Williams has confirmed that Sergei Sirotkin will join Lance Stroll in the team in 2018, with Robert Kubica as the reserve driver. Both drivers are supported by sponsorship, while other choices have been overlooked because they could bring any funding to the party. The team is thus signalling that it is trying to return to its usual philosophy of spending money on engineering, rather than on drivers and will hopefully then improve to a point at which the top names will want to become Williams drivers, as was the pattern in the past. The big question this year is whether Paddy Lowe and other new recruits will be able to lift the team to challenge Force India, the other Mercedes customer team, which it really should be doing. The problem for Williams is that McLaren and Renault should both improve significantly this year and that could result in the team slipping down the F1 pecking order.
- Comment
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
joeblogsf1 
The weakest driver line up on the grid
I agree, do you Joe?
You’re talking about Stroll and Sirotkin, right ? 🙂
Joe, who within Williams is calling these shots now – Is Frank still at the helm or did he retire without too much noise.
I understand the logic that money will help improve the car – but having it being raced by 2 pay drivers will not show its full potential.
To be fair to Lance he did not impress but did not make a complete fool of himself. As to Sergei – he did not really impress in the Junior ranks so I would say a big risk.
I hope they weighed the affect of dropping down the constructors vs. the money the drivers bring.
I will keep an open mind – but I am a bit disappointed.
Claire
Is this a job for Claire? with all due respect..
We will find out. But why wouldn’t it be?
The combination of that question and your added “with all due respect” feels like a paradox Al Bryn. Why would Claire NOT be the one making that choice?
i dunno but would like to dream that this year Bobby K had to settle for simwork in exchange for drive next year if things go well enough for Team Willy
In your opinion Joe, does an uninspiring choice of drivers filter all the way down the company… I remember the quote from Lotus during the Senna days stating that every team member knew that the car had gone the fastest it was capable of that day. They just didn’t feel that when Piquet arrived… and within six years the team was gone.
Yes
I was praying for a “Maybe not” answer there.
The Hass driver pairing is stronger so if their chassis has improved, I can see Williams fighting Sauber and TR for 8th in the WCC.
Sirotkin and Stroll’s financiers are unlikely to be content with that, so if their cash moves to a stronger team, I can see Team Willy entering the death spiral that others have mentioned.
It seems a pretty desperate roll of the dice. I understand that the representative of the major shareholder calls the shots, but is Claire really the right person? If people like Stefano Domenicali and Ron Dennis can fail to make significant change, I see no reason to believe that she can.
I feel sure they will become an easy target to be snapped up for peanuts, by any outfit that fancies its chances, post 2021.
I would venture that all Joe’s readers that work or (have ever worked) for a team would agree with him. There’s something inspiring about having a driver that you know will get the best out of the car.
I think maybe they are lining Kubica up post 2018, and Williams are widening their business concerns so that they are not solely dependent on F1 – this is different to Tyrell, and even Lotus at the time,
Lotus was manufacturing cars and providing consultancy services at the time that the F1 team ran out of cash. I am sure the none-F1 bits of Williams have a value, as would the remnants of the F1 team.
It’s input of cash that keeps the teams afloat, not assets. But most of those walk out of the door every evening
At that time Chapman’s greatest contribution was fiddling……
Chapman died several years before the team failed.
Williams has been focused on widening their scope of business outside F1 for a long, long time (e.g., their technology center in Qatar…which was established when Qatar was throwing money at anybody who would have then and doing crazily ambitious stuff like staring a New York Times sized news operation virtually over night). I’ll have to look up how much outside revenue they generate and since they’re public the figures will actually be available!
Qatar technology centre closed about 5 years ago. The company sold off its Hybrid power division to GKN. Still has got a good business doing sub contract work for OEMs and R&D work (including EV work) for certain German and Indian-owned car makers.
And building stunt cars for Bond villains.
Somewhat unrelated question Joe, but what do you think of Lance Strolls “records” he set last year?
Did they even exist from a relevance perspective before 2017?
@f1yarn – Lance took youngest podium off Verstappen.
Are you saying the record had no relevance when Max achieved it.
Alonso, Lewis, Vettel, all achieved “Youngest” records of various forms, so its nothing new.
Max still holds that record. Lance is the 2nd youngest podium finisher. When did we celebrate records for finishing second?
