2016 Williams Martini Racing F1 Team - Mercedes

[Sevach]

That's an interesting move, can't deny that Perez + Slim is a profitable deal.

[Mr Brooksy]

Perez could be a great option. Williams knows Hulkenburg better than most, Perez seems to have out developed the Hulk so they have a good baseline to compare. Perez seems to have matured significantly since the McLaren year, there's also a good chunk of cash thanks to Carlos Slim (wonder if there would be any clashes with current sponsors). Spend as much as needed on Allison and keep Bottas another year.

This would also hurt one of their closest rivals pocket book whilst improving their own, so win/win there as well.

As much as I'd love to see Button back, there's more $$ in Perez.

Well one can hypothesise...

[LookBackTime]

[LookBackTime]

Perez could be a great option. Williams knows Hulkenburg better than most, Perez seems to have out developed the Hulk so they have a good baseline to compare. Perez seems to have matured significantly since the McLaren year, there's also a good chunk of cash thanks to Carlos Slim (wonder if there would be any clashes with current sponsors). Spend as much as needed on Allison and keep Bottas another year.

This would also hurt one of their closest rivals pocket book whilst improving their own, so win/win there as well.

As much as I'd love to see Button back, there's more $$ in Perez.

Well one can hypothesise...

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Hockenheim
Posted at
12:28
The top three teams may have sorted their driver line-ups for next year, but further down the grid it is all getting very tasty, driver market-wise.

Sergio Perez has emerged as a key figure in movements. He has an option to stay at Force India, but is being strongly linked with a move to Williams. Renault are also interested in him but the Mexican is considered more likely to go to Grove, where he would likely partner Valtteri Bottas.

Williams, meanwhile, are likely to promote their development driver Lance Stroll, who is doing well in Formula Three this year and has a very rich father. He could well become reserve driver next year with a view to promotion to a race seat in 2018. Obviously, if Perez moves to Williams, that is potentially bad news for Jenson Button because if McLaren pick Stoffel Vandoorne as a partner for Fernando Alonso next year, that would leave Button nowhere to go.

Meanwhile, Renault are likely to promote reserve driver Esteban Ocon to a race seat - and the Frenchman, who is actually a Mercedes junior driver, could potentially be parachuted into Manor for the second half of this season to gain experience ahead of 2017 if Rio Haryanto cannot raise the money to hold on to his seat.

[LookBackTime]

just the Williams section of the article!

INSIGHT: THE CHAT ON F1 DRIVER MARKET AS SUMMER BREAK APPROACHES

https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2016/07/ ... pproaches/

POSTED BY: JAMES ALLEN | 30 JUL 2016 | 11:40 AM GMT | 0 COMMENTS

The final couple of days before F1’s mid season summer break have featured quite a bit of discussion about the movements in the driver market for next season. The decisions and deals will get done over the next eight to ten weeks.
Although Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari have already confirmed their line ups, there could be a reasonable amount of movement a tier below, with a couple of works seats at Renault, Williams also in the marketplace and McLaren likely to make a change.
Here’s our take on what’s being talked about this weekend.

Williams
It looks like Felipe Massa will not continue with the team and there are several permutations here. Jenson Button has been a target for a couple of years and his potential swansong at the team where he began his career in 2000 depends on sponsors like Martini increasing their commitment in order to have a world champion in the car.
Sergio Perez is in discussions with the team and also with Renault. Although Force India owner Vijay Mallya said in Silverstone that both Perez and Hulkenberg were confirmed for 2017, Perez distanced himself from this in Hungary. He has a budget of aroubd €15m in sponsor backing, and given his very positive development as a driver in the last couple of years, he is a very attractive package. He is now quite highly rated in F1 circles.

It looks increasingly likely that Lance Stroll will make the move up to a race seat next season at Williams. The 18 year old Canadian is dominating the FIA F3 series, which Max Verstappen used as a springboard to F1. Although he could do with more development time, the problem is what to do next season if he wins the F3 title this season, as seems very likely.
A year in GP2 could go wrong, as it has for a number of drivers and the momentum would be lost. His father, Lawrence is not one to mess around and he is very much driving the programme.
Engineering sources suggest the youngster looks like a decent prospect, if not perhaps a Verstappen level driver. He has very substantial backing, over double what Perez brings.
He has a testing agreement, where he is paying Williams for 20 days in a 2014 F1 car this season, so he will have a good mileage under his belt by the end of the year.
Williams needs some extra budget, so it’s quite fluid at present, but one could imagine a Perez/Stroll or a Button/Stroll or even a Bottas/Stroll line up next season.

