2017 Williams Martini Racing Team - Mercedes

[Manoah2u]

Team: Williams Martini Racing
Base: Grove, Wantage, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Team principal: Sir Frank Williams, Claire Williams (deputy)
Technical director(s): Pat Symonds
Website: http://www.williamsf1.com

Race drivers:
77 Valtteri Bottas
18 Lance Stroll

Test drivers : Paul Di Resta, Alex Lynn, Gary Paffett

Chassis: FW40
Engine: Mercedes V6 Turbo

2016 position: 5th (138 pts)



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This thread is to discuss the 2017 Martini Williams F1 TEAM

[turbof1]

Pinned

[LookBackTime]

Williams Formula 1 team coy over Rob Smedley's 2017 position

Claire Williams has remained coy regarding the nature of performance chief Rob Smedley's role with the Williams Formula 1 team next season.

Smedley attends all the grands prix and is responsible for running the Williams cars at the track, reporting to chief technical officer Pat Symonds.

When asked if Smedley might spend more time at the factory in 2017 amid rumours of a change of position, deputy team principal Williams said: "Those are conversations that we may or may not be having.

"Whether he's at the track or whether he's at Grove then he will still make a big contribution.

"With all our personnel we have to decide where their technical ability is best placed, and that's not from a negative perspective.

"Someone like Rob, he wants to progress and he wants to do more.

"Sometimes that's not necessarily at the track, that could be back at the factory in a bigger role so we'll wait and see."

Smedley joined Williams in 2014 from Ferrari as part of an overhaul of the team's engineering department.

That resulted in an upturn in form as it finished third in the constructors' championship in 2014 and '15.

But this season has been tougher, with the rate and quality of development falling below par and Williams ending up fifth, behind Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and Force india.

Despite the challenging season, Williams praised Smedley's contribution over the last three years.

"Rob has done a fantastic job ever since he joined us and I don't envisage any changes," she said.

"He's a really important part of this team.

"Not only is he really strong technically, but he's also a very passionate person and that's one of the things that I love about him and what this team needs.

"This team needs people who understand that winning takes sacrifices, making so many sacrifices and putting in every single bit of blood, sweat and tears you have in your body to win.

"People like Rob have that. That is the DNA that runs through Rob Smedley and I don't want to lose him."

https://www.autosport.com/news/report.p ... uture-role

[Manoah2u]

deputy team principal Williams said: "Those are conversations that we may or may not be having.

lol. She should go into politics.

[NAPI10]

Williams will be in deep trouble if Bottas moves to Merc for 2017. It will hamper car development due to quality of driver feedback.

[LookBackTime]

AVANADE TRACKS WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING PIT CREW BIOMETRICS TO BOOST FUTURE F1 PERFORMANCE

https://pages.avanade.com/News-Release_ ... TRICS.html

[efuloni]

If Bottas does leave the team to Mercedes (what IMHO is rly likely to happen), who will replace him? I think it will be definitely between WER and NAS. None of them is good as BOT, unfortunely. =/

[LookBackTime]

Step from F3 to F1 car 'tremendous' - Stroll
By Julien Billiotte, 07/12/2016 at 15:00

Lance Stroll described his first experience in a Formula One car as a “tremendous” step compared to his previous Formula 3 machine, but the new Williams driver is confident the latter has prepared him well for his grand prix racing graduation.

Stroll was confirmed at the Grove-based outfit for 2017 in the wake of his dominant title-winning season in the European F3 championship.

Over the past few months, the Canadian has been gaining experience at the wheel of a 2014-specification FW36 during private test sessions held around the world.

“The step was incredible, tremendous, a lot of power as expected, a lot more downforce,” Stroll told Sky Sports when asked about his first outing in an F1 car.

“But Formula 3 is a really good car that teaches you how to drive properly. It has a lot of downforce, not so much power but I think that’s why it’s a very complicated part of driving because you have to find that edge and you can’t really go over it and you can’t be under it.”

“It’s a great car and it teaches you really well how to progress on to higher categories.”

Stroll’s busy schedule ahead of his F1 debut means he has already been labelled as the best prepared rookie in recent years but the 18-year-old is keen to shed the tag.

“I would not say [I’m the best prepared rookie] ever because when they did have the testing days it was a lot easier to learn. Everyone does it differently and is preparing their own way. I don’t want to really compare.”

Looking back at his promotion to replace the retiring Felipe Massa, he added: “The conversation started when I finished my year in F3 but I still had a job to do, which was to win the championship. I tried to avoid all the distractions, avoid all the talks and just concentrate on winning F3.