Furthermore, youngest front row starter is just a nice way of saying the youngest guy to start from 2nd. Hardly on merit either. It was only due to Red Bull engine penalties. Can you tell me who he replaced? No, didn’t think so.
Stroll isn’t a youngest podium finisher, but a youngest podium finisher in a rookie season. Not such a great achievement, but still.
@f1yarn – My apologies.
Sky F1 commentary, I expect, reported that Lance had taken youngest podium off Max Verstappen.
I wouldn’t have weighed in if I had known that was incorrect.
You are right, I have no idea about front row starters.
Actually, I take that back slightly.
I might still have said something; I’m a defender more than an attacker.
It’s all on Paddy, now. If he delivers a winning chassis, he’ll cement his reputation forever. In some senses, Williams’ strategy makes more sense today than it did in the 90s. The calibre of drivers Williams employed back then for modest sums, now frequently come armed with millions of Euros.
I suspect Sirotkin will do quite well and Stroll will probably be beaten by him. It’s all for nought if the team don’t deliver, though. Perhaps more interesting is the Kubica appointment. It now doesn’t look like a vacancy is going to open up at Williams in the immediate future (Sirotkin, like Stroll, is on a multi-year deal), but Robert will be getting a lot of seat time and that could put him in the shop window. For whom, though? Ferrari?
If Kubica wasn’t good enough for a race seat at Renault or Williams, what makes you think Ferrari are going to jump at the chance of signing him up?
Kubica is a reserve driver and knowing him, he will be driving not only on practice on Fridays 🙂
Because speed might not have been the deciding factor, here – indications are Sirotkin was slightly quicker over one lap, Kubica slightly quicker on long runs. Sirotkin provided Williams with 15 million additional reasons to give him the chance.
Ferrari occurs to me as a possible 2019 destination because they have a vacancy – Kimi looks very much past-it at this point. If Kubica shows signs of improving further in his FP outings, he might be a good fit for the Ferrari second seat. Traditionally that goes to an experienced driver who’ll support, but not really push, their No. 1, and Robert potentially fits the bill.
I don’t think I agree with your hypothesis about Ferrari it would be to big a gamble. However what Robert does have is the chance to be a reference against the other two and if he is better than either Williams get the chance to take him on or as you say others may come calling – I certainly hope so
Ok well good luck with that prediction. I wouldn’t back it at Ladbrokes if I were you…
I am gutted by Williams at the moment, I grew up with Jones, Rosberg Snr, Mansell, Piquet, and later Prost, Senna, etc driving for Williams, and to see them employing an average driver is galling, and this to add to Stroll who is frankly not good enough.
Good to see Kubica getting more time to show what he can do I suppose, and I hope he blows the two youngsters away in any practice sessions he gets. I’m all for young talent if they’re good enough and F1 needed to remove some of the deadwood, but Sirotkin is not the level that is required.
I’m sure they’re clever people at Williams, and I hope as Joe says it’s a strategy to spend more money on the car and attract top class drivers at a later date. A good driver can probably bring 3/10ths, but I suppose a good car is more than a second – sad.
Why so quick to write off Sirotkin as “average” and “not good enough”? Why not keep him in the “yet to be proven” pile and give him a chance?
How many people who were “given a chance” based on dubious talent and succeeded in F1 that you can think of? Sirotkin will have to blow Stroll away to have any credibility, if he’s even close to Stroll then Williams have made an almighty mistake as a washed up Massa was way quicker than Stroll, and Bottas was quicker than Massa, etc, etc.
I’d like to make clear I have full admiration for all the drivers, as to even be there in F1 requires more talent than anyone can imagine, but it should have the best of the best.
F1 was full of people getting a chance that didn’t deserve it in recent years, and it’s diluted the sport. There are still a handful that need to be culled : Raikonnen, Grosjean, Magnussen, Ericsson, and don’t forget Gasley and Hartley have been added at the tail end of the year, and neither look fit for F1.
Because both Sirotkin and Kubica were slower than Massa had been at Abu Dhabi, after the data had been crunched.
I’m not sure Sirotkin is a great choice either, but he was faster than Kubica in the Abu Dhabi test…
Sirotkin was not faster then Kubica. It is just journalists interpretation of the tests results. After all, it was Kubica who made the fastest time then Sirotkin. Do not forget, they were in Abu Dhabi not to made speed records but to tasted Pirelli tires.
