Williams FW38 Mercedes

[gandharva]

Really nonsense so. Never heard an upgrade like that in Ferrari or redbull

Ferrari updates failed very often, and even RBR sometimes messed up. They clearly need more time and hopefully can fix the misbalance issue, because atm they are not even close to where they expected themself after testing.

[Martin_F]

The bottom line is, if you don't have the money to get all your new developments trialed out during testing, you'll be handicapped during the first few races.
It's easy for us to say after the fact, but they should have waited until FP1 in China to test the new nose/wing on both cars and get enough reliable data for qualifying and the race.

Either way, I'm looking forward to the next race, since with enough testing time and the right setup, the new nose/wing should help us get ahead on the grid.

[Sevach]

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-web ... -nose.html

Another analysis of the nose this time from formula1.com

They also seem to believe there's a hole under the nose.

[Sevach]

Massa:

"We mounted the new front wing and nose this afternoon and the car was very difficult to drive, it was a different balance", Massa said after qualifying. "We had a long meeting after the session, we used the new one and the old one, and the numbers said it gave what it is supposed to give.

Then we changed completely the balance of the car, the set-up, so many things and it was more or less in the correct way in qualifying. Testing new things like that which are not so similar to the other one, it can cause some issues. We need more time though to understand this front wing to get the most from it."

This new wing appears to have a lot more downforce potential, which is a good thing.
The problem is the rear might not be able to "cash the checks" the front is passing.

I won't be surprised if we see a big monkey seat in the next couple of races or some other "desperate" attempt to add rear downforce by any means necessary.

"Neutralizing" the wing like they did in Bahrain is the worst thing in this situation and you won't gain much time from it.

[Carinni]

Really nonsense so. Never heard an upgrade like that in Ferrari or redbull

Ferrari updates failed very often, and even RBR sometimes messed up. They clearly need more time and hopefully can fix the misbalance issue, because atm they are not even close to where they expected themself after testing.

Understood, but usually those updates didn't work very good, but never like that as the car was deigned for this fw which the team declared. So never seen such a case, so much more deterioated after an update

[Carinni]

Seems the team still far from understanding the car as others teams do. For the last two years, the pace in wet was terribly bad, almost same as manor. In the end, they found it was a setup issue rather than design issue (though the chassis was lack of enough df actually), but never heard other teams worked that bad in setup, don't understand why.

[Big Mangalhit]

Ferrari last year introduced a huge overhaul in Barcelona which in the beginning was, allegedly, hard to setup and only after some better knowledge was fruitful. I think it happened also with RB with Chritian Horner saying that it took some time to adapt to the new package with the shorter nose the introduced mid year. And in both cases I remember that they improved noticeably not at the introduction point of the upgrades but in the following sessions.

[Carinni]

Ferrari last year introduced a huge overhaul in Barcelona which in the beginning was, allegedly, hard to setup and only after some better knowledge was fruitful. I think it happened also with RB with Chritian Horner saying that it took some time to adapt to the new package with the shorter nose the introduced mid year. And in both cases I remember that they improved noticeably not at the introduction point of the upgrades but in the following sessions.

But not that bad I think. Anyway, hope it can improve a lot later, otherwise, ninth n tenth would be a norm in this season

[Carinni]

From gptoday:
"You may not know this, but the engine with the least power on the grid is actually the Ferrari in the Toro Rosso," Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe told ESPN. "The Renault and the Honda are not so far behind the Ferrari and Mercedes, so there is not a lot of difference now between the power units."

[krisfx]

Ferrari last year introduced a huge overhaul in Barcelona which in the beginning was, allegedly, hard to setup and only after some better knowledge was fruitful. I think it happened also with RB with Chritian Horner saying that it took some time to adapt to the new package with the shorter nose the introduced mid year. And in both cases I remember that they improved noticeably not at the introduction point of the upgrades but in the following sessions.

But not that bad I think. Anyway, hope it can improve a lot later, otherwise, ninth n tenth would be a norm in this season

Yeah, the oscillating wing they had a few years back wasn't a bad update at all...

[bill shoe]

The big FW38 struggle at Bahrain was pace on mediums. For China, both Williams drivers have chosen tire allotments that are heavily biased away from medium and towards soft and super-soft. Bad news is they will have few mediums to test and study for the future, but good news is they are planning on racing the softer tires that currently suit their car better. The new tire choice flexibility for 2016 is probably helping Williams a bit here compared to their competitors.

[Martin_F]

But in a hot race during the day, they might actually want the medium tires.
Either way, I think since they can do the setup on two cars with the new nose/wing from FP1, the'll be competitive.

[carisi2k]

From gptoday:
"You may not know this, but the engine with the least power on the grid is actually the Ferrari in the Toro Rosso," Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe told ESPN. "The Renault and the Honda are not so far behind the Ferrari and Mercedes, so there is not a lot of difference now between the power units."

I'm calling shenanigans on this. Did you see how hard it was for Lewis to get past the Torro Rosso's in both Australia and Bahrain and yet he easily breezed past Daniel Ricciardo in both of those races when on similar tyres.

Williams had better hope the new nose helps because they should be challenging Ferrari and not being trounced by Red Bull, Toroo rosso and Haas. The former 2 clearly don't have the horsepower that Williams enjoy and should be taking more advantage of. One can only imagine how much trouble the number 3 would be causing the number 6 and 44 if he had the same engine that is in the back of the FW38.

[rayden]

From gptoday:
"You may not know this, but the engine with the least power on the grid is actually the Ferrari in the Toro Rosso," Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe told ESPN. "The Renault and the Honda are not so far behind the Ferrari and Mercedes, so there is not a lot of difference now between the power units."

So Red Bull are yet to introduce HCCI and are already on the heals of merc.

Good one Paddy.

[Carinni]

From gptoday:
"You may not know this, but the engine with the least power on the grid is actually the Ferrari in the Toro Rosso," Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe told ESPN. "The Renault and the Honda are not so far behind the Ferrari and Mercedes, so there is not a lot of difference now between the power units."

I'm calling shenanigans on this. Did you see how hard it was for Lewis to get past the Torro Rosso's in both Australia and Bahrain and yet he easily breezed past Daniel Ricciardo in both of those races when on similar tyres.

Williams had better hope the new nose helps because they should be challenging Ferrari and not being trounced by Red Bull, Toroo rosso and Haas. The former 2 clearly don't have the horsepower that Williams enjoy and should be taking more advantage of. One can only imagine how much trouble the number 3 would be causing the number 6 and 44 if he had the same engine that is in the back of the FW38.

I think paddy meant Williams enjoys no more engine advantage and redbull can easily beat Williams in coming races, especially after Renault's major upgrade after Canada. Worrying.