“When that was done, we made the deal for 2017. It did not sink in right away, it took a bit of time. But I’m now preparing as well as possible and I will be throughout the winter to arrive in Melbourne as prepared as possible.”

http://en.f1i.com/news/83817-stroll-rec ... -step.html

[LookBackTime]

Lance Stroll's F1 preparation tests similar to Jacques Villeneuve's
By Edd Straw, Lawrence Barretto @eddstrawF1 , @lawrobarretto Published on Thursday December 8th 2016

Lance Stroll's on-track development programme is similar to the one that Jacques Villeneuve completed before his Formula 1 debut with Williams in 1996, says technical chief Pat Symonds.

Stroll is carrying out a seven-month test programme with a 2014-specification Williams as part of preparations for his F1 debut next year alongside Valtteri Bottas.

Before signing for Williams for the 1996 season, fellow Canadian Villeneuve completed a series of tests on a variety of circuits to acclimatise himself with F1 machinery.

"Generally speaking with all the guys who were proper Formula 1 test drivers, they went and did testing," said Symonds.

"They specifically went off to a lot of tracks that weren't where teams were testing at the time.

"They got the miles on their belt but the focus was on developing the car rather than developing drivers.

"Jacques Villeneuve did a very focused programme with Williams.

"We've turned it around [for Stroll] - it's a bit more like Jacques' programme with the focus on teaching the drivers.

"For example we'll do a full pitstop practice after running.

"The crew don't need that practice but he does."

Symonds has been impressed by the rate in which 18-year-old European Formmula 3 champion Stroll is learning and improving.

"It's been quite enlightening," said Symonds. "The programme involves a 2014 car and the academy tyres.

"The academy tyres are quite different, we don't know how different they are and we don't have data on them.

"All we can do is look at what Lance is doing in the data compared to Valtteri and Felipe in 2014.

"I am quite impressed, he learns circuits quite quickly and that's always a watermark for a good driver.

"He's running quite well and what's more is he's learning.

"Now it's about learning to manage tyres and actually learning about all the stuff the engineers bleat on about that is actually true.

"He has to go out and burn a set of tyres and say 'Damn, I know I can't drive flat out'. He's learning."


https://www.autosport.com/news/report.p ... villeneuve

[LookBackTime]

Claire Williams admits Rob Smedley's role may change in 2017

Nate Saunders

Claire Williams says Rob Smedley could take a step away from the race-to-race operation of the team and move into a factory role for 2017.

Smedley is currently Williams' head of vehicle performance and oversees the Williams cars at every race. Towards the end of the season there were rumours Smedley's role may change in 2017 as the team looks to recover from this year, which saw it lose out to Force India in the battle for fourth position.

When asked about the rumours in Abu Dhabi, deputy team principal Williams said: "Those are conversations we may or may not be having. Whether he's at the track or at Grove he will still make an important contribution.

"With all our personnel you have to decide where their technical abilities are best-placed, and that's not from a negative perspective -- someone like Rob wants to progress and do more and sometimes that's not at the track, it's possibly back at the factory in a bigger role. So we will wait and see."

Smedley joined Williams from Ferrari in 2014 with Felipe Massa, who retired from F1 in Abu Dhabi after his 250th race start. Smedley's arrival was part of a technical overhaul which helped the team to a resurgence in 2014 and 2015, finishing third in both seasons.

Williams says Smedley is a vital part of the team and possess the attributes she desires for her family's team.

"Rob has done a fantastic job for us ever since he joined us. I don't envisage any changes, he's a very important part of this team. Not only is he really strong technically, he's very capable, but he's also a very passionate person and that's one of the things I love about him and one of the things this team needs.

"This team needs people that know and understand that winning takes sacrifices and putting every single bit of blood, sweat and tears in to win. People like Rob has that, that's the DNA that runs through people like Rob Smedley and I don't want to lose him from the team."

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/182 ... hange-2017

[LookBackTime]

https://twitter.com/williamsracing/stat ... 9342514176

[Sevach]

Williams is suppousedly going after Lowe.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rival ... ks-858200/

[Mr Brooksy]

Williams is suppousedly going after Lowe.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rival ... ks-858200/

I just read that, but I was under the impression that James Key was signed to move to Williams to take over from Pat Symonds.

I can't see them both moving to Williams?

[LookBackTime]

Williams is suppousedly going after Lowe.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rival ... ks-858200/

I just read that, but I was under the impression that James Key was signed to move to Williams to take over from Pat Symonds.

I can't see them both moving to Williams?

My understanding: James Key will be technical director.
Paddy Lowe will have an management role. Something like Ross Brawn at Mercedes.

May be this is the reason Rob Smedley is not happy (see his comments from the last few weeks )

Paddy Lowe to Williams could smooth the move of Valtteri Bottas to Mercedes

[Mr Brooksy]

Hey look back, can you include some links about Rob Smedley being not happy? All I've read was that he's thinking of getting less hands on in the race weekends. And Claire Williams saying how much a team like Williams needs him...