2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

[LookBackTime]

BARCELONA TEST 2 - DAY 4

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04 MAR 2016
Driver: Felipe Massa
Chassis / Engine: FW38-02 / PU106C Hybrid
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655km
Weather: Warm and Dry
Maximum air & track temps: 18ºC / 27ºC


Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer:

It’s been another very successful day. We followed the pattern of the previous few days where we’ve done some longer runs and set-up work in the morning. We conducted a qualifying simulation this afternoon which was a little bit tricky due to the wind conditions. Then we completed more aero and development work, as well as ticking all the boxes in our reliability check list. We did 129 laps with no problems at all. It’s been a very successful, but busy, second week of testing. The team and drivers have done very well. I’m very happy with that, overall very pleased, and we look forward to Melbourne.

Felipe Massa:

Today was another good day for us. We managed to do a lot of laps again. I’m really happy with this week, the amount of laps we did, and the work we have done to understand the car. Today was a similarly successful day to yesterday. We will know more about where we are in Australia. I am happy and totally ready to start the season. Not just me but everybody. The mechanics, the engineers, the whole team. We’ve done a good job to prepare the car in the best way, so I hope we start well in the first race.

Felipe Massa: 1:23.644 (3rd) on lap 93/129

Fastest: S. Vettel, 1:22.852 on lap 29/142

Williams Martini Racing and the FW38 return to track with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa for the first Grand Prix weekend of the season in Australia from 17th – 20th March.

[LookBackTime]

Toto Wolff: Mercedes boss sells remaining Williams shares

http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/35766 ... um=twitter

[LookBackTime]

CYBEX NAMED AS OFFICIAL FITNESS EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER OF WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING

http://www.williamsf1.com/racing/news/c ... t-supplier

[LookBackTime]

Australian GP Driver Previews – Williams
Thomas Maher 2 hours ago F1 News - Latest News in Formula 1


Ahead of the first race of the year, read what Williams men Felipe Massa & Valtteri Bottas have to say.

Felipe Massa:

Australia is always a nice place to start the season because it’s a fantastic country and everybody likes to go there, it is also a race where anything can happen. I’m really looking forward to starting a new season, and I hope we can start well like we did last year. Hopefully our car is competitive straight away, that’s the most important thing. I am pretty optimistic that we can have a good first race and a good season.

Valtteri Bottas:

Melbourne is a really nice city and I always really enjoy going there. The people are nice and the weather is normally very good. Because it’s the first grand prix of the year it’s a very exciting time for everyone. I really like the track as well, for me it’s one of the best on the whole Formula One calendar. Last year was disappointing for me, because of my back injury, but this year I am looking forward to starting the season with a strong result.

[LookBackTime]

https://twitter.com/williamsracing/stat ... 4916202496

[LookBackTime]

Paul di Resta set to be named Williams reserve driver for 2016 season

http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/35795864

Paul di Resta will return to Formula 1 this season as Williams' reserve driver, BBC Sport has learned.

The Scot, who drove for Force India from 2011-13, will attend most of the races in his new role as back-up for Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

Di Resta, 29, will continue racing for Williams' engine partner Mercedes in the German Touring Car Championship.

Williams were unavailable for comment but sources said the deal would be announced in the coming days.

The 2016 F1 season starts in Melbourne, Australia next weekend.

Di Resta's appointment comes as something of a surprise - it was widely assumed his F1 career was over after he was dropped by Force India three years ago.

But his new role means he could race again if either of the Williams race drivers are indisposed.

The team started last season without a reserve driver but appointed Di Resta's former team-mate Adrian Sutil to the role when Bottas injured his back at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and was temporarily in doubt for the next event in Malaysia.

The team also have British GP2 racer Alex Lynn on their books as development driver, a role the 22-year-old also performed last year.

Canadian Lance Stroll, 17, who races in European Formula Three, is also under contract to Williams in a development role.

[LookBackTime]

Williams: F1 2016 Starts Here

[LookBackTime]

WilliamsRacing: As it's #NationalApprenticeshipWeek here's a throwback to when David Cameron visited apprentices at the factory. https://t.co/APhO13a8e0

[LookBackTime]

'The 70mph Skater' - A Hackett x Williams Racing production

[LookBackTime]

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX PRACTICE

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18 MAR 2016
Melbourne, Australia

5.303kms / 3.293 miles

FP1
Weather: Wet and Windy
Air & Track Temperatures: 16-19°C / 18-28°C
F Massa, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid 1:34.550 (11th)
V Bottas, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid 1:34.679 (12th)
Quickest time: L Hamilton (1:29.725)

FP2
Weather: Wet and Windy
Ait & Track Temperatures: 15-18°C / 17-21°C
F Massa, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid no time set
V Bottas, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid no time set
Quickest time: L. Hamilton (1:38.841)

Objectives: Systems checks and pitstop practice.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It is exciting for us all to be back at track preparing to go racing again. There is a great deal of anticipation for the team after a lot of hard work over the winter and everyone is keen to get going. It was a little bit disappointing for us all today though, for the team and the fans, but with the weather conditions we couldn’t really get a great deal done. You could see some teams out trying to do a little bit of performance running in the wet, but we elected to just go out and do system checks, starts and pitstops as we are almost certainly going to have a dry qualifying and dry Sunday. We aim to do more work tomorrow.

