2019 Williams F1 Team - Mercedes

[Manoah2u]

So any news from the team that both cars are ready?

good one

[Stalker1]

The interview with Brown posted by Zeph is great. Definetly worth watching.

However, this thread is out of hand.

[Espresso]

Williams' beleaguered chief technical officer Paddy Lowe has left the team following their disappointing performance in pre-season testing.

Williams said Lowe was "taking a leave of absence from the business for personal reasons".

The move comes after the team failed to have their car ready for the start of the Barcelona tests.

It was also slowest of all when it did run after missing two and a half of eight days of running.

Deputy team principal Claire Williams said at the time that she was was "not just disappointed" by the delay.

"It's embarrassing not bringing a race car to a circuit when everyone else has managed to do that, particularly a team like ours that has managed to bring a race car to testing for the past 40-odd years," she said.

Williams headed into 2019 hoping to make a step forward after the worst season in their history saw them finish last in the championship last year.

The result was tension between the team and Lowe during testing, and questions about his tenure.

How do F1 teams stand after final test?
Lowe said that he was not concerned about his future and said the car was "a huge step forward" in terms of its responsiveness to changes and behaviour on track.

But less than a week later, Lowe has left the team, not explaining his reasons.

The team were not able to say when he might return and the expectation is that he will not.

Lowe moved to Williams in 2017 after three years leading the technical side of Mercedes as they won consecutive titles in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

He was previously technical director of McLaren, where he oversaw Lewis Hamilton's first world title in 2008, leaving after a 2012 season in which the team won seven races.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/47476566

Some other reading pre-quel stuff: Paddy Lowe on Williams' poor mentality

[zeph]

It seems there is some misunderstanding about what a Technical Director is and/or does. Ross Brawn is probably the right person to explain it (relevant bit starts at 12m26s):

https://youtu.be/81ptN-kmkkc?t=746

He's exactly the wrong person to be explaining this. The Technical Director at Ferrari was always Rory Byrne, simply because he ultimately made all the final decisions regarding the car itself. The car is *all* that matters. In everything. If Brawn is at Ferrari without Byrne Schumacher remains a two-time World Champion. It's that simple.

Ross Brawn was an excellent strategic, trackside manager and thinker and probably Team Principal. Technical Director? No. It was Rory Byrne who was brought out of retirement from Thailand to set up a design office at Maranello post John Barnard.

When you are recruiting people you've got to be very careful you attempt to understand who was really responsible for what.

Rory Byrne was Chief Designer, Ross Brawn was Technical Director, Jean Todt was Team Principal/General Manager. If you had actually watched the video before commenting on it, you would have heard Brawn explain concisely what his role as TD entailed, and how he interacted with Byrne.

Do try harder dear.

Interesting turn of phrase, as I was just thinking you should stop trying.



Anyway, back to Williams. Whether you blame him or not, Lowe leaving less than two weeks before the start of the season can't be a good thing. I didn't think it could get worse than last year. Now I'm not so sure.

[Wynters]

When you are running an organisation you have to rely on the people working under you. Sometimes there will be a mess up and there's nothing you could've done about it. That's just the way life is, you can't do every job for every person. However, sometimes the failure isn't in action but in talent. Or, sometimes, it's not just one wrong action, but a systemic issue. In those cases, it's down to senior management to sort it out. The longer the issues persist, the higher up the responsibility goes. At this point, the buck really needs to stop with Claire Williams. It's clear even to outsiders that there are serious problems at Williams. She's had years to get a grip on the organisation and turn it around but she's not even arrested the decline.

I don't like calling for the heads of teams to be fired, it's almost always a kneejerk and simplistic response underpinned by ignorance of how large organisations work. But, in this case, Claire has to go. Ultimately the buck stops with her and she's shown no ability to execute the necessary changes to save Williams. She needs to fall on her sword, the sooner the better and a root-and-branch overhaul of culture needs to take place ASAP. This season is already a failure, they need to get the changes in place in time for preparation of next season.

[mrluke]

Is it Claire, is it Frank, who can say. There's clearly a deep rooted and long standing culture issue. Given the high level of those that quickly leave Williams it is evident that the problems go right to the highest levels.

[roy928tt]

If I may chip in, I had always seen Ross Brawn's Ferrari role as Technical Director, and Rory Byrne as Car Designer and I don't see the two as mutually exclusive.What is required, and is vital in all relationships is, trust and communication. Ross needs to determine WHAT is going on the car, Rory HOW it is going on the car. Ross doesn't need to be over the minutiae, Rory will deal with that.

Who is senior to who? That's the crux of the matter here.

Sooner or later you will have a disagreement on technical direction with the car and there has to be one person who can ultimately clear the impasse to provide clarity. Otherwise you get compromises, bad decisions and poor performances. Design-by-committee F1 cars just don't work. When the brown stuff hits the wall, as it most certainly has with Williams, you can afford this even less.

