Entries in Williams (53)
How Hard Is This?
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 11:10AM
So the FIA made a firm decision not to decide on Bahrain. Let's give them another month. What a bunch of champions. Don't wait for Bernie to tell you what is going on, or the rulers, send someone down there to see for yourselves! Better still, ask the media people who are there already. This is not difficult. It should have been dropped a long time ago. Who says there are no politics in sport, anyone who has dealt with a National or International Sporting body knows it is nothing but politics. These guys are elected like normal politicians, and make the same deals to get there. For a while there when Bernie really did run things decisions were made and we got on with it. What happened to Jean Todt, did he forget how to do it?
The story about the Kawasaki Team trailer with the load of drugs, and a gun and ammunition, even worse than drugs in England I would have thought, is an odd one. The team are now saying they knew nothing about any of it, someone snuck into the trailer in Assen and left them there. On the table reportedly, and no one noticed. What was the person who left them thinking? No one will notice, I'll just slip over to England and into the team workshop and pick them up when no one is looking? Big problems for all teams from now on one would think. Can you imagine unpacking one of these at Dover? When I was twelve my family came back from a trip to Europe in a Hillman Minx and I saw what the customs did to that.
There is a mess at Williams. This should not happen to Sir Frank, but the SS Williams looks like the Titanic at the moment. Patrick Head is abandoning ship with his bag of loot from the sale of his shares, which are sinking faster than the teams results. The Captain, Parr, has offered to go down with it, but the owners want him around, so it is Sam Michael and Jon Tomlinson who are to be thrown overboard to appease the ocean gods. Enter the evil villain Mike Coughlin to the rescue. Just kidding, I always thought Mike naive and stupid, and a scapegoat for the "spygate" scandal at McLaren, so he has done his time and is getting another turn in the engine room. Let's hope he can get up enough steam to save her. Sorry about getting carried away with the ship analogy.
Meanwhile, over at superliner Ferrari. Upgrades for Turkey have been tested in a straight line at Vairano, but not until after another of those "filming sessions" that Ferrari seem to be famous for. Amazing how these Italian teams can get away with testing on two and four wheels.
The story about the Kawasaki Team trailer with the load of drugs, and a gun and ammunition, even worse than drugs in England I would have thought, is an odd one. The team are now saying they knew nothing about any of it, someone snuck into the trailer in Assen and left them there. On the table reportedly, and no one noticed. What was the person who left them thinking? No one will notice, I'll just slip over to England and into the team workshop and pick them up when no one is looking? Big problems for all teams from now on one would think. Can you imagine unpacking one of these at Dover? When I was twelve my family came back from a trip to Europe in a Hillman Minx and I saw what the customs did to that.
There is a mess at Williams. This should not happen to Sir Frank, but the SS Williams looks like the Titanic at the moment. Patrick Head is abandoning ship with his bag of loot from the sale of his shares, which are sinking faster than the teams results. The Captain, Parr, has offered to go down with it, but the owners want him around, so it is Sam Michael and Jon Tomlinson who are to be thrown overboard to appease the ocean gods. Enter the evil villain Mike Coughlin to the rescue. Just kidding, I always thought Mike naive and stupid, and a scapegoat for the "spygate" scandal at McLaren, so he has done his time and is getting another turn in the engine room. Let's hope he can get up enough steam to save her. Sorry about getting carried away with the ship analogy.
Meanwhile, over at superliner Ferrari. Upgrades for Turkey have been tested in a straight line at Vairano, but not until after another of those "filming sessions" that Ferrari seem to be famous for. Amazing how these Italian teams can get away with testing on two and four wheels.
Red Bull in a China Shop?
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 11:31AM
A bit of silliness to start the day, not much else going on. Teams in China for the F1 GP, and Glock is worried that the Virgin may not qualify here. He is even suggesting that the quick teams might use the softs in Q1 just to make sure. He obviously is not feeling the love.
Red Bull reportedly not sure about using KERS here, again, and there is even a suggestion that the radio message to Vettel in Malaysia to turn his off was just mischief as he did not slow down. Not that he was really trying being a second a lap slower than the fastest lap set by team mate Webber. Mark shared some Australian vernacular with reporters in China who dared to suggest he was playing Eddie Irvine to Schumacher. Nice one Mark.