I’m sure Williams knows.
From what I’ve heard, Sirotkin was quicker over one lap and Kubica quicker on longer runs. Kubica’s fastest time was only a couple of tenths faster than Sirotkin’s, but Kubica was on the ultra soft tyre whereas Sirotkin was on the soft. If Kubica was genuinely faster, the gap would’ve been significantly bigger.
You’d expect an experienced driver to have an advantage over a rookie on long runs, and that’s also where you’d expect a rookie to improve most over time. Sirotkin’s junior record is respectable and he’s been carefully prepared for this. There’s no objective reason to write him off and I expect him to be quicker than Stroll right out of the gate
I used to enjoy hearing the blunt comments of Frank Williams and Patrick Head. Now, listening to patently optimistic or false statements of positivity from Claire Williams and Paddy Lowe reminds me of listening to politicians. I’m annoyed by and don’t believe what they’d say and would have me believe. Their 2018 line- up is the weakest on the grid. They are fooling no one.
I have press releases from the 1970s and 1980s from that team that are just as dull.It is the nature of those things
To be fair Anthony you can hardly expect them to say that. “Well yes it’s true that we have a weak driver line up. They’re a couple of spanners basically who couldn’t drive a greasy pole up a dog’s arse but we need the money for the car and with luck in a couple of years we’ll trade up for some talent”
It’d be honest I’ll grant you but I don’t imagine it would do the drivers’ morale much good or make their sponsors very happy for that matter!
Signing Kubica as reserve/development driver looks like very smart decision.
He can prove himself fit enough (in tests&FP), Sirotkin will be motivated to give his best, Stroll will have access to RK knowledge, the team will get some PR “for free” … a win-win-win
It will be tough to become a (semi) top team with the people they have, won’t it?
For one reason or another I always saw Paddy Lowe as a lucky Irishman but of course that is not backed up by any knowledge, so I have no idea why I even mention it.
Oh dear……
Yes, it is all very tragic isn’t it? Team Willy get to bank 20M for the car and stay alive, and keep RK where they can continue to monitor him. They clearly have much less clue than you do…..
Yes, it is all very tragic isn’t it? Team Willy get to bank 20M for the cars, stay alive, and keep RK where they can continue to monitor him. hey clearly have much less clue than you do…..
It seems to me that the deal with Kubica is strictly a PR move…
Time will tell Aleš Norsky!
But I don’t think this is just a PR first kind of deal. I think Williams is using the opportunity to have a driver like Kubica help develpment of the car, since they have already confirmed that he will be testing it in pre-season testing, at in-season test sessions and at several FP1 outings.
Although all of that could also just be due to fulfilling the terms to get his sponsors on board to pay for said development!
agree. Sirotkin’s 15m was too tempting and hey! – they now have extra 7m + Rob for development
Yes car development value is there…plus the team needs someone over 25 to satisfy Martini,
I think they need a “Williams driver” over the age of 25 for promotional purposes. Kubica ticks that box (“of course he’s a Williams Driver, he did many laps in pre-season testing and you saw him out there yesterday morning).
I find this driver line up deeply underwhelming. Driver the quality of Wehrlein already condemned to the scrap heap is a poor reflection on current F1. I can’t see how the Williams staff can be motivated by this line up – hope they’ve ordered plenty of carbon fibre. Pleased that Kubica can cling on to his dream for a little longer.
They’re probably seeking to replace Martini with ICI even as you wrote that….
hey stop crying, this is not going to be that bad than when they had Nakajima or Pastor. This year is transition with all available sweets already tied in now
You never know. Who would have thought the Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna pairing would be good for a win?
I think it’s a shame that they didn’t try Robert Kubica as it would have been a great story and we are all itching to see if he still has what it takes.
It’s all very well saying that if someone can do a 10min lap of Silverstone in a 1965 Fiat 500 full to the brim that equates to a lap record time in a quali-spec F1 car. Personally I’d want to see a head-to-head in equal spec cars myself – but that’s Paddy Lowe for you. I reckon he’s the kind of guy who thinks it’s not raining if the computer says so, even if all the crowd have their umbrellas up …
I think the answer is that they DID try Kubica, and everyone is saying his one-lap pace wasn’t good enough, despite his race pace being adequate. So it wasn’t an apples to oranges comparison. Thus having Kubica as development driver actually makes a good amount of sense as he can help develop the car’s race pace and with any luck Sirotkin will improve and show that very one lap pace.