I don't see seniority as the crux. If two very intelligent knowledgeable colleagues can't discuss the merits of two different technical directions and determine the best one. Then they need to use the resources of the team to test both alternatives and empirically determine which is best. Communication and trust.....

I'm not convinced that Claire needs to go, that anybody needs to go, I'm sure the entire team could be coached out of their malaise. An external management coach(s) to grow communication and respect within the organisation.

[z.topoln]

Coaches like that dont really change much.

They add knowledge of how things should be done in organizations, but ultimately if things were "wrong" before, they will not get much better without changing persons at fault.

Most of the time, the problem is with owners and chairmans having trust in wrong people to do top management. Considering who went in/out from Williams, i think its fair to say that Claire Williams was person they all reported to.

That being said - car not making on time to test has to be Paddys fault... His responsibility is function of car and race team, and he failed miserably 2 years in a row. It doesnt matter who run the company, his job is to motivate workforce, organize scheduling of work in a such a way that they dont miss deadlines, and in case there is a probability of such, do countermeasures to avoid it. He failed to do his work, plain and simple.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

[Zynerji]

Coaches like that dont really change much.

They add knowledge of how things should be done in organizations, but ultimately if things were "wrong" before, they will not get much better without changing persons at fault.

Most of the time, the problem is with owners and chairmans having trust in wrong people to do top management. Considering who went in/out from Williams, i think its fair to say that Claire Williams was person they all reported to.

That being said - car not making on time to test has to be Paddys fault... His responsibility is function of car and race team, and he failed miserably 2 years in a row. It doesnt matter who run the company, his job is to motivate workforce, organize scheduling of work in a such a way that they dont miss deadlines, and in case there is a probability of such, do countermeasures to avoid it. He failed to do his work, plain and simple.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

Because I actually do this for a living, I'll share a bit.

Most of these problems are simply leadership 101 shortcomings. Decisions that are being made on emotion instead of facts. Scheduling to the needs of the individual instead of the needs of the business. Not communicating specific expectations, and actually inspecting that they are met. And my all- time favorite... Allowing a culture of speaking negatively about each other when people are not present to defend themselves.

There is a very synergized method to rebuild any organization, the true difficulty is giving enough authority to the person tasked with having the vision, so that they can lead the team to fulfill it.

In the last 20 years, I've yet to find the company willing to give enough to reach their full synergized potential.

[marmer]

Coaches like that dont really change much.

They add knowledge of how things should be done in organizations, but ultimately if things were "wrong" before, they will not get much better without changing persons at fault.

Most of the time, the problem is with owners and chairmans having trust in wrong people to do top management. Considering who went in/out from Williams, i think its fair to say that Claire Williams was person they all reported to.

That being said - car not making on time to test has to be Paddys fault... His responsibility is function of car and race team, and he failed miserably 2 years in a row. It doesnt matter who run the company, his job is to motivate workforce, organize scheduling of work in a such a way that they dont miss deadlines, and in case there is a probability of such, do countermeasures to avoid it. He failed to do his work, plain and simple.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

Because I actually do this for a living, I'll share a bit.

Most of these problems are simply leadership 101 shortcomings. Decisions that are being made on emotion instead of facts. Scheduling to the needs of the individual instead of the needs of the business. Not communicating specific expectations, and actually inspecting that they are met. And my all- time favorite... Allowing a culture of speaking negatively about each other when people are not present to defend themselves.

There is a very synergized method to rebuild any organization, the true difficulty is giving enough authority to the person tasked with having the vision, so that they can lead the team to fulfill it.

In the last 20 years, I've yet to find the company willing to give enough to reach their full synergized potential.

you missed a perfectly good opportiunty to write Zynerji potential lol

i just don't get how Willams can't see there own issues from your experiance is there a reason why people are not willing to give enough

[garygph]

[/quote]

Because I actually do this for a living, I'll share a bit.

Most of these problems are simply leadership 101 shortcomings. Decisions that are being made on emotion instead of facts. Scheduling to the needs of the individual instead of the needs of the business. Not communicating specific expectations, and actually inspecting that they are met. And my all- time favorite... Allowing a culture of speaking negatively about each other when people are not present to defend themselves.

There is a very synergized method to rebuild any organization, the true difficulty is giving enough authority to the person tasked with having the vision, so that they can lead the team to fulfill it.

In the last 20 years, I've yet to find the company willing to give enough to reach their full synergized potential.
[/quote]

Agreed!

I find that if the person is a permanent employee who is doing the suggestions and explaining the way to go and what to change etc it is does not go down well at all. That person may leave the company and 6 months later or so the changes they suggested start to happen, but if they do not leave it is even a longer delay. Best chance of a change is for an outside consultancy to come and suggest all that was suggested by the staff anyway. I think there are a few main reasons for not wanting to change and as usual it perception of the individual of how the change affects them directly.
By agreeing to change it means you were wrong having it in the first place, worse if you implemented it (I am saying perception here).
If the person is permanently employed you have to see that person regularly who got one over you ( perception again)
Insecurity of how secure you are in your position to acknowledge error and allow a change that may prove it completely.
Ego.
Just remembered and how could I forget... family businesses can be the worst. No one is allowed to be perceived to be attacking/criticizing/undermining/disagreeing or whatever my daughter/son/wife or whatever. Nightmare.

