented pair of drivers they have, the problem is that they also have a bad car, which is very difficult to drive.

Totally agree, it became apparent something was wrong in testing almost immediately, because you never heard anything from them. That usually means that something is not quite right. Not once did the team or drivers look happy with anything in Winter testing and that didn't bode well.

The driver choice is not great but not terrible either. I think Kubica is probably breathing a slight sigh of relief. I know some of you are really big fans of Robert but I'm sure it would upset you if he spent the whole year battling for 12th or 14th place. However although I know some of you feel any driver over 30/35 is "past it" experience is still key when a team needs help getting it's act together. So it's good they kept him on in a test role.

I noticed in Melbourne that Stroll caught the car ahead of him with about 18 laps to go and the gap stayed at a solid second or less almost all the way to the end. He just couldn't make a pass. So the car is probably better than Melbourne was showing.

There are no weak spots in the engine area, we know that the regulations now demand that the engine suppliers supply identical kit (we hope) to their customers. However the car at the moment is poor, it lacks traction, downforce, and from what the drivers are saying it's turn in is very poor and both slow and high speed corners.

The team have a bunch of major updates scheduled for Spain which seems an age away. Until then we won't see if they have corrected the problems this car seems to have.

Williams were in my view the last great private team in F1, they can be great again but they need to get their act together on the technical front. If they lose their Merc supply as well I can see them being in real trouble.

 

[Ghoults]

They chose money over talent. They chose Sirotkin's money over Massa's skills. Massa totally beat Stroll for example last season and Stroll did lots of additional testing in Williams' old cars. I think they rented Suzuka at one point for several days for private testing just so the kid can learn the car. And he was still just as slow at the end of last season as he was in the beginning.

The result is exactly what you'd expect when you have slow drivers. And Massa was not exactly lighting the world on fire with his performances which is telling how bad Stroll really is.

 

[Jan Larsen]

Short answer - yes.

This was easy to predict. The car was crap last year and hasnt seemed to get any better this year. Couple this with two inexperienced drivers and you have a recipe for a place at the back of the field. Its actually quite impressive that the car is that bad, both drivers hands over quite a lot of money for development, so I expected more than this.

 

[Jean-Pierrezx1]

It's definitely not up to par ,they screwed up on the chassis AGAIN and now they once again got a fat overweight Cow ,even Kubica said the car was to heavy ,how can you miss your design year after year ,
they're not lacking money ,bad Aero and engineer ,no Excuse for this ,
looks like Force India also missed on there chassis ,

 

[davewilliams000]

The answer to the question is unfortunately yes, they are that bad at the moment. It pains me to see this once great team struggling so much. I've always felt had some interest in them as I share the same name (but sadly not related!), but mainly I got into F1 following Mansell and then Hill in this team.

It's surprising this year's car is so bad as Paddy Lowe has been there for more than a full year now, and they also have the highly rated Dirk Debeer (ex Ferrari) heading the aero dept (although not sure how long he's been with them).

As for the drivers, perhaps as someone else said it was right for them not to select Kubica, as we wouldn't want to see him racing near the back of the field. Stroll is kind of OK, although I'm not fully convinced yet. He had more bad days than good days last year, but that could be down to the car. Sirotkin is too early to tell as he had a failure on the car in Melbourne (from a plastic bag of all things). He'll need to prove himself soon though - is he really any good (in which case he should be beating Stroll) or is there a reason he's been kept on the sidelines for a good few years (a bit similar to Gasly)? We'll have to wait and see.

Hopefully they can get a good main (if not title) sponsor after the Martini deal expires this year otherwise they could be in big trouble, despite the SMP (Sirotkin) and Strolls contributions.

 

[Jean-Pierrezx1]

Totally agree, it became apparent something was wrong in testing almost immediately, because you never heard anything from them. That usually means that something is terribly wrong. Not once did the team or drivers look happy with anything in Winter testing and that doesn't bode well.

The driver choice is not great but not terrible either. I think Kubica is probably breathing a slight sigh of relief. I know some of you are really big fans of Robert but I'm sure it would upset you if he spent the whole year battling for 12th or 14th place. However although I know some of you feel any driver over 30/35 is "past it" experience is still key when a team needs help getting it's act together. So it's good they kept him on in a test role.

I noticed in Melbourne that Stroll caught the car ahead of him with about 18 laps to go and the gap stayed at a solid second or less almost all the way to the end. He just couldn't make a pass. So the car is probably better than Melbourne was showing.

There are no weak spots in the engine area, we know that the regulations now demand that the engine suppliers supply identical kit (we hope) to their customers. However the car at the moment is poor, it lacks traction, downforce, and from what the drivers are saying it's turn in is very poor and both slow and high speed corners.

The team have a bunch of major updates scheduled for Spain which seems an age away. Until then we won't see if they have corrected the problems this car seems to have.

Williams were in my view the last great private team in F1, they can be great again but they need to get their act together on the technical front. If they lose their Merc supply as well I can see them being in real trouble.

They chose money over talent. They chose Sirotkin's money over Massa's skills. Massa totally beat Stroll for example last season and Stroll did lots of additional testing in Williams' old cars. I think they rented Suzuka at one point for several days for private testing just so the kid can learn the car. And he was still just as slow at the end of last season as he was in the beginning.

The result is exactly what you'd expect when you have slow drivers. And Massa was not exactly lighting the world on fire with his performances which is telling how bad Stroll really is.

 

[Jean-Pierrezx1]

Slow driver ,do you know what you're talking about ?
have you seen the teenager F3 races ?
and yes he's only a teen !
Unreal to blame and smack a a kid who's learning the ropes and learning how to drive a fat cow ,one of the slowest car in F1 , before you speak this way you may want to look
at what he as done , your reasoning show poor judgement and unfair comments !

 

[capndorkus00]

Not going to be in their best shape this year.

The car obviously has issues in both aero and chassis. Doesn't look like they've fixed whatever was lacking in the 2017 car. They have a lot to work on their hands.

Driver-wise, it's pretty unfair to judge their talents from the money they provide from the team.
Sirotkin has decent results in 2015 and 2016 finishing 3rd in GP2.
Stroll has his Formula 3, Italian F4 and Toyota series championship.
Talent seems alright, both guys can learn quick eventually.

With the current car from Australia GP, they'll be fighting Toro Rosso and Force India. Renault/Mclaren/Haas seem to be far off

 

[Deleted member 503495]

looks like Force India also missed on there chassis ,

Paddock insiders reported F.I. compromised development of the car to incorporate the halo's design into the chassis, and only in the European rounds there will be any progress.

 

[wombat999]

YES.
Nothing more to say.

 

[Enagee]

YASS!!
When it takes a team soo long to decide their final driver and then keep on changing and trying more options that's a clear sign they don't know what their doing

 

[Yapci]

Rookies and a meh car. Bad combo to get results.

I mean: Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, haas, Renault, mclaren = 12 cars.

Plus force India equals 14 cars that if nothing happens are going to be ahead.

 

[Patrick van der Meulen]

Williams is a financial healthy company. They got a tech division which brings a good amount of money but which they only invest in that part if I recall it properly. Claire Williams is in that regard focussing on keep financials healthy but not so much on performance. But I think it would help Williams if engines would become less complicated and thus not depending on Mercedes that much. In fact, that would improve current status quo of F1 imho.