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View Full Version : Williams British GP - Was it a Clanger



Nitrodaze
12th July 2015, 12:18
It is clear that Williams should have done something different, take some risk and aim for winning the British GP once their 2 cars got ahead of the Mercedes. Keeping it safe and going about the race on the basis of running their own race without taking into consideration what the oppositions were doing, did not deliver the minimum result of 3rd and 4th, which they obviously expected. Not taking risks delivered 4th and 5th instead.

So what really was wrong with the Williams race at the British GP?

1. They were too sensitive to Massa's feelings and not taking the Constructors championship into consideration is one view. The net result of this was a 3 points gain on Ferrari where over 10 points was possible. Most post race analyst have concluded that Bottas should have been released to see if he could build a bigger gap to the Mercedes of Hamilton. One of the things that occurred to me was that Bottas appeared faster because of the benefit of DRS which may have given the false illusion of him being faster. It may well have turned out that swapping the drivers would have ended up with the same scenario with Massa hound the backend of Bottas's car. The problem with this argument is that we would never know unless they actually tried it and they certainly would not be blamed for trying something. Especially if they swapped them back to pacify Massa once this fact has been proved.

2. They were not keeping a good eye on what Mercedes and Ferrari were doing and reacting quickly enough is another view.
How quickly Vettel was progressing up the field after changing to inters should have been a good indication to bring one of their drivers in for inters. They should have at least asked one of their drivers to come in when Hamilton comes in to see if leapfrogging Rosberg was possible.

3. The setup of the car was not perfect even in the dry and worst in the wet.
Chances were that Vettel would have passed the twitching Williams cars anyway regardless of what they did. But we would never really know if that would have happened if Williams had stayed with the Mercs to the end of the race.

4. The Williams pitwall is clearly lacking the burning desire to win. Hence they pass up golden opportunities to do something sensational even with their handicap of budget and pace. You have to look back at Mclaren picking up wins and frequenting the podium in a similar position to Williams in 2011-2012. Mclaren had the 3rd fastest car behing Ferrari and Redbull but were able to take the fight to the forerunners when the opportunity presented itself. This point is about a winning mentality not budget.

I am sure you would have your own views against or for, let us hear it.

zako85
12th July 2015, 12:31
There is no way Williams could have won this race. You could see that the two Williams cars were effectively slowing down Hamilton since he was right behind Bottas's carfor many many laps before the first pit stops. Bottas's car was just barely fast enough to make it impossible or difficult to overtake given good defensive driving. I thought it was clear that after the first round of pit stops Hamilton should have passed at least Bottas, or perhaps both Williams cars. Having allowed Hamilton to slip into the first position after pit stops, I did think there was a good chance that the Williams cars would still finish 2-3, but then the changing conditions came, and the Williams cars looked pretty slow on either type of tires in the wet, and they probably also delayed changing rubber to intermediate inters.

I do wonder if Bottas could have beaten Hamilton, at least in dry conditions, if Williams dared to send an infamous transmission to Massa: "Felippe.. Valteri is faster than you"

Nitrodaze
12th July 2015, 12:37
I do wonder if Bottas could have beaten Hamilton, at least in dry conditions, if Williams dared to send an infamous transmission to Massa: "Felippe.. Valteri is faster than you"

Would a hungier team like Force India or Redbull have done better in a similar position?

journeyman racer
12th July 2015, 13:30
Mountain out of a molehill, I reckon.

rjbetty
12th July 2015, 18:10
Mountain out of a molehill, I reckon.

Yeah I thinky so too. It's nice that Williams finishing 4th and 5th can be considered a disappointment these days though. It's as though Williams are still 'growing into' being a top team again and just to consolidate their performance before aiming higher.

They've done a good job not to revert back to 2011/2013, as they have done after a competitive season recently.

Nitrodaze
12th July 2015, 18:21
It's nice that Williams finishing 4th and 5th can be considered a disappointment these days though.
I support this view. I really look forward to the Williams being at the front again. Hence, it was special for the short while to see Williams one and two in front, in genuine competition with the Mercedes.
But there is clearly still work to be done. And they have great people in the team to bring about this step forward.

Jag_Warrior
12th July 2015, 21:28
I think luck/timing and an unwillingness to split their stratgies between the cars hurt them. I don't think either car could have won. But with a better strategy, I think they could have finished closer to the top step than they did.

The two teams that have struck me over the past several years as having the most consistently odd strategy calls have been McLaren and Williams. They seem the best at snatching defeat (or a lesser result) from the jaws of victory (or a better result).

Nitrodaze
12th July 2015, 23:16
Check this out http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/30159216

jens
15th July 2015, 15:18
I don't think Williams had the speed to beat Mercedes, just like they didn't have in Austria 2014 despite holding 1-2 in the early phase of the race. But P3 should have certainly been up for grabs for the Williams team.

kfzmeister
16th July 2015, 03:05
I don't think Williams had the speed to beat Mercedes, just like they didn't have in Austria 2014 despite holding 1-2 in the early phase of the race. But P3 should have certainly been up for grabs for the Williams team.

Not so convinced. I think if it had stayed dry and Bottas just made that move right away, he might have been able to pull out a lead. Of course a bunch of other things would have to have worked out as well, like Massa somehow playing wingman and all the pit stops at the right time.

Problem for Williams was terrible call from the stands and the fact that their set-up did not work well in the rain. Add to it that Ferrari made the right call with VET and his car worked better in the weather, and you have exactly the results that we witnessed.