What a sad sad sad sad day that Williams have slumped to such depths – Stroll and Sirotkin. Sad that there has been no sign of any engineering talent for the last few years to attract better sponsors and drivers. Sad they show no signs of engineering their way out of trouble despite the best engine. I just hope for the longevity of Sir Frank, because the team will lose all drive and spirit when he’s gone.
Here’s one 1977 fan praying for some glimmer of rebirth at the 2018 tests.
Suzi Wolff was the Williams reserve driver in 2015. It didn’t mean much then and doesn’t mean a lot now. Williams will take Kubica’s money and other than a couple of Friday morning drives, that’ll be it. I can’t see Stroll doing any better than last year, I very much doubt he’ll get close to another podium, unless there’s a massive Vettel created mess at one of the races.
You took the words right out of my mouth! 😀
Was she? I thought she was a test and development driver and that Adrian Sutil was the reserve, which actually meant even less!
Whatever, no amount of logical thinking or empathising is going to change the fact this line-up is uninspiring and hence disappointing. No doubt the team has some good assessment tools but if it goes backwards the fans will say we told you so; and if it scores some podiums the same fans will ask what could have been achieved with better drivers. I don’t see either driver as bad – indeed, Stroll has show speed on occasions( and looked out of his depth on others) – but neither as top drawer.
Still, across the field, it’s probably the highest quality grid for many a year. I’d just rather have had Wehrlein and Giovinazzi to have made it even better.
/Williams will take Kubica’s money/
Rumours are that he doesn’t bring any money for reserve seat.
Wolff was closer to Massa in one practice session and with less experience of the car, than Stroll was on average in qualifying over the entire season…
You cannot possibly judge as we don’t know fuel loads
I was about to say surely after 3 years the team wouldn’t mind letting out if the car was light or not, but just remembered who supplies their engines.
Yea thats an absolute yarn. Different fuel loads, and different tyres from memory.
What are your thoughts on Maldonado and Palmer? Go and compare their racing career records with that of Susie Wolff, to put it all in perspective.
Sadly, we seem to live in a world where image is more important than fact.
It’s difficult to definitively judge Susie’s ability based on her DTM results because she was always in a car that was one or two years old. Gary Paffett managed to win a few races in a year old car, though, and her Formula Renault performances never suggested she was destined for the top.
Her practice times demonstrate she was capable of driving a Formula 1 car reasonably well, but that’s not the same as being competitive on the actual F1 grid. I suspect she would’ve been half a second to a second too slow for an F1 race driver – Sakon Yamamoto territory rather than Yuji Ide territory.
Papa Stroll is rich enough to buy Force India, so … Junior will have place in the team.
In the immortal word of Darth Vader and Lewis Hamilton; “Nooooooooo!”.
“The team is thus signalling that it is trying to return to its usual philosophy of spending money on engineering, rather than on drivers ”
That’s stretching it a bit and I presume is the Williams spin! True so far as it goes, but Williams ‘usual philosophy’ being pay-drivers…?
One thing that Williams will do is stay solvent and be able to pay all their staff. Maybe sink some funding into improving the gear at the factory. The team is not just Sir Frank and the drivers, there are 100s of employees. They’ll be secure for another couple of years. That’s a good thing.
Ah crap. Say it ain’t so Joe. PLEASE!!!
Maybe this could be a Fascinating Fact in the future…. how much a human vision can make a difference between a fa(n)scinating formula one team and a board meeting. Force India has just gained another significant percentage in public appeal compared to Williamss.
So I’m guessing the age 25 minimum for one of the drivers, much discussed last year to comply with Martini having to have a driver over that age in certain countries, will now be picked up by Kubica?
well, one can wonder why Martini haven’t invented non alcoholic vermouth as yet
I came here to ask that exact same question. Joe, do you think WIlliams had to negotiate a bit with Martini to have two under-25 drivers? Is Kubica key to why Martini might have agreed to it?
I don’t know
Joe, where does Kuibca go from here ? He will enjoy 2018 with a few FP sessions. Even if he rediscovers his tyre and racing mojo, he will be 34-35 by the time its 2019. Which top team do u think would bet on him ?