Mixed feelings when putting forward recommendations which are shot down with ridiculous excuses only to see/hear about them being implemented successfully when at the next company starting the same cycle again . Satisfaction that they are done and frustration that it was not done and the benefits enjoyed straight away by everyone.

Williams should probably do what Red Bull did last year (even though they are really good at what they do) and get in an outside professional organisation to come and do a work efficiency study and shake up some set in habits and update procedures etc.

[Manoah2u]

Is it Claire, is it Frank, who can say. There's clearly a deep rooted and long standing culture issue. Given the high level of those that quickly leave Williams it is evident that the problems go right to the highest levels.

Actually, plenty of people can say it. Paddy also said it. Funny how he's being burned to the ground by ignorant people. Zynerji stated enough about it, it's clear as day. Paddy whistleblowed the situation and he got hanged for it.

It's clear as day who are responsible for this mess, it's Claire and Frank.

they're both responsible, they're both the heads of the business. People want ministers step down when some agency blows it, because ultimately, they are responsible. it's exactly the same here.

stubbornness is the problem though, and the obvious fact that the 2 people destroying the team are the 2 people that are carrying the teams name. Frank's time is long passed. But refuses to step down.
It's been mentioned by enough people. Claire is overseeing daily work, Frank keeps an eye on the actual car.
BOTH have failed miserably.

I repeat one more time what i've been saying for a long time. Claire needs to step down, and so does Frank.
I'm not btw saying that means Claire's brother needs to take control, far from it.

[NutritionFact]

Yesterday I was watching drive to survive on Netflix, very nice insights about the teams.

In one scene, qualy session Lance sitting in his car warm up lap, Clair asks daddy stroll what's up..? Answer, he slipeerring around on his seat.
Claire. What.? Is it fixed, can he drive, is it fixed..?

At this point he starts his lap and the neck rest was loose..

Damn, why the team principal knows nothing about what's going on in the box...

[munudeges]

Rory Byrne was Chief Designer, Ross Brawn was Technical Director, Jean Todt was Team Principal/General Manager. If you had actually watched the video before commenting on it, you would have heard Brawn explain concisely what his role as TD entailed, and how he interacted with Byrne.

Reading obviously seems to be an issue for you. Official job titles are one thing, the reality is quite another, as I have consistently explained. There is a point at which one person has to make a decision regarding the car to remove an impasse. That person was not Brawn, as he has actually admitted himself. It was Byrne who set up the design office, not Brawn. It's quite simple.

In Formula 1 you've got to sort out the people with the real skills making the critical decisions from the pretenders with the job titles. It seems as though when Brawn was frozen out at Mercedes they realised he was not only a con artist but also a pretender. They got their Team Principal in Toto Wolff, they got their real technical people in Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa and Brawn was what was left.

Rinse and repeat for Paddy Lowe.

Interesting turn of phrase, as I was just thinking you should stop trying.

Pity you didn't quote the whole thing with context. It's terrible when you attempt to reference a thread several years ago and realise that everything said there was correct. You brought it up, not me. xpensive would have had a good laugh on this thread.

[Zynerji]

Coaches like that dont really change much.

They add knowledge of how things should be done in organizations, but ultimately if things were "wrong" before, they will not get much better without changing persons at fault.

Most of the time, the problem is with owners and chairmans having trust in wrong people to do top management. Considering who went in/out from Williams, i think its fair to say that Claire Williams was person they all reported to.

That being said - car not making on time to test has to be Paddys fault... His responsibility is function of car and race team, and he failed miserably 2 years in a row. It doesnt matter who run the company, his job is to motivate workforce, organize scheduling of work in a such a way that they dont miss deadlines, and in case there is a probability of such, do countermeasures to avoid it. He failed to do his work, plain and simple.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

Because I actually do this for a living, I'll share a bit.

Most of these problems are simply leadership 101 shortcomings. Decisions that are being made on emotion instead of facts. Scheduling to the needs of the individual instead of the needs of the business. Not communicating specific expectations, and actually inspecting that they are met. And my all- time favorite... Allowing a culture of speaking negatively about each other when people are not present to defend themselves.

There is a very synergized method to rebuild any organization, the true difficulty is giving enough authority to the person tasked with having the vision, so that they can lead the team to fulfill it.

In the last 20 years, I've yet to find the company willing to give enough to reach their full synergized potential.

you missed a perfectly good opportiunty to write Zynerji potential lol

i just don't get how Willams can't see there own issues from your experiance is there a reason why people are not willing to give enough

Because once progress becomes obvious, leadership believes that they can take over and finish the journey. It's hubris and narcissism.

Enough so, that on 3 occasions, I've had to come back to a company and start over. On one of them, I ended up coming back a 3rd time...