Rob Smedley says 2020 could be worse than 2019 for Williams
https://www.planetf1.com/news/smedley-w ... -williams/
“We talk about how it can’t get much worse than 2019, but we said that about 2018. And we said that about 2017. The reality is that 2020 can actually be worse than 2019."
I have to say he's not wrong. I was surprised and shocked at the start of 2019, having not believed it would be possible for the team to go backwards from 2018. I thought then that it was a case of a car that should have been decent but had some fundamental flaws that stopped it being developed, and a few basic things changed would mean a big improvement the following year. The positive noises coming out of the team in the late summer suggested that things would get better, but I didn't notice that nobody was saying much that was hopeful after that. I understand the reasons given for why the FW42 was so slow relative to the field, and it was obvious that the technical dept was in chaos in the run up to 2019, and while I believe that things have improved on the inside, I don't know that for sure. It's true that cautiously optimistic statements have been coming out of the team in the last few months, and not the kind of 'expectation management' you'd expect if things were going to be terrible again. On the other hand, finding new sponsors is now critical for Williams and I'm not sure they'd be especially up front about it if they were expecting another season stranded at the back.
So only time will tell. Only just over a month to the first testing session...
Rokit Williams Racing
Nicholas Latifi
George Russell