His age is definitely against him. If he’s able to lay concerns about his one-lap pace to rest with these FP sessions, he’ll be 34 this time next year. F1 Metrics demonstrates that F1 drivers typically start to decline from about 35 onwards, so he might only have a one- or two-year window in which he’s competitive.
In 1990 Williams had Boutsen, Patrese and a pretty good car with obvious potential. In the following 4 years they had Mansell, Prost and Senna driving. You can see the logic.
That’s the thing about Williams – people remember the Sennas, Prosts, Piquets and Mansells. They forget the Dalys, Lafittes and Patreses who drove alongside them.
If there was someone like Ocon, Perez, Sainz or Hulkenburg in *one* car, and either Stroll or Sirotkin in the other, I think and hope that people would be more accepting and understanding.
Unilever got a great deal with Lotus, and then played a blinder bailing out and switching to Williams at just the right time.
Can’t help feeling that this is the perfect time for them to move on again.
Williams was fairly blunt and even a bit ham-handed with letting some of those drivers go too. I’ll never forget hearing on one US race broadcast that Boutsen had been notified he wasn’t getting re-signed via a note shoved under his Budapest hotel room door the morning after he won the Hungarian GP for them.
I think Frank’s always been straight up there. Williams don’t tear up contracts. You don’t necessarily get your contract renewed, but then who promised you that would happen?
So assume Di Resta had no money to bring to the table and is therefore no longer reserve driver?
Would like to hear what Frank Dernie thinks.
Joe can I clarify something in your report? You say “Both drivers are supported by sponsorship”. Do you mean Stroll and Sirotkin or Sirotkin and Kubica?
All of tjem
Where does the Kubica insurance policy fit into this? Do Friday drives and testing mean he hasn’t had to return the payout?
Very few know, but I’d bet that as long as he’s not racing in a GP, his payout may be safe.
What’s it really matter?
It’s his business and his business only…..
Let us not forget that the last driver to win a race for Williams was a pay driver… 😉
Glad to see you think McLaren and Renault will improve Joe. Would be really nice to see more than 3 teams with a realistic shot at the podium.
I’m inclined to give Sirotkin the benefit of the doubt based on GP2 and a few seasons of World Series Renault. He won’t be out of his depth in the way Stroll was on occasions last year. He’s a better driver now than when Sauber were trying to access the Russian cash. However, the pairing is of similar weakness to Maldonaldo and (Bruno) Senna, which wasn’t the disaster predicted by many (Spain win). Look forward to another year of Claire banging on about WIlliams’ heritage and DNA, and not much else.
It’s a good point about Maldonado and Senna. It wasn’t a strong line-up but the Pastor did have the occasional performance in him and Bruno’s GP2 record was better than Sirotkin’s. It’s a sad situation but please let’s hear no more guff about Williams being the last of the true racers. That has gone now.
Hoped for more, glad to have what could be had.
And there is still hope 😉
Shocked at how williams can be managing to be making worse decisions year after year.
Being the first team i grew up seeing as a winner, it is disappointing now.
I guess it comes down to Claire being in charge or badly advised. Nice lady as it seems, but as decision making goes…
The williams documentary does not do them any good IMHO.
I hope they can recover, but I don’t get how they did not get an experienced driver (kvyat, buemi, etc). Kubica is in the past sadly.
pointless to compare THEN and NOW – take engine rules as main difference – THEN manufactures were fighting to get teams, NOW teams are fighting to get manufacturers. THEN manufacturers were fighting to get into F1, NOW F1 are fighting to get manufactures into F1. One can try to figure out what’s gone SO wrong. Maybe FIA shouldn’t have EVER been given the power to call ANY shots on regulations and ALL say should’ve stayed by Bernard Charles Ecclestone. . .
I assume that having a pay test driver means that the luckless DiResta is out of a job. Williams used to have a sizable fan base but I imagine many would be embarrassed or disillusioned by these developments.
He is not with Williams for some times. As I read somewhere, he is in FormulaE now.
I can imagine Williams losing more in prize money from their tumble down the constructors’ table than they gain in sponsorship from their two pay drivers. I am surprised they let Massa retire given that he probably wanted to stay and was quicker than Stroll. Can understand why he didn’t want to be messed around whilst others tested his car, however…..Can’t see Williams higher than 7th in the championship in 2018. Renault and McLaren will leapfrog them and I could see Grosjean-Magnussen grabbing the odd top result in the Haas which might even pressure them!