Pirelli are defending the amount of "marbles" on the track from their tires, saying it is normal for tires to wear and put rubber on the track. Yes but it usually goes on the surface to help grip, not roll up in big balls to be thrown around. There is no evidence of tracks "rubbering in" as they used to. There is a piece in Motor Sport this week where Franchiti went to the F1 test to see his cousin Paul di Resta and witnessed a trial start. Loads of wheelspin and tire smoke, but when the car had gone no black marks on the road!
In the same edition Nigel Roebuck has a great article on politics in sport and the Bahrain situation. As I said Bernie cannot say F1 has nothing to do with politics when politicians are voting to pay most of his fees. Despite mutterings from the Crown Prince that things have settled down there and we can think about a new date, read Pit Pass web site,
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43353
This makes for salutary reading.
Rumors circulating that all is not well at Williams, how can it be, share price dropping with their finishing places. Sam Michael is nominated as the scapegoat. There are also mutterings about Mercedes, and Montezemolo cannot be happy over at Ferrari. Jean Todt apparently paid a visit to Ferrari Wednesday, trying to shut them up about the engine I would guess.
This weekend we have the F1 race from China and the World Superbike from the "cathedral," Assen, ALMS and Indycar at Long Beach, although the lack of news on that is deafening. Remember when Long Beach was as big as Indy?
Red Bull reportedly not sure about using KERS here, again, and there is even a suggestion that the radio message to Vettel in Malaysia to turn his off was just mischief as he did not slow down. Not that he was really trying being a second a lap slower than the fastest lap set by team mate Webber. Mark shared some Australian vernacular with reporters in China who dared to suggest he was playing Eddie Irvine to Schumacher. Nice one Mark.
Pirelli are defending the amount of "marbles" on the track from their tires, saying it is normal for tires to wear and put rubber on the track. Yes but it usually goes on the surface to help grip, not roll up in big balls to be thrown around. There is no evidence of tracks "rubbering in" as they used to. There is a piece in Motor Sport this week where Franchiti went to the F1 test to see his cousin Paul di Resta and witnessed a trial start. Loads of wheelspin and tire smoke, but when the car had gone no black marks on the road!
In the same edition Nigel Roebuck has a great article on politics in sport and the Bahrain situation. As I said Bernie cannot say F1 has nothing to do with politics when politicians are voting to pay most of his fees. Despite mutterings from the Crown Prince that things have settled down there and we can think about a new date, read Pit Pass web site,
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43353
This makes for salutary reading.
Rumors circulating that all is not well at Williams, how can it be, share price dropping with their finishing places. Sam Michael is nominated as the scapegoat. There are also mutterings about Mercedes, and Montezemolo cannot be happy over at Ferrari. Jean Todt apparently paid a visit to Ferrari Wednesday, trying to shut them up about the engine I would guess.
This weekend we have the F1 race from China and the World Superbike from the "cathedral," Assen, ALMS and Indycar at Long Beach, although the lack of news on that is deafening. Remember when Long Beach was as big as Indy?
107% of What?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 11:06AM
Bret asked me to comment on the 107% rule so here goes. Long, long ago in a land far far away where I grew up there was a 107% rule for qualifying in F1. I don't know who decided that 7% was a safe number for cars to be on track in the race, why not 5% or 10%? And why only in the race? In the race they start from the back so they are out of the way for the most dangerous part, the start, and probably by the time the fast cars come around they will be broken down. No, we let them out all day Friday and Saturday when cars are circulating randomly. Is this smart? Anyway, 107% it was and it was set by the pole time, as we did not have today's three sessions. We still had cars qualifying on low fuel and with special engines for most of the time, so the bar was set pretty high.
Then sometime recently the rule went away. I do not recall specifically. Perhaps it was because the powers that be thought all the cars were so quick it was not needed. Or perhaps because we only had twenty cars we could not afford to lose any to a silly safety rule. It is there presumably to keep cars that are too slow out of the way. Then we had the three part qualifying, and then last year the new teams, who were really slow. So we reinstate it. But how do we measure it? 107% of what? Not pole time, that is set in Q3, no it is 107% of the Q1 session time because that is when the slow cars are eliminated. But why should that matter? If we are worried about their speed relative to the fast cars, then it should be measured against Q2 or 3 when they are likely to have the soft tires on as they would in the race.
But now let's look at the race. Pole time in Malaysia was around 1 min 36 secs, but for most of the race the quick cars could only manage 1 min 42-44 sec laps. We saw a couple of 1 min 40 sec times, but these were the exception, but even with these everyone except the HRT's would qualify. If you took a typical 1 min 44 sec lap then HRT 's fastest lap was 5 seconds off the pace.
