2023 Williams Racing F1 Team

[Stu]

Alex at his media session ahead of this weekend: "After the first two races it feels like that gap from around P10 to P20 is a couple of tenths really in qualifying, maybe three tenths worst case scenario. So when you're fighting at that kind of delta, it's all about optimising and I really enjoy it."

https://www.pitdebrief.com/post/albon-t ... -this-year

Racer!!

[continuum16]

In 2022, the lap time delta in Q1 was about 1.6s to P1 (VER) and 2.3s off pole (LEC).

In 2023 the delta was 0.87s to pole and 0.3s off the top Ferrari in Q3.

Not sure what that says about Ferrari but one hell of an improvement from Williams in the span of 12 months!

[organic]

In 2022, the lap time delta in Q1 was about 1.6s to P1 (VER) and 2.3s off pole (LEC).

In 2023 the delta was 0.87s to pole and 0.3s off the top Ferrari in Q3.

Not sure what that says about Ferrari but one hell of an improvement from Williams in the span of 12 months!

Incredible recovery from having the worst car to being amongst the front of the midfield.

Fantastic job by the team in the last year and ofc albon today

[Farnborough]

This seems like a neat and carefully focused car for them this year.

Sounded good in initial shakedown from their observations, quietly getting on with the job in hand I feel.

[AR3-GP]

It looks like Albon and Williams paid the piper for their straightline speed. The rear just stepped out on him as he carried a lot of speed into the corner and didn't have the rear grip. Unfortunate.

[tomazy]

GULF livery for Monaco?

[organic]

[Mr Brooksy]

More info about Williams being decades behind in the infrastructure Dept!

https://formula1news.co.uk/f1-team-asks ... udget-cap/

[organic]

Having someone like Vowles in charge is clearly what the team needed.

Someone who is not tied up with the internal politics of the team and is able to assess Williams' situation with knowledge of what it takes to compete at the front.

They may be 20 years behind but if the budget from dorilton is there - and frankly it should be considering how much money is going into F1 at the minute - hopefully it will take significantly less time than that to 'catch up'. Building a wind tunnel would probably take 5 years at minimum, so these are the timescales that we're looking at

Currently races like Canada will be rarities, but the new ruleset will surely allow Williams to have weekends like this more often with how much the field is converging.

Looking again at the car itself: it has a significant weakness in high-speed performance. Not surprising with the downforce levels they run, but perhaps it is something that will be addressed not for this year but next season. I say this partly because of comments Vowles has made earlier this season that fundamentally this car is very much limited and partly because the low drag concept is something that they've likely to have "built in" early on in the design phase.

Albon putting together good performance after good performance is not surprising at this point either. Williams needs to improve so the currently higher achieving teams eg RB/merc don't come sniffing.

[Mr Brooksy]

I am really enjoying reading and watching James Vowels interviews. He really seems to have his head screwed on. He also seems to be putting the time in, by staying late with the rest of the crew to support them in late night overtime.

Good to see IMHO.

https://www.racefans.net/2023/06/23/jud ... -williams/

It's also interesting how he gave validity to Josts timeframe for a Williams turn around. I think though James will be the leader Williams needs above Josts efforts.

Finally there might be light at the end of this very dark tunnel Williams have been travelling down for a long time now.

[FW17]

I don't know why James Vowels is peddling this line that they are not able to spend Dorilton money. I do not believe there is a desire on PE fund to splurge on facilities when they have already received a paper valuation of 5x on their investment.

There are mechanisms with the ongoing new team tender where in the facilities needed could have infinitely improved under a guise of new team (maybe with the same set of ghost investors). The fictional new team could have then bought out the team from Dorilton for a nominal sum with all its new facilities.

James Vowels is either being misled or misleading the fans.

[diffuser]

I don't know why James Vowels is peddling this line that they are not able to spend Dorilton money. I do not believe there is a desire on PE fund to splurge on facilities when they have already received a paper valuation of 5x on their investment.

There are mechanisms with the ongoing new team tender where in the facilities needed could have infinitely improved under a guise of new team (maybe with the same set of ghost investors). The fictional new team could have then bought out the team from Dorilton for a nominal sum with all its new facilities.

James Vowels is either being misled or misleading the fans.

You mean they can't exceed the CAP ?

[Mr Brooksy]

I don't know why James Vowels is peddling this line that they are not able to spend Dorilton money. I do not believe there is a desire on PE fund to splurge on facilities when they have already received a paper valuation of 5x on their investment.

There are mechanisms with the ongoing new team tender where in the facilities needed could have infinitely improved under a guise of new team (maybe with the same set of ghost investors). The fictional new team could have then bought out the team from Dorilton for a nominal sum with all its new facilities.

James Vowels is either being misled or misleading the fans.

Let me understand you properly... What you're suggesting is that Dorilton Capital don't want to invest and Vowles is just blowing smoke? They've made the money on paper for the team they bought so now they should just sit back and be happy?

And that what they really should have done is, let Williams die? Started a new team and bought all the infrastructure needed before the CapEx restricted existing teams from upgrading facilities? Meaning that Audi should have never bought Sauber because they wouldn't be restricted by the CapEx, Renault should have done the same etc? Even though none of the teams who are short of infrastructure had no guarantee of obtaining a new entry if they folded and started anew?

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your statements... But that makes no sense.

[FW17]

I don't know why James Vowels is peddling this line that they are not able to spend Dorilton money. I do not believe there is a desire on PE fund to splurge on facilities when they have already received a paper valuation of 5x on their investment.

There are mechanisms with the ongoing new team tender where in the facilities needed could have infinitely improved under a guise of new team (maybe with the same set of ghost investors). The fictional new team could have then bought out the team from Dorilton for a nominal sum with all its new facilities.

James Vowels is either being misled or misleading the fans.

Let me understand you properly... What you're suggesting is that Dorilton Capital don't want to invest and Vowles is just blowing smoke? They've made the money on paper for the team they bought so now they should just sit back and be happy?

And that what they really should have done is, let Williams die? Started a new team and bought all the infrastructure needed before the CapEx restricted existing teams from upgrading facilities? Meaning that Audi should have never bought Sauber because they wouldn't be restricted by the CapEx, Renault should have done the same etc? Even though none of the teams who are short of infrastructure had no guarantee of obtaining a new entry if they folded and started anew?

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your statements... But that makes no sense.

What is so difficult to understand??

Investors of Dorilton start a new factory, preparing for fictional 2026 entry.
They spend the magical $1 billion that James Vowels ex boss suggested
Give up on the new entry, blame Christian Horner for it not happening
Buy Williams F1 and move all staff to the new factory

[Moctecus]

Unsurprisingly, they thought of teams using such an obvious way of skirting the regulations. Anything transferred to or made available to an entry, whether that's IP or parts or entities falling under CapEx, need to be considered at not less than Fair Value.