It’s not the end of the World. Williams are doing what they need to do right now to stay in F1. They still haven’t quite got over the effect of the banking crisis 10 years ago when they were sponsored by RBS. They’re walking the thin line between prudence and over-ambition. Let’s see how the season plays out for them. They may struggle to make the top 5 constructors this year, but I think that will be due more to the resurgence of McLaren and Renault than their own shortcomings. Whatever happens, they should live to fight another season and hopefully still be around when there’s a more equal distribution of prize money.
The RBS deal played out to the end of the contract…which is why you saw the logos on the car 2 years on from the crisis. The contract was honoured and the monies paid. Sirotkin learnt a lot from F2 and I think he’ll be a decent peddaler. As to the future of Williams? I’d say they might like the idea of Porsche buying them a couple of years down the road.
Indeed
And Porsche have very capable drivers to call on Bamber and Hartley to name a couple………
Very easy to sit and snipe from an armchair with only unfounded opinions of what each driver is capable of and of what is the best way to spend limited resources, and zero real knowledge.
If tens of millions from pay drivers funds factory improvements, better technical staff, better in-season car development, whatever, leading to an upwards trajectory in final championship positions in following years, it’s a wiser move than paying for the best drivers you could have got and then stagnating or falling back due to lack of funds.
It might not be what we would have liked to see this year, but then, contrary to popular belief, reality is not dictated by what one would like to see.
Depressingly predicable choice. Sirotkin is average at best and Stroll despite all the work from Williams still doesn’t show the promise they need.
Even if Paddy does work some magic these two will never show all that hard work off.
Williams lost their competitiveness when they lost Adrian Newey and that was because they did not consult him about sacking Hill and employing Frentzen. I hope that somehow they find a tweak in their new car that gives them some competitiveness. So sad to see such a once dominant team now struggling mid field.
It was about shares.
What percentage was Adrian after?
A small one in Williams
Joe that’s not what his book said but you are in a better position to know
FW told me
Yes, he perhaps conveniently didn’t mention that in his book but that was the story at the time. How much more would Frank and Patrick’s shareholding be worth now of they had relented I wonder?
And here we have the main reason we all read this blog…
Damn, I’ll have to watch again all those films with Forrest Whittaker in it… must have missed the secret messages about F1
Then what was the problem?
Damon Hill was a driver with many admirable qualities, but not someone possessed of the kind of talent Adrian Newey would consider resigning over. In 1996, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to believe Frentzen had more ultimate potential, in fact. Frank Williams supposedly tried to get him away from Sauber to replace Senna in 1994 before promoting Coulthard.
Frentzen was mercurial – capable of incredible speed, but too sensitive both in the car and in his head.
I believe we will be hearing of the passing of Frank Williams sooner than later, I choose to believe that his team will not be passing at all.
I’m sure with all that the company has to offer, if it comes to that it will be bought by a Mercedes or Porsche or another car company. Mercedes has already floated the B team balloon so that would not be a surprise.
F1 has to get its spending in order or all these teams (private and small) will end up gone or B teams, and only 4 teams with B teams would be the death of F1 as when the interest in F1 goes at least 2 teams would go not just one.
Money is runs F1, Stroll and Sirotkin have it, now Williams has it, Kubica didn’t, and he doesn’t have a drive, “nough said!
cynic you! do you say that THEN they’ll sell it up ?
Williams has brilliant number crunchers working for then as I suspect do all the teams. Keeping the doors open is much bigger than having the world tell then they did a wonderful thing by hiring Kubica. By the sounds of it Kubica has quite a bit less money to bring. He was not as quick and perhaps will have no backing in 2019.
Sirotkin is as quick or quicker, has more money and probably will have more for the next season if he is retained. It is a no brainer.
Paddy Lowe and the rest need to turn out a fast car for at least 3 years in a row. Then the team may stay on the grid and be ABLE to hire better drivers. I think Werhlien or Kvyat would have been better choices but with no money, no drive.
Is F1 going to get bigger? Then with proper rules all teams can prosper but if this stays the same team Willy et al will be bought up by VW in one of its guises. If rules stay the same, re $ spending FE will somehow take over. Though I won’t be watching.