So what does it mean and do we care? Bret says that we watch F1 to see the best, and he is correct, but on that basis what of the Williams performance? F1 is a cruel sport, new teams get no help at all, and no sympathy, and perhaps that is how it should be. Bruce McLaren had to go through it, and so did Peter Sauber more recently. You could argue that HRT is not better than the best GP2 Teams, but the GP2 boys do not have to build their own cars. And so the argument could go on.
Let's get back to the real reason 107% is supposed to be there, safety. It is conceivable that cars that qualified OK develop a problem and cannot keep that pace in the race. What then? Presumably the Race Director will decide if it constitutes a danger to other competitors and black flag it, but on what basis? 107% of the others lap times? I doubt it, it will be a judgment call. So why have a number? I know in NASCAR we often see the "walking wounded" come back out after a wreck and try to earn points, and often they are black flagged as too slow. So why not just write a rule that says "in the opinion of the Race Director the car is not maintaining a safe speed?" If we cannot trust Charlie then we are in trouble.
That's the problem with rules, as soon as you write them there are lawyers looking for ways around them. Look at yesterday's piece about the F1 finances. Bernie said once that the less rules the better, then no one can argue about whether they broke it. We saw the crazy 6mm under the car rule, well those of us old enough did, where the cars were blatantly not 6mm off the track when racing, only in pit lane. Now we have the Red Bull flexible front wing that visibly touches the track and mechanics are seen repairing the bottom edge, but it meets the rule. Ferrari are going to build one, so it must exist. Why not write a rule that says "no part of the car may be seen to make contact with the track at any point during the race?" Then instead of test weights and carbon fiber lay up we just rerun the tape in the Stewards room, game over. But that would be too easy.
Then sometime recently the rule went away. I do not recall specifically. Perhaps it was because the powers that be thought all the cars were so quick it was not needed. Or perhaps because we only had twenty cars we could not afford to lose any to a silly safety rule. It is there presumably to keep cars that are too slow out of the way. Then we had the three part qualifying, and then last year the new teams, who were really slow. So we reinstate it. But how do we measure it? 107% of what? Not pole time, that is set in Q3, no it is 107% of the Q1 session time because that is when the slow cars are eliminated. But why should that matter? If we are worried about their speed relative to the fast cars, then it should be measured against Q2 or 3 when they are likely to have the soft tires on as they would in the race.
But now let's look at the race. Pole time in Malaysia was around 1 min 36 secs, but for most of the race the quick cars could only manage 1 min 42-44 sec laps. We saw a couple of 1 min 40 sec times, but these were the exception, but even with these everyone except the HRT's would qualify. If you took a typical 1 min 44 sec lap then HRT 's fastest lap was 5 seconds off the pace.
So what does it mean and do we care? Bret says that we watch F1 to see the best, and he is correct, but on that basis what of the Williams performance? F1 is a cruel sport, new teams get no help at all, and no sympathy, and perhaps that is how it should be. Bruce McLaren had to go through it, and so did Peter Sauber more recently. You could argue that HRT is not better than the best GP2 Teams, but the GP2 boys do not have to build their own cars. And so the argument could go on.
Let's get back to the real reason 107% is supposed to be there, safety. It is conceivable that cars that qualified OK develop a problem and cannot keep that pace in the race. What then? Presumably the Race Director will decide if it constitutes a danger to other competitors and black flag it, but on what basis? 107% of the others lap times? I doubt it, it will be a judgment call. So why have a number? I know in NASCAR we often see the "walking wounded" come back out after a wreck and try to earn points, and often they are black flagged as too slow. So why not just write a rule that says "in the opinion of the Race Director the car is not maintaining a safe speed?" If we cannot trust Charlie then we are in trouble.
That's the problem with rules, as soon as you write them there are lawyers looking for ways around them. Look at yesterday's piece about the F1 finances. Bernie said once that the less rules the better, then no one can argue about whether they broke it. We saw the crazy 6mm under the car rule, well those of us old enough did, where the cars were blatantly not 6mm off the track when racing, only in pit lane. Now we have the Red Bull flexible front wing that visibly touches the track and mechanics are seen repairing the bottom edge, but it meets the rule. Ferrari are going to build one, so it must exist. Why not write a rule that says "no part of the car may be seen to make contact with the track at any point during the race?" Then instead of test weights and carbon fiber lay up we just rerun the tape in the Stewards room, game over. But that would be too easy.
What to Write?
Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 07:16PM
Well the Malaysian GP has been run and won, and I do not know how I feel about it. Vettel and Red Bull could get as boring as Schumacher. You have to admire them, they find a way to win even when the KERS does not work, but I will show my bias when I say it does not thrill me. Pirelli say their tires made for an interesting race, but call me a purist, but I don't find this fun to watch. As Michael said, this is a lottery, and he should know, he seemed more off than on.
The rain stayed away, but teased everyone to add to the lottery, and the DRS did work on occasions, but not always, so not sure about that either. We saw a lot of overtaking at other points around the track, mainly Turn 15, which tells me it is more about the track than messing about with the car. The slow cars seemed to stay out of the way, so well done, and Lotus actually did OK, so maybe we will see them mixing it in the mid-field. Williams had a terrible day, one to forget, while we ponder what would Kubica be doing with that Renault? Very odd steering column failure on the Petrov car, but then he did get very airborne thanks to the hump in the run-off. Not good.
So in all a dissatisfying race for me, but not really sure why. Lewis probably feels the same, and what was Alonso thinking? The pace of the Ferraris in the race was surprising, and Massa seems to have recovered his speed and determination. Mercedes are in trouble.
Bernie is reportedly trying to get the teams to oppose the 2013 engine, and Malaysia is pondering whether to renew after 2015. At least there was a crowd today, it was empty for Friday and Saturday which must be disheartening for the drivers, and the organizers.
Chip Ganassi did not quite sweep Barber, but won the Grand-Am race of course, and finished second and third in the Indycar. Not too shabby.
The rain stayed away, but teased everyone to add to the lottery, and the DRS did work on occasions, but not always, so not sure about that either. We saw a lot of overtaking at other points around the track, mainly Turn 15, which tells me it is more about the track than messing about with the car. The slow cars seemed to stay out of the way, so well done, and Lotus actually did OK, so maybe we will see them mixing it in the mid-field. Williams had a terrible day, one to forget, while we ponder what would Kubica be doing with that Renault? Very odd steering column failure on the Petrov car, but then he did get very airborne thanks to the hump in the run-off. Not good.
So in all a dissatisfying race for me, but not really sure why. Lewis probably feels the same, and what was Alonso thinking? The pace of the Ferraris in the race was surprising, and Massa seems to have recovered his speed and determination. Mercedes are in trouble.
Bernie is reportedly trying to get the teams to oppose the 2013 engine, and Malaysia is pondering whether to renew after 2015. At least there was a crowd today, it was empty for Friday and Saturday which must be disheartening for the drivers, and the organizers.
Chip Ganassi did not quite sweep Barber, but won the Grand-Am race of course, and finished second and third in the Indycar. Not too shabby.
Close
Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 12:41PM
Well that would have been a great qualifying to watch if my new DVD recorder had not decided to record in "skip" mode. Anyone else had this problem? Made for a short session, but skipped the good bits of course. Great to see the McLarens right there with Red Bull and it should be a great race, I may have to stay up and watch it, but then there are the ads which are even more annoying at 2 am. Rain has stayed away, but who knows what tomorrow will bring between that and the tires. Ferrari have a lot to do, but the Renaults improved.
It is interesting how happy Tony Fernandes was with 19th and 20th. If you just look at the position not much has changed, the fastest of the new teams. But look at the times and they are making progress, just behind Maldanado in the Williams, and within a second of the midfield that Tony so dearly wants to join. Williams must wonder what hit them. They looked pretty good in practice, but lost the way in Qualy. HRT did get within the 107% rule, but are still 7&8 seconds off the pace. They are going to see a lot of the leaders, if they last that long.
Interesting how Ducati have got around the testing limitations by bringing out next years machine to test at Jerez. Within the written rule, this is clearly not in the spirit and I bet the other teams are now looking to build an "ineligible" machine to test, including some of the current bits of course. Bit like Ferrari's "filming."
It is interesting how happy Tony Fernandes was with 19th and 20th. If you just look at the position not much has changed, the fastest of the new teams. But look at the times and they are making progress, just behind Maldanado in the Williams, and within a second of the midfield that Tony so dearly wants to join. Williams must wonder what hit them. They looked pretty good in practice, but lost the way in Qualy. HRT did get within the 107% rule, but are still 7&8 seconds off the pace. They are going to see a lot of the leaders, if they last that long.
Interesting how Ducati have got around the testing limitations by bringing out next years machine to test at Jerez. Within the written rule, this is clearly not in the spirit and I bet the other teams are now looking to build an "ineligible" machine to test, including some of the current bits of course. Bit like Ferrari's "filming."