Williams Martini Racing has finally confirmed Valtteri Bottas will race with the team for a fifth consecutive season, with Lance Stroll making his Formula One debut alongside him for the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship.
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"The suggestion is that the team will soon confirm that Jenson Button will join Valtteri Bottas, but the two parties are still believed to be discussing money."
FrukostScones wrote:2017 line up: Nasr and Stroll.
you musnt read much f1 news, as Bottas has been confirmed for 2017 last weekend.........
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
F1 - Williams return for Button unlikely - source
"I’m sure I will speak to Ron this weekend"
2 September 2016 - 11h55, by GMM
A seat may only have just become officially available, but Jenson Button may have missed the boat to switch to Williams for 2017.
The 36-year-old driver and McLaren supremo Ron Dennis have said they will get together at Monza to discuss the future, amid strong speculation the Woking team will replace Button with Stoffel Vandoorne.
"I’m sure I will speak to Ron this weekend," said Button.
Interestingly, although Williams has been hinting at its interest in Button for 2017, the 2009 world champion said Felipe Massa’s decision to retire caught him by surprise.
"I didn’t know it was going to happen," said Button.
But even though the seat is definitely open now, and Massa says he told Williams of his decision two months ago, Button may not actually return to Grove where he began his F1 career some 16 years ago.
"If Jenson had been banging the door down, Williams would have welcomed him," a team source told The Times.
"It was a perfect fit and they would have loved to see him back. But he has taken too long making a decision and things have moved on. He seems to be hanging on for another year at McLaren," the unnamed source added.
02 SEP 2016
Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy
7.004 km / 4.35 miles
FP1
Weather: Warm and Dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 26-28°C / 29-35°C
V Bottas, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid, 1:24.785 (7th)
F Massa, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid, 1:25.840 (14th)
Quickest time: N. Rosberg 1:22.959
FP2
Weather: Warm and Dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 29-31°C / 40-43°C
V Bottas, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid, 1:24.299 (8th)
F Massa, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid, 1:24.556 (11th)
Quickest time: L Hamilton 1:22.801
Objectives: Aero evaluations, set-up and tyre work.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It’s been a bit of a disjointed day today with reliability issues, especially with Felipe’s car. He lost about 50 minutes with a turbo issue in FP1, and then about 30 minutes in FP2 as we had to change his brake by wire system. The main focus has been on assessing downforce levels to find the right compromise between downforce and drag, and I think we got some really clear answers on this towards the end of the session. Both drivers are right there on low and high fuel, so whilst there are a few things for us to do tonight, we’re confident going into tomorrow’s running.
Valtteri Bottas: Today went well. It’s always nice to drive here in Monza and we got everything that was planned done so we have plenty of information on downforce levels and how the tyres are performing in short and long runs. For sure we have a lot of work to do for tomorrow, but overall it was a good day. I think it’s going to be very close here and, looking at today and the long run pace we had, we definitely can have a good week. It’s too early to speculate much more than that, but I think we have an opportunity to be in reasonable positions this weekend.
Felipe Massa: It wasn’t a fantastic Friday for me personally as we had a couple of issues in FP1 and FP2 that limited my track time and what I could learn about the car. I’m in a very relaxed place after announcing my retirement plans yesterday, so my focus now is on having a competitive final eight races. I’ll be working hard overnight with the team to keep improving the car so that we can have another good result for Williams at what is a very special track for me.