2019 Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

[munudeges]

Uhhh James Alisson came to Mercedes after Lowe left... started there early 2017 (car already on track).

Uhhhhhh, and? You don't seem to be grasping that Allison didn't replace Lowe, and Allison's job title makes that crystal clear. There was simply no place for Lowe at Mercedes and he ended up biting off far more than he was capable of chewing.

If you wanna credit someone for Mercedes success while Lowe was their TD try Bob Bell or Aldo Costa.

Lowe was never their TD I'm afraid. At best, he was some kind of trackside manager that sat on the pitwall and looked more important than he was.

Technically, I give more credit to Geoff Willis although I do sometimes wonder who ultimately makes the technical decisions at that team.

[nevill3]

Any big name available to take his role?

Eric Boullier......

[bill shoe]

if nothing drastically changes in Williams leadership the coming 4 months, then the team will foil before the last GP.

I predict that if nothing drastically changes in Williams leadership in the coming 4 months, then the team will compete in the last GP. I define "drastically changes in Williams leadership" to mean Claire and/or Paddy go.

I propose a friendly wager with you on this...Accept?

oh yes my dear sir, that i definately shall accept!

Well crikey!!! A week on and Paddy's already gone. This means the conditions of the bet are not met, but I'll give you some credit in terms of the spirit of the bet. So, .

I think the toughest thing for the Team is that they are changing their strategy now after having gone through a year of bloodletting under Paddy. Oops? Sorry? Now they will change and go in...some...new direction. Williams culture has problems, but it did have a certain character of long-term success and stability. It's possible that a Rubicon has been crossed and they may have lost even the good parts of their culture forever. Or maybe I'm too pessimistic. It's very easy to be an armchair critic right now and lob flaming clumps of poo at the team.

[ringo]

I have a feeling Williams wont have a legal car for Melbourne. They may not have enough time to correct the issues.
Anyhow, Paddy is good, just not good at being a TD. Maybe his strong points is electronics. I never saw him as an aero or manager type who gets the big picture. Also he is pretty much a dinosaur from the olden days. F1 teams are much bigger and hugely complicated. I don't blame him ultimately. I would saw he didn't make the right decisions in selecting the team of engineers and the work flow.
I am still convinced Williams have some lukewarm engineers holed up in the team for years and it's very difficult and political to have them extracted and replaced with younger more talented guys. They continue to be plagued with bad chassis and suspension design. Paddy's only fault was not restructuring dramatically enough.
He should have copied what Wolf and Costa did with Mercedes.

[Schuttelberg]

Really painful to see Williams like this. The person that should have got the sack and got it two years back is the TP.

[FW17]

Gascoyne was far more of a manager than a designer.

He was both, his track record is clear and he single handedly got Caterham off the ground effectively from his bedroom. That's what a Technical Director is.

I would like to see Gascoyne or Symonds back or both. Gascoyne could really get the team to hustle

[diffuser]

Any big name available to take his role?

Eric Boullier......

He's a manager type ...not overally technical.

[diffuser]

They need to find some really smart young kids fresh out or still in U. Then got out and get a Bob Bell or Costa to show them the ropes..

Aren't they both working less at Merc? thought I heard an announcement last year like that.

[Chuckjr]

Does F1 ever draw from the lower rank/class racing fields like F2 or IMSA for a major team leadership role? The NFL will sometimes hire winning college level coaches to be a head or defensive/offensive coach for an NFL team. Is there any of that kinda thing for an F1 TD or team manager--to bring in young fresh blood/ideas to a team that needs a major overhaul of thought...like Williams for example?

[FW17]

Does F1 ever draw from the lower rank/class racing fields like F2 or IMSA for a major team leadership role? The NFL will sometimes hire winning college level coaches to be a head or defensive/offensive coach for an NFL team. Is there any of that kinda thing for an F1 TD or team manager--to bring in young fresh blood/ideas to a team that needs a major overhaul of thought...like Williams for example?

Will they allow a person who was managing an organization with 50 person or less in a F2 team be incharge of a team with over 750?

[Chuckjr]

Does F1 ever draw from the lower rank/class racing fields like F2 or IMSA for a major team leadership role? The NFL will sometimes hire winning college level coaches to be a head or defensive/offensive coach for an NFL team. Is there any of that kinda thing for an F1 TD or team manager--to bring in young fresh blood/ideas to a team that needs a major overhaul of thought...like Williams for example?

Will they allow a person who was managing an organization with 50 person or less in a F2 team be incharge of a team with over 750?

Christian Horner.
I guess that answers my question.

[zeph]

I wonder what else needs to happen before old Frank finally finds the courage to fire (or at least demote) his daughter. Surely some of the blame here has to fall on her shoulders.

[Lotus102]

What did Paddy do at Merc that qualified him to be Williams TD? Who at Williams made the call to hire him as TD?

I have absolutely no idea. Some people manage to pull the wool over the eyes of many, Pat Fry being another. The Technical Direction at Mercedes is the work of James Allison and Geoff Willis and their CVs speak for themselves. The same people at Williams who got fooled by Lowe are the same people who thought Sam Michael was a TD, year after year, and also thought Pat Symonds was as well.

I remember when they hired Sam Michael. I was like, wtf. It's so frustrating and sad to see this team suffering under such bad personnel calls. Smh.

Really? Sam Michael was extremely highly rated at the time, a real rising star. He was promoted at Jordan on performance and I didn’t know anyone at the time who was surprised when Williams poached him.

Williams is in a dire situation all right but there’s a lot of 20/20 hindsight here.

I’ve no idea who can take the reins now. Can’t think of anyone within the team with the kind of experience or skillset that could allow them to step up. They’ve already been doing a lot of promoting internally. The fact that they haven’t immediately announced who’ll be filling in (or, more likely, taking over) suggests this was sudden.

[Unc1eM0nty]

I find it amazing that some people still think technical directors actually design cars, they are senior manages in charge of hundreds of people, they lead, they direct, they put the people and the systems in place.

I wouldn't expect the the CEO or CFO at my company to know the intricate details of my job, Williams is no different.

Ultimately they (Paddy & CW) are responsible, if after a number of years things don't improve then things have to change, Paddy has not been there long though, I think it's too early to judge him, I can't say the same for CW though.

[Dr. Acula]

Ultimately they (Paddy & CW) are responsible, if after a number of years things don't improve then things have to change, Paddy has not been there long though, I think it's too early to judge him, I can't say the same for CW though.

Well, i don't wanna defend Claire Williams to much, she sure hasn't done a good job in managing the team. But i think it's also wrong to exclusively blame Claire for all the problems.
Williams were already in trouble before CW took over. Look at the years before the big rule change in 2014. During the V8 era they could be found more torward the back of the field already. For instance in 2011 the were 9 in the constructors championship and only managed to beat HRT, Lotus and Virgin. In my opinion, the mismanagment started just after the partnership with BMW.