[Sevach]

wonder if there would be any clashes with current sponsors

Nope, Telmex (or whatever brand Carlos Slim chooses to expose, in Force India it's the "Claro" logos) is in the telecomunication business in Latin America, that shouldn't bother anyone.

Petrobras might pull the plug if Massa goes however, simply because no brazilians.

Stroll seems really special in F3, Lynn and Nasr will get jumped over imo.


Regarding the technical department, aerodynamicist Dirk de Beer(spelling?) is apparently getting the boot from Ferrari, he was the aero chief at Lotus up to 2013 and the guy Williams wanted back then, but chose to follow Allisson to Ferrari.

[SchuMassa]

Qualifying Notes
• Valtteri Bottas qualified eighth and Felipe Massa 10th for the German Grand Prix
• Both cars progressed from Q1 into Q2 after one run each on the supersoft tyre, with Valtteri easily advancing through in P7 and Felipe in P15
• Valtteri and Felipe both went out twice in Q2 on new supersofts. The Toro Rosso of Sainz hampered Felipe at Turn 2 on his first run, which forced him to go again. Felipe eventually made it through in P10 on his final lap. Valtteri made it through to Q3 in P5 with a 1:15.490, his fastest time of the day
• Setting one timed lap each in Q3, Felipe headed out first onto a clear track, followed by Valtteri who also entered the track with no cars ahead. Valtteri and Felipe crossed the line in P6 and P7, but dropped to P8 and P10 as the remainder of the field finished their flying laps

Weather: Hot and humid
Temperature: Air 39-45°C Track 26-27°C

Q1
V. Bottas: 1:15.952 (7th)
F. Massa: 1:16.503 (15th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:15.243

Q2
V. Bottas: 1:15.490 (5th)
F. Massa: 1:15.699 (10th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1.14.748

Q3
V. Bottas: 1:15.530 (8th)
F. Massa: 1:15.615 (10th)
Quickest time: N. Rosberg 1:14.363

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was a very close session. From Mercedes and Red Bull backwards the laptimes are really tight and even Ferrari didn’t have much of a margin on us. We worked hard this morning to ensure that we could get a good qualifying balance, which I think we achieved. Both drivers made little mistakes on their final lap, which would have secured them seventh and eighth, but as a team we haven’t done a bad job. We’re never going to be content with eighth and 10th because that’s not where we ultimately want to be, but for this weekend that’s what we will accept. We made great strides on our qualifying pace yesterday and understanding where that pace had to come from, which will transfer into good race pace. I’m convinced that we’ve got a good race car and we’re aiming to outscore our closest rivals.

Valtteri Bottas: It was a very consistent qualifying session from us as a team. It was a very close session, as expected, but the balance of the car felt good and we managed to get the tyres to work better. We are missing a bit of grip compared to the cars in front so I think we more or less got the maximum from the car today. I had some traffic in the last sector on my Q3 run which cost me a few hundredths, so I could have been seventh, but apart from that I’m pretty pleased with my qualifying today.

Felipe Massa: I’d say it was a very competitive qualifying today, especially with Force India. We are constantly fighting for a tenth. I was very happy with my lap; but I just went into the turn too much at corner 12 and I lost time on my lap because of that. That’s the only thing that happened or else I’d have easily been one tenth quicker. So that’s a shame, but I will try even harder for the team tomorrow.

[LookBackTime]

[LookBackTime]

Well interesting!

Felipe Massa ‏@MassaFelipe19
Nice helmet exchange, one more for the collection! Thanks mate @schecoperez @schuberthhelmet . Value irmão!

[Samraj_official]

Looks like Checo is seriously plotting a move!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sevach]

Maybe he brings Force India strategist along.

