Williams slow out of blocks

As you read this, all 10 teams should have launched their respective championship contenders for the 2019 title race, and will be in the third day of pre-season winter testing.

I have to say “should” as some had only revealed the team’s new livery – some not even that – with just a few aerodynamic pieces fitted to last year’s chassis, instead of the genuine 2019 offerings.

Unfortunately, some of the teams have found the application of the new regulations very time-consuming and are running behind schedule.

Most have overcome the problems, but one team had to cancel the shakedown trial and the first day of testing. Just 24 hours before Monday’s testing was to begin, Claire Williams, deputy team principal of Williams F1, issued a statement concerning the team’s position.

“Unfortunately, we have had to delay the start of our pre-season Barcelona test to Tuesday morning. We have had an incredibly busy winter at Grove getting the FW42 prepared for the season and despite everyone’s best efforts, we need some more time before it will be ready to run.”

She continued: “Our priority is to ensure we bring a car to the track that is the best that it can be and sometimes that takes longer then we would like. “It is clearly not ideal, but equally it’s not the end of the world.

We will obviously have our work cut out to recover the time lost but we still have seven days of testing left and we will maximise that time to prepare the car for the first race.”

Not a good start for them, with a new sponsor on board, having lost Martini and a few others that were brought in by Lance Stroll at the end of last season.

Let’s hope that the new car and driver lineup can bring back some of the team’s former glory. No fewer than nine Constructors’ and seven Drivers’ championships prove that proud heritage.

On the subject of Williams, it appears there is a minor war of words going on between Paddy Lowe, chief technical officer, and former Williams driver, Stroll.

Lowe commented that the young Canadian had “arrived in F1 too early”. Stroll responded, during an interview with Le Journal de Montreal, saying he did not wish to get into a war of words, but then went on to state: “All I can say is that the car was badly born last year and the engineers did not know how to develop it during the season.” Ouch.

Quite a statement from the 20-year-old with regard to the ability of an engineer that assisted in the development of active suspension, which led to Nigel Mansell’s Drivers’ title in 1992.

Then a 10-year sojourn with McLaren, first as head of research and development, then eight years later chief engineer systems development. In 2005, he was appointed engineering director then in 2011 he became the team’s technical director.

In 2013, he became executive director of the Mercedes Formula One Team – a position he held until 2017. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2015.

Looking at that CV I am not sure one can say that the “the engineers did not know how to develop it during the season”.

It is more likely that budget restrictions created a difficult situation for further development on the car.

And, let us not forget that the amount of feedback to the engineers from the drivers must have been somewhat limited, with one driver, 23-year-old Russian Sergey Sirotkin, in his first season in F1 and 19-year-old Stroll only in his second F1 season.

With no disrespect to either, the amount of feedback certainly must have been a weak link, as it is a capability that comes with experience.

With Stroll’s move to Racing Point F1 Team, it will be interesting to see how he stacks up against team-mate Sergio Perez and even more interesting against a hopefully rejuvenated Williams Team and a determined returning Robert Kubica.

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