Have a great night all.
The main positive is that Kubica is back and that in my view still keeps my faith with Williams. Shame he’s not in the race seat from the off but I think this is a good positive story for F1. Exactly what it needs.
@Andy Bristow – the Kubica thing was all about the story. The story of keeping Williams in the news over the winter. F1 is a business and Williams have given their sponsors plenty of free publicity during the quiet months.
Kubica will never race in F1 again, he might get some other drives off the back of his testing for Williams. He won’t be doing any development work for the car, that’s all done by the engineers now and his racing knowledge is years out of date. Drivers do more than steer the car now and Kubica hasn’t picked up the skills to program his car during races, which is a major requirement for all F1 drivers. Given his injuries, we don’t even know if he’s capable of programming a car during a race.
It’s been a nice story, but it was a winter fairytale for the media.
‘…drivers do more than steer the car and Kubica hasn’t picked up the skills to program his car during races which is a major requirement…’
A very good point and not as well-recognised as it should be. I believe Rosberg was very good at this.
Where was it said that he can’t program his car during driving? I don’t disbelieve you. Just interested to hear more about this. It seems like it would take a lot of seat time to get into the groove of programming and driving, especially with the compromised hand.
If you read Mark Hughes’ piece in this month’s motorsport Kubica had precisely one lap to prove his one lap pace at Abu Dhabi. Reading between the lines it appears there were factions in the team that already had a preference for Sirotkin over Kubica because he brought more money. It seems this once great team has entered itself in a race to the bottom.
Joe any ideas why Wherlien wasn’t signed for development driver, is that Kubica’s managment clause (that Kubica should be reserve and dev), or he didn’t want it? Or all because of money – the “winner” takes it all?
I suspect he will go to Merc.
I seem to recall people being unimpressed by Rosberg and Daly as a pairing for 1982….
At least you knew they had potential, I was at the International Trophy Race in 78,Daly was a leap in faith, sorry to bore everyone again but Sam Bird was the ideal fit for Williams, God knows who he upset at Mercedes and why. But gritty fast and British, Frank would have chosen him. Remember Mansell was inconclusive in junior formula, but will forever go down as slightly faster than Piquet and much faster than Patrese in the active car, that’s all.
Would it be right to suspect that he was not selected as the 2nd driver because he would have been quicker than Lance?
Ade, I think you are looking at things through Rose tinted glasses??
No
There is a reasonable chance we’ll see Kubica in a race this year if for whatever reason one of the other two drivers can’t race so no all doom and gloom. I’m confident he will be quicker in practice sessions he takes part in which will raise some questions. I don’t know what Williams strategy is, maybe they intend to put him in should other two drivers not perform, I certainly hope so. If it is for nothing more than the test role to help with PR I think they have missed out. I’m sure the sponsors would love the extra coverage an amazing story like this would have got them and assuming he is genuinely capable of driving like he used to they will miss out on quite a few extra points they would get from someone who is getting the maximum out of the car. It’s likely to be close next year so a handful of extra points could change their finishing place in the Constructors Championship which could make a big difference to the prize money, perhaps more than a paid driver could contribute…
My armchair take on it…
Sirotkin is in because Williams (Lowe) needs the money to build a proper challenger in 2019.
Kubica gets a guernsey in 2019 because a race seat will be available, he just has to sit tight for a while.
Either Sergei beats Stroll this year and is booted or he is put in the shadow by Stoll and dropped by the team after 1 year…
And the Strolls won’t want competition within the same team. If Sergei comes out to play this year, Lance will go somewhere safe (buy Force India). Or can at least fall back to ‘Kubica is brilliant’ in 2019 and be beaten by a teammate and hide as a footnote behind what will be one of the sport’s greatest comeback stories!
Lots of disappointed Fan Boys around that “their” driver choice did not get the seat at Williams. The delightful Claire will have many experienced advisers and the driver line up choices are overall best for the company as a whole. Some say even “Alonso the Great” brings a sack of sponsor money to the team who “employs” him. So, nothing new there.
Modern F1 cars are far less demanding to drive and with a tad more experience, I expect both these two young drivers ( and the finance trhey bring to the team ) will in the longer term be better for Team Williams F1.
Good luck and much speed to the Williams “Pay” drivers. I for one expect them to do quite well in their lesser kit than many others think possible. Just needs time.
