Williams FW41 Speculation Thread

[turbof1]

This is the speculation thread about the 2018 car. Rumors, articles, ideas and fantasies about the car can be posted here. Once the car gets officially launched, this thread will be closed and discussion continues in the official thread.

Topic will be unlocked after the season finisher in Abu Dhabi.

[continuum16]

The real question is; what, if any, parts of the FW40 will carry over to next year. The team has had broadly speaking the same design concept since 2014 and I believe they have probably reached the end of this development path. Not to mention that Paddy Lowe and Dirk de Beer are now there as opposed to Symonds and Somerville that have been there in the past. I would expect to see the new car be a radical departure for the team as the new technical leadership establishes their own concepts.

Watch this space.

[dren]

Yes, this is the one car I expect we'll see a major design direction change, although the Mercedes was designed around very efficient aero production, too. So we'll see...

[digitalrurouni]

Yes, this is the one car I expect we'll see a major design direction change, although the Mercedes was designed around very efficient aero production, too. So we'll see...

I am expecting the same as well. It is quite astonishing for me how lackluster Williams has been. It's like they are getting worse as the years get on. Their lack of good drivers is also depressing. I really hope Kubica is given the green light and Williams has a driver who can really manhandle their car in to better performances!

[Raleigh]

It’s not that Williams can’t develop a good car but they made a serious mistake in 2015 by abandoning development of the FW37 very early (race 4 if I remember) to concentrate on the FW38, then gambling very heavily on a single major update which wasn’t even ready when the season started and didn’t quite work as expected.

Which lead to Pat Symonds leaving and the FW40 not having a technical director through the winter.

I do have hope for the future though, Paddy very aggressively developed the FW40, substantially changing aero and even suspension, by the end of the season the car had gone from foundering at the back of the midfield to a decent match for Force India (Massa in Brazil etc).

[Sevach]

"A lot more aggressive" according to Felipe Massa.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/will ... ve-992873/

[mclaren111]

Problem is Paddy Lowe is a very "inconsistent" technical guy - in my view.

At McLaren, he was up and down from year to year. Always trying to create a "spaceship" to race with.

[Mr Brooksy]

Problem is Paddy Lowe is a very "inconsistent" technical guy - in my view.

At McLaren, he was up and down from year to year. Always trying to create a "spaceship" to race with.

True, but always faster than the equivalent Williams in that period...

[astracrazy]

Problem is Paddy Lowe is a very "inconsistent" technical guy - in my view.

At McLaren, he was up and down from year to year. Always trying to create a "spaceship" to race with.

I'm sure at the time Mclaren used to alternate who designed each car. One year it was Paddy, then was is Goss who was in charge of the following years car then so on? Could have been the reason.

[mclaren111]

Problem is Paddy Lowe is a very "inconsistent" technical guy - in my view.

At McLaren, he was up and down from year to year. Always trying to create a "spaceship" to race with.

I'm sure at the time Mclaren used to alternate who designed each car. One year it was Paddy, then was is Goss who was in charge of the following years car then so on? Could have been the reason.

They stopped doing that very long ago. Tim Goss was Paddy's Chief Designer

[godlameroso]

According to Massa the 41 is much more aggressive in its design over last year's car.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Problem is Paddy Lowe is a very "inconsistent" technical guy - in my view.

At McLaren, he was up and down from year to year. Always trying to create a "spaceship" to race with.

I'm sure at the time Mclaren used to alternate who designed each car. One year it was Paddy, then was is Goss who was in charge of the following years car then so on? Could have been the reason.

Sometimes, people forget to realize that, there are around 500 people that work for each of the top teams. More than half of them involve in designing a car. A core team of that group involve in core design of the car, both on aero and mechanical front. Each section of a large office, consisting of various granular departments design pieces of car in isolation and then all of that has to come together for the integration phase.

People like team principals & technical directors are only going to put a seal on what is presented to them from the leaders of each of those small units. The designs would have been worked on and solidified from lead designer (aero & mechanical) to the manager of engineering to the director of engineering to Chief Designer to then the technical director.

So, it's not like someone of the capacity of Paddy Lowe would be conducting daily stand-ups from Chief Designer to the junior most engineer to get a design right. There are people like Chief Designer, Chief Aerodynamicist who would present the final design, along with all the expected performance statistics to the team principal and technical director to then get their approval.

In modern age, the car design is such a complex process and it would be foolish to imagine if there is one individual who can conceive the entire design and that too, someone at the top of the stack. If anything, the highest authority would only hold the accountability of the outcomes, for which, either he is lauded or crucified, based on the outcome.

[Sevach]

Problem is Paddy Lowe is a very "inconsistent" technical guy - in my view.

At McLaren, he was up and down from year to year. Always trying to create a "spaceship" to race with.

Personally i believe Williams needs an aggressive guy to get out of the rut they are in.

I'm not sure Paddy is that guy, though as you say, Mclaren was the "tricky novelties" team back when he was their TD.

[roon]

I agree. They've had a string of fairly conservative cars, in recent memory. It might benefit them to have a spaceship designer.

[mclaren111]

The spaceship has to work though. Paddy had just too many misses for my liking