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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Sevach wrote:Money talks, this tests are probably not being funded by Williams.
That makes me sure he will be on the car next year.
Williams has a quite good record bringing young talents in F1.
Button, Bottas, Coulthard, Montoya, Rosberg ....
I agree, other than Red Bull (who has 2 teams), Williams is the team that is more likely to bring on the guys they signed on as juniors to the team.
It's said that's the reason why Lance willingly stepped out of the Ferrari academy(who has Massa as their biggest/only success) to be a Williams junior.
Williams look more than likely to confirm teenager Lance Stroll, son of billionaire clothing magnate Lawrence Stroll, who will bring with him a bundle of useful cash for the team.
The second seat appears to have Bottas’ name on it, but should this not transpire then the Finn is said to have an option to join Renault.
“It’s a fact that I am going to have new teammate whatever happens,” Bottas told media in Sepang. “But I can’t say much more than that really. I’m pretty pleased with how things are moving forward.”
Bottas moving away from Williams is likely to trigger Perez moving to the Grove outfit, which in turn will free up a seat at Force India.
The team has an uncertain future right now, with owner Vijay Mallya deep in all sorts of cash draining trouble. Thus they will most certainly be looking for a pay driver or two.
30 SEP 2016
Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia
5.543 km / 3.444 miles
FP1
Weather: Hot and dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 29-32°C / 39-50°C
V Bottas, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid, 1:37.861 (12th)
F Massa, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid, 1:38.339 (18th)
Quickest time: N. Rosberg 1:35.227
FP2
Weather: Hot and dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 32-35°C / 51-60°C
F Massa, FW38-02, PU106C Hybrid, 1:37.016 (13th)
V Bottas, FW38-03, PU106C Hybrid, 1:37.110 (15th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:34.994
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was a fairly normal Friday apart from the fact that we lost some time with Felipe on his set of hard tyres which, in the end, we couldn’t run due to an issue on the rim. Apart from that, we got the low fuel work done on the soft tyre which was important, and some running on high fuel for the soft and the medium compounds. Between the two drivers, I think we’re quite consistent. Clearly the track has changed a lot with the new asphalt. It’s a lot smoother, less bumpy and generates more grip. There’s definitely less degradation, which is good – but it’s the same for everyone. We need a little more understanding of where the tyre temperatures need to be on this new asphalt as the requirements on the front and the rear are quite different. We’ve done all the work we needed to do today and we now just need to look at what we’re going to do to get a bit more pace out of the car. We’re not far away from where we should be. We’re expecting the same weather and temperatures for the start of the race, so today is pretty representative of that. It should be a little cooler for qualifying with that being later in the day. It was 60C at the start of FP2 today. That obviously makes it quite difficult to manage the tyres. Our main focus tonight has to be to get the cars balanced to protect the rear tyres and to get reasonable balance for the race.
Valtteri Bottas: Today was a pretty standard Friday. We got plenty of data and it was interesting to understand how the new tarmac would affect this year’s car. It definitely provided more grip. The tyres were also behaving more consistently than in previous years. The long runs were especially interesting today but the feeling was positive and we got some good data from them. We still need to improve our one lap pace, but the overall feeling is OK.
Felipe Massa: Unfortunately, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do today. I had to abort a few laps as we had an issue which lost us some time, so it wasn’t a straightforward afternoon. The pace also wasn’t fantastic compared to others, so we have work to do tonight to hopefully have a better Saturday.
01 OCT 2016
Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia
5.543 km / 3.444 miles
Qualifying Notes
Weather: Hot and dry
Temperature: Air 30-31°C Track 38-42°C
Q1
F. Massa: 1:35.267 (9th)
V. Bottas: 1:35.166 (8th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:34.444
Q2
F. Massa: 1:34.422 (7th)
V. Bottas: 1:34.577 (11th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:33.046
Q3
V. Bottas: -
F. Massa: 1:34.671
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:32.850
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: Qualifying was disappointing because I think the car was good enough for seventh and we weren’t able to do that as a team. That does leave a bitter taste in your mouth. That said, the team did a good job across the whole weekend. We had a little bit of homework to do following Friday on the low fuel runs. I think we’ve done a reasonable job of getting into the mix. Valtteri didn’t get his lap together in Q2 for various reasons, so didn’t get through to Q3. Felipe’s Q2 lap would have been good enough for eighth in Q3. There was a little bit of track improvement for the final session, and everyone else improved but unfortunately we didn’t. Ultimately, it’s disappointing because we should be further up the grid than where we are. However, the main thing is that we are in the mix. We’re fighting at the back end of the top ten, and we’re aiming to have a good race tomorrow to pick up all the points that we can.
Felipe Massa: I think qualifying was going well, but for sure we expected to finish higher up. I had the pace in Q2 and it was a big fight for a couple of tenths. Unfortunately, we are three places back on where it was possible to be. Anyway, the race is tomorrow and I really hope the strategy, the pace, the weather and everything can be in our favour and can help our race. We will try everything we can.