Valtteri Bottas: This wasn’t the day we were hoping for because of the weather conditions, but it was equal for everyone. Tomorrow is a new day and I’m sure we will learn much more than today. It was difficult to get to learn much today so I am looking forward to getting out on track tomorrow – I just want to drive!

Felipe Massa: There’s not much to say really. There wasn’t much action today so we were just waiting all day to go on the track with dry tyres. This morning was better than this afternoon because we were just waiting for the track to dry, and unfortunately it didn’t so we just stayed in the garage.

[Chene_Mostert]

Thanks LookBackTime
I always enjoy your session summaries / mini reports, especially this time as I failed to follow FP1
I guess if it wasn't for you there would not be a 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes in this Forum

[LookBackTime]

Thanks LookBackTime
I always enjoy your session summaries / mini reports, especially this time as I failed to follow FP1
I guess if it wasn't for you there would not be a 2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes in this Forum

You are welcome!
Regards.

[Skett]

Williams: F1 2016 Starts Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-hIoFwpos

You mean they did actual filming on a filming day? It seems Williams missed the memo about using them for shakedown testing!

[bill shoe]

Williams are in a defensive posture here. 2016 car was surely designed around short nose which won't appear until later. They promise it will be the biggest performance step in recent years, which is probably an indirect way of saying they'll struggle for pace here. In meantime Red Bull are running like scalded cats, and the upper midfield (FI, McLaren, Toro Rosso) are quite strong. I'm guessing Williams would be happy to see Merc and Ferrari fill the top 4 to lock those points away from their realistic competitors. If Williams can bring home something like 7th and 8th directly behind the Red Bull's then it would be good enough for now.

And since it came up, yes thank you LookBackTime for making it much easier to be a Williams fan on F1T!

[LookBackTime]

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING

19 MAR 2016
Melbourne, Australia
5.303kms / 3.293 miles

Qualifying Notes
• Felipe Massa qualified sixth and Valtteri Bottas 11th for the Australian Grand Prix.
• In the new qualifying system, both drivers cleared Q1 with no problems.
• Valtteri was eliminated during Q2 after struggling for grip on his final lap.
• Both drivers set their fastest laps on supersoft tyres.
• Valtteri will be able to choose his race start tyre for tomorrow, whilst Felipe will start on his supersoft tyres from Q2.

Weather: Dry and cool
Temperature: Air: 17-19°C, Track: 24-25°C

Q1
F. Massa: 1:25.918 (2nd)
V. Bottas: 1:27.135 (13th)
Quickest Time: L. Hamilton 1:25.351

Q2
F. Massa: 1:25.644 (8th)
V. Bottas: 1:25.961 (11th)
Quickest Time: L. Hamilton 1:24.605

Q3
F. Massa: 1:25.458 (6th)
Quickest Time: L. Hamilton 1:23.837


Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: We planned this qualifying much more extensively than we would have done with the old regulations. One of the messages we kept giving to the drivers, was there are a few simple rules of this qualifying that we need to get our head around and we managed to do that quite well. We made sensible choices throughout and ended up in a reasonable position. It is certainly much more complicated than the previous qualifying system, and needs a lot more thinking. But as long as you get those few golden rules right, then you’re alright. As for the performance of the car, it was a little bit unfortunate that Valtteri was unable to get through to Q3, but overall the drivers have done a good job. The car is a great baseline. We thought we’d be in that third position in winter testing, and that has more or less proved to be the case. It is very tight between us, Red Bull and Toro Rosso. Now, we need to get our head down and get a little more development, and that is all happening to get ourselves into a more solid third position. We can definitely race from here tomorrow. Valtteri is actually in a good position in P11, because he has a free choice of tyres, so that strategy is wide open for him. Felipe is further up the grid, but having to start on his Q2 supersoft tyres. We did a bit of homework on the race strategy and ticked off a few boxes we needed to understand during FP3, so we are in a reasonably good shape going into the race and hopefully we can come out with some good points.

Felipe Massa: It was a good qualifying. I managed to qualify the best I could, but unfortunately lost out on fifth place by a very small gap. That is the only negative point. I did some good laps and the car behaves well, so I am happy. It is tricky, and not easy, going through the session knowing the countdown is on every few minutes. Fortunately, I didn’t have any problems on my laps, but if you go out in traffic and you have any problems, it could be a lot closer that it was today.

Valtteri Bottas: It was a disappointing session. I was struggling with grip today, so we need to have a look to see if we got everything out of the tyres, the pressure and temperatures. I was hoping to get to Q3, but tomorrow is a new day and from 11th it is still possible to have a good race.