Williams Why so slow

[vatuloa]

I know its only testing and you can't rely on it but Williams have gone from the front 2 weeks ago to behind Red Bull this week. There is another week of testing to come but there has been no explanation from anyone as to the times.

[Kirk]

The first line of your post says it all; "it's only testing and you can't rely on it."

I'm still not convinced that any of the teams have a real good handle on the tyre situation. I think most teams do have a good idea of where they are at in short stints but I imagine that tyres are being thoroughly scrutinized, trying to figure out how soft they can afford to run. I also think that, contrary to what we've been reading lately, teams will tend to err on the hard side hence times will not match last years in quali or race.

[RWC]

Someone in this forum claims to know some of the team members and says that they are sandbagging
Yes,i know-who would trust anyone in an f1 forum saying stuff like that??

BUT ..some other forum members did say that he has a good reputation for inside knowledge s there's a distinct possibility.

The thing that i can't work out is WHY any team would want to sandbag?
f1 is one of those sports where it's impossible to make huge leaps in short time frames so it's not like they are going to scare the opposition into doing a better job this week.

The maclaren situation in '98 was different.They hid themselves away for all of the preseason so by the time of the first race they had a good couple of months head start at going in the right direction settup wise

[Sodemo]

Didn't McLaren lap the entire field at Melbourne 1998?

[vatuloa]

I did hear Mark Webber was having setup troubles on different tracks but he has a reputation for being able to assess the problem and get it fixed so the problem might be higher up in fact very high up.

[vatuloa]

Dave Richards is also predicting Williams are struggling for the AGP in a fortnight

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0...-23770,00.html

[Raglanparade]

Williams are williams. Even if they do struggle, they will always bounce back.

[Dutton]

Yep, they lapped the field. They weren't even trying at that.

[Raglanparade]

But in 1998, i think it was more to the point that none of the other teams had adjusted to the new Tyres and Cars. Williams were really caught on the back foot.

[mac]

Plus I believe Williams had a Supertec engine in '98 and '99.

Or was that just '99?

What year is this?

[Dutton]

They had Supertec as of '98.

[Kicking-back]

In 1998 pre-season McLaren didn't hide away.

The car was very fast from its first day of testing in Barcelona.

[Super Tourer]

I don't think we will really know where the teams are in relation to eachother until we get to Melbourne.

Taking testing at face value, McLaren and Renault look in good shape, RBR look ahead of where they 'should' be, Williams look a bit lacklustre, Toyota have slipped back from the first tests and BAR look to be struggling.

Ferrari seem to be able to up the pace when they want to, Sauber have run OK (ish)with Massa but JV is struggling. Jordans look to be 4 secs plus off the ultimate pace and prob about 2 secs away from the pack.

We may see the same slow start and steady development pattern that Williams has seemingly fallen into over the last couple of years or so.

[Raglanparade]

Any chance Minardi will outrun Jordan ?

[Kicking-back]

None at all, I reckon, Jason.

In yesterday's testing Jordan were a bit closer than they had been previously.

[Gt_R]

At the current point, word has it that the Williams is actually pretty drivable, but suffers from a lack of pace overall. There are no major mechanical problems with the car, but generally, there are some concerns over its cooling issues, which the team is working to understand and optimise (as the first 4 races are pretty warm).

There are a few hiccups which sort of caught the team off-guard, but nothing much to worry about. Williams had produced some upgraded components to be tested in the recent test at Barcelona in time for use in Melbourne, and is working hard to produce some new spec parts to use in by Malaysia, if not by Melbourne.

[Glen]

Williams Why so slow?

Williams always test slow.

If there is one team that just goes about its programme and doesn't go for the headlines it is Williams. The proximity of Red Bull, fr example, might appear alarming - but when you look at the lap charts you see Red Bull doing only ten lap stints... that's of no value at all for the actual racing.

The worse Williams look, the longer the odds get - and that suits me.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Glen

The worse Williams look, the longer the odds get - and that suits me.

Is your cash on Webber or Heidfeld?

[Glen]

Webber, for sure - probably for a podium or maybe an each-way. Just to get the season off with a little extra excitement. Although, if the odds stay similar to aht they are for the Championship, and the form of the cars stays similar too, then Fisi is worth looking at.

[Valve Bounce]

Sam Michael, Williams Technical Director

"Today we finished the three day test in Barcelona with all three of our drivers. We concentrated on longer runs for stabilised temperature data, which is important to categorise the cooling exits we will require in the initial races of the season."

"It was also important to do some set-up work on the tyre compounds that we will be taking to Melbourne. Although it's not normal to test street circuit compounds at Barcelona, it appears that the track resurfacing has changed the energy input by enough to shift the compound level. We did not encounter any major mechanical problems with the car."

[BootsOntheSide]

If they've been doing long runs without too many reliability problems, they could be in a strong position, especially as they've never set out to grab headlines pre-season (perhaps because they've got very solid sponsorship in place and don't need to hunt for it or create false excitement with low-fuel runs).

[Glen]

Minardi might be in with a shout with their new car, possibly maybe.

Both of those will probably struggle to get a full race distance on one set of tyres. Same thing could apply to RBR... they are doing very short stints at the moment.

Back to Williams - just been reading comments about the big difference between Melbourne and Barcelona as far as surface and tyre requirements go... which does mean that if you are choosing tyres the times are even more misleading than normal!

[dcp2685]

Where do you guys get your information on the number of laps the teams are doing in their stints? Is there a website or something you look at?

[Mark Webber]

at the beginig of the week all report said williams where in engine evalution mode as there where picking there AGP motors this week

I think some are reading way to much into test times . If there are in motor picking mode the last thing you will see is fast times remember these motors have to last 2 gps

have you also noticed the all willaims drivers have not done as much miles as normal this week
Its testing the programmes they go through will govern there lap times

[Glen]

Originally Posted by dcp2685

Where do you guys get your information on the number of laps the teams are doing in their stints? Is there a website or something you look at?

Try this - g to the listing of activities by date, and click on the current test. You can then click on each driver and see what they have been doing (well, their times and laps etc).