Good to see the other much maligned Russian is still lurking in the F1 background now driving a bright red car.. ;-). The shakers and movers know that an increasing Russian element will be good for F1 too. That massively asset and resource rich Nation will become a much more important player in many aspects of the modern commercial and business World which is after all what F1 is … a business..
Stroll & Sirotkin are without doubt the most uninspiring line up on the 2018 grid and will probably prove to be the weakest overall lineup.
Personally I would have rather seen Wehlein in the car. But I can see the Williams logic, that would only have been short term and Mercedes could always have recalled him to the works team. At least with Bottas the contract was theirs to sell and they profited from it.
People may find it distasteful but F1 is a business and not all teams get to put Max Verstappens in their car.
There are several factors and variables which will have gone into this decision which go well beyond popular opinion.
Mostly F1 has an exceptional field of drivers who manage to make otherwise excellent drivers look ordinary. Stroll and Sirotkin probably fall into the ordinary pile.. but in fairness neither of them are exactly the Yuiji Ide type. If the car allows then they will deliver respectable results.
Hi Joe. It’s off topic but the mention of Force India reminded me of this and you may find it interesting.
I read that the Mendocino Brewing company, an original craft brewery in California, closed it’s tap room last week and the brewery may fold. The tap room was the second oldest in the country since the end of prohibition. Reading on, I came upon a name that was familiar but out of context. It seems that Mendocino Brewery has “fallen on hard times financially under it’s chairman and indirect majority shareholder, Vijay Mallya who bought the company in 1997.” Yeah, that Vijay Mallya who is currently fighting extradition from England.
Mendocino’s CFO is a guy who worked for Vijay for 17 years at United Breweries Group. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vijay also has a hand in Catamaran Services, Inc, a group that loaned Mendocino money and holds promissory notes from Mendocino. There is absolutely no info on Catamaran on Google. It is incorporated in Delaware, an off shore type financial haven.
Who knew that an original craft brewery in California was being milked by Vijay to support a F1 team.
Huge mistake not bringing back Massa for 2018. That decision to let Bottas go to Mercedes looks really bad right now. I hope they are still getting something in return at this point. I really like what Williams did bringing Kubica on as the 3rd driver. It puts pressure on both Stroll and Sirotkin since no driver wants to be replaced by a guy who only has use of one arm. I can’t wait to see which driver starts stinking it up real bad. The mental blow of being replaced by Kubica could kill off one of these guys like Kvyat. All we need is Rob Smedly on the radio: “Kubica’s one arm is faster than you!”… 😉
I think the Sauber owner has got it right by getting the latest Ferrari engines. How good is Leclerc?How good were his peers in F2? If the Swede gets anywhere near him…. So if Sauber are good this year what happens to Williams? So unless the Williams is really good they will finish above Sauber and Torro Ross. The Russian isn’t a bad driver, for example he would be about 0.4 a lap faster than Dr Slow mimimum in a Sauber. Leclerc needs to be about 0.7-1.00 second faster than Ericsson
Williams last in constructors
Williams is no longer just an old fashioned Race team. It a listed PLC company traded on the German stock exchange in Frankfurt.
It’s 7 Directors are highly experienced commercial business people and include three automotive specialists, Mike O’Driscoll the CEO, Claire Williams and Paddy Lowe. Sir Frank is I understand no longer a Director, but does still own 52% of the issued 10 million shares….or did at the end of 2016. It will be interesting to see if that is the case in the 2017 Financial accounts.
It’s the only F1 team that the public can buy shares in. I have a few.
I understand why it frustrates fans that the 2018 Race drivers are so young and inexperienced. Since the options to secure one of the worlds top 10 drivers seemed unlikely, maybe Sirotkin and Stroll are a clever move?
Are Williams now playing a longer game, putting themselves in a strong financial position to benefit from the expected shake up of F1, when Liberty Media sets out its new technical, sporting and financial position in a couple of years?
Maybe then Williams will be able to afford to employ a really top class driver if Sirotkin and Stroll fail to come through.
If Sir Frank and family do decide to exit, a strong financial performance and share price will also do them no harm.
Maybe as Joe says it’s Claire calling the shots based on Sir Franks 52% shareholding? …I don’t know but I suspect the board have a say.
It’s not just a sport anymore! Anyway good luck to them.