[LookBackTime]

GERMAN GRAND PRIX

31 JUL 2016
Hockenheimring, Germany
4.574 km / 2.84 miles

Weather: Warm and dry
Temperature: Air 24-25°C, Track: 37-42°C


Race Notes:
• Valtteri Bottas finished 9th whilst Felipe Massa retired from the German Grand Prix
• Felipe started P10 but was clipped on the opening lap by Palmer’s Renault which affected the car’s pace. The issue couldn’t be identified or resolved during the race, therefore he was forced to retire on lap 36
• As a result of Hulkenberg’s one-place grid penalty, Valtteri started today’s race from P7 on the supersoft tyre. He moved up to P5 in the early stages of the race, benefitting from his competitors pitting, before dropping back to P7 ahead of Hulkenberg. Following Hulkenberg’s final stop Valtteri was 15 seconds clear of the Force India but with severely worn tyres Valtteri wasn’t able to hold onto the position and fell to P9, ahead of Perez, in the closing stages of the race
• Both drivers retain their positon in the Drivers’ Championships with Valtteri in seventh and Felipe in ninth, while the team stays fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, 15 points clear of nearest rivals Force India


Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: Felipe was hit in the rear in Turn 6 on lap one and there wasn’t a great deal we could do from then on. We were trying to understand what the problem was as Felipe was completely off the pace and complaining about the car. There was no alternative other than to retire because he was towards the back of the field and struggling. With Valtteri, we tried a strategy which clearly didn’t work. We deployed the wrong tactics in the race, which is something we’ve got to learn from. As a group of people, we get it right most of the time, but today we didn’t. We thought the tyres would go to the end but they didn’t and so ninth was the best we could achieve, unfortunately. It hasn’t been a great day but this is where we see the mettle of everyone moving forward and make sure we don’t let our heads go down. We’ll carry on improving and trying to do the absolute maximum that we can do with the car that we’ve got. We’ll keep pushing on.

Valtteri Bottas: The race was going OK until Force India managed to get in front of us with the undercut. They did a three-stop and we tried a two-stop. There was definitely something wrong with our tyre calculations, because there was no way to get to the end on that set of tyres. The stint was just way too long and that really cost us some points today.


Felipe Massa: It’s such a shame that someone hit my rear right tyre on the first lap because it felt like something definitely happened to that area of the car. Perhaps a toe issue or something, because the car felt undriveable. Although I tried to carry on with the race, I was suffering massively. The pace was just so slow to the point where it was better to retire than carry on. Now, I’m going to take the summer break as an opportunity to relax with my family and prepare for the second half of the season to make it much better than the first half.

[Juzh]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/ ... 1470131292

Massa out of williams confirmed?

[Fulcrum]

And I quote.

“We will own our driver lineup decision, and I am not sat here waiting for [McLaren chairman] Ron Dennis to make his decision or for Jenson to make his decision."

“It it is not about what other people are doing. I am not going to be waiting around because that is just not the right mentality for a team like ours to have."

“It would be a great story, but he has to make the right choice for him, and we have to make the right choice for the team.”


Translation - we don't want to appear weak by bending over backwards, and appearing to depend on another team's rejects. We have other options - which is true.


“When I talk about the criteria that we are looking at, it is the talent in the cockpit, the intelligence to feed back to the engineers, and for us, as an independent team, the commercial factors are going to play a part in the decision-making process too. You can’t have an unknown driver in your car. It is just not going to work.”


Translation:

- someone like Jenson.
- someone like Jenson.
- someone like Jenson.
- someone like Jenson.

This statement seems like posturing on the part of Williams. Whether Jenson is the best option or not, they'd be damn lucky to have him if they got him, for all the reasons Claire has stated. I get the strong impression Jenson would get the seat if he committed to it.

Of course, Jenson can see the relative trajectories of McLaren and Williams, and is desperately hoping he can continue at McLaren. This strategy puts him at great risk of leaving the sport entirely at the end of the year.

I anticipate Jenson will retire.

[Mansell89]

Perez would be a masterstroke for Williams if they are serious about making strides back towards podiums. The financial element is huge for them and Perez is a feisty driver who will get the best out of his car.

Button is exactly the same but age is not on his side and also, Jenson wants to fight for race wins, which brings us to Williams.

They are a customer team yes, but ultimately that power unit should give them a mighty chance of racing the Red Bulls on paper- yet the difference is huge. They have slid backwards since he opening year of these new PUs and now they've just been beaten by a McLaren Honda on a power circuit.

The only hope I hold for them is if they have been holding back development and instead focusing on 2017?? That would have to be proved to Button for him to sign.

Personally I hope that Vandoorne heads to a lower team for a year to give him development time and that Jenson and Fernando get to develop the McHonda into a race winner, with Perez moving to Williams.

A lot of the move rests on what Hondas trajectory looks like into 2017, and what Williams have planned for the new regs.