Valtteri Bottas: That was quite a tricky qualifying session for us. I actually wasn’t very happy with the front end of the car, I felt like the balance was better in today’s practice, especially around turns six, seven and eight. I struggled with understeer and because of that I didn’t quite get a perfect lap in. It was very close and I’m sure tomorrow will be just as close. We do have a free choice of tyres to start tomorrow’s race, so our goal is still to have both of our cars ahead of Force India. I believe it’s possible. We can definitely score some good points from where we’re starting and I’m sure the understeer and balance of the car will be better for the race.
18 SEP 2016
Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia
5.543 km / 3.444 miles
Weather: Hot and dry
Temperature: Air 32-35°C, Track: 49-55°C
Race Notes:
• Valtteri Bottas finished fifth and Felipe Massa 13th in the Malaysian Grand Prix
• Felipe’s problems began with a throttle issue leaving him stranded on the grid as the formation lap started. The team were able to get the car going to enable him to start from the pitlane, before he made an early stop under the first virtual safety car. However, just a couple of laps later he picked up a slow puncture and had to pit again. Felipe was then down in P19 but drove a strong race to fight back to P13 at the finish.
• Avoiding the collision of Rosberg’s Mercedes and Vettel’s Ferrari at the start, Valtteri had a clean getaway and ran as high as P5 as other teams pitted under the VSC, until Rosberg fought back through the field and demoted him to P6.
• Valtteri made his only pitstop on lap 28 after a strong opening run on new medium tyres, before switching to new primes and rejoining the race in P8, eventually returning to P5 ahead of Force India’s Perez.
• Valtteri remains seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, while Felipe falls one position to 11th. The team stays fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, just three points adrift of Force India.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: Overall, at least with Valtteri, we were able to show what we can do as a team, which I don’t think we maximised yesterday knowing the potential of the car. That’s something we can all feel really proud of today. The teamwork and the resolve of everyone since the end of qualifying yesterday has been really good in working out the best strategy for today. It may have looked quite risky on paper, but our strategy with Valtteri was the right thing to do and it worked out well for us. The start was great, the strategic decisions during the safety cars all worked out well, and Valtteri drove a brilliant race. It’s just a shame about what happened with Felipe. We’ve got to look into why the car effectively turned off on the grid and he couldn’t get going. He then had a pitlane start. All the bad luck he could have had, he had. Three laps later he picked up a puncture and had to pit again, and that put him out of contention. I think he’s driven a great race and showed a lot of mental resolve to get as near to the points as he did towards the end. Overall, as a team, we’ve worked really well together. Notwithstanding the disappointment of Felipe, it’s been a really good Sunday and we collected as many of the points on offer to us as we could. Despite having just one car in the points, we only lost two points to Force India today, leaving us just three adrift of them overall. The next race is a higher efficiency race in just seven days’ time in Japan. Our aim there is going to be to maximise what will be a very good car around that track, of that there is no doubt. We need to claw that points deficit back.
Valtteri Bottas: I think it was a very good day for us. We definitely got everything there was to get from today. The start was good, we were able to make our planned strategy work, which was crucial today to be in front of Force India. We scored some good points. It’s a shame that we lost points with Felipe’s technical issues, but from my side I’m happy with the race. Let’s try and repeat this in Japan.
Felipe Massa: Well, when it’s not your day, it’s not your day. Everything happened at once. My throttle wasn’t working. The engine was on and I was trying to get it to work, but I couldn’t. Then when we went to the garage, we switched it off and on, and it was working again. Then we did the start from the pitlane. At the first virtual safety car I stopped to change to the hard tyres and did two or three laps after that until I got a puncture on my front-left. Maybe I picked up some debris from the track. I would say my race was completely finished from there. The only thing that would have changed it would have been a safety car, but it didn’t work out like that. It’s a shame, because Valtteri did a great job and it would have been great to get both cars in some good points, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.
I hope no Stroll announcement until after the final F3 race of the season. He needs to show ability to focus on racing after the previous goals were attained (F3 Championship, F1 SuperLicense eligibility). He needs to qualy and race in first or second position, and not make any mistakes.
And it's great that Bottas is staying next year. He's pretty quick, stone reliable, a great team player, and a great yardstick for Stroll. After Stroll's unprecedented preparation I think Stroll will not, and probably should not, get the traditional rookie season "grading on the curve". He needs to match the Bottas pace right off.
Stroll needs to become a non-funded driver by his third season or he never will be non-funded.
And those are my severe prescriptions for Stroll's F1 career, from my perch as an armchair driver!
Heck yes! That's great news! Let's hope Williams keep recruiting top people like this. I was hoping for James Allison, but this is as good I feel. And to poach from Red Bull is an achievement as they were very adamant they were keeping James.
Pat has done a great deal for Williams dragging it back towards the pointy end of the field, but we always needed a new younger talent to go forward from here.
