If you haven't watched the second season of the Netflix series "Drive to Survive" please do take the time to watch it, as there's a LOT that happened behind the scenes with last year's season.
One of the talking points of 2019 was Williams and their dismal performance throughout the season, scoring only one, yes just one point, compared to their 2018 and 2017 seasons with scoring 7 and 83 points respectively.
Williams F1 Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_Grand_Prix_results
But what a difference a year has made thus far. Williams were left red-faced and frustrated last year at pre-season testing, when their car didn’t turn up until Day 3.
But chatting to Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams and delving into the data, there are reasons to be hopeful.
But just how hopeful?
Cruising out onto the track first on a crisp opening morning of testing meant a lot to Williams.
It was a show of defiance, an act that proved that they may have been battered, they may have been bruised, but they were going to keep on getting back up.
Their long-run pace was the seventh-best overall, around 1.2s/lap off the ultimate pace set by Mercedes, better than Racing Point, Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri.
Their short runs weren't as impressive, but they were still above Haas.
The likelihood is that when all things shake out in Australia, they will still be bottom in both metrics – and the team are very realistic about this – but they are almost certainly going to be part of the fight, in the mix, rather than trailing seconds off the back of the pack in no-man’s land.
Not only did they get good running across the four compounds that will be most frequently used this year – they did at least 100 laps on the C2, C3, C4 and C5, while the C1 will be rarely seen in 2020 – they were able to get consistency in those runs, which makes the data more useful.
Based on testing, clear progress is exactly what the team have made. As Williams says, Melbourne – and the opening few races – will be the real test, but the signs from our data, those inside the team and indeed their rivals is that the iconic British team are back in a position to go racing, rather than trailing off the back.
Sure, they are slowest of all in the slow corners, based on testing data, but they were better than AlphaTauri, Racing Point and Alfa Romeo in the medium-speed turns, and better than Mercedes and Racing Point in the fast stuff.
Again, it’s that caveat: it’s unlikely they will be faster than the world champions in fast turns once competitive running begins, but they are in the mix again – and that was their target.
It’s almost certainly still going to be a challenging year, but this seems like a step in the right direction and one which could provide the foundation to one day, in the future, being back where they belong.
"I’m feeling a lot happier, probably inevitably, and that is not going to come as a surprise to anyone,” said Williams during testing."
"Things at Williams have definitely taken steps forward but that’s been off the back of a lot of hard work that everybody in the team has done over the last 12 months to ensure that’s been the case."
"But we know we’ve still got a lot of hard work to do if we are to achieve our ultimate goals and that’s to get Williams back to where we want to see it and that’s podiums and races, but that in reality is a way off."
"This year the target is to make clear progress."
"Just coming to testing and having achieved what we’ve done here in these last six days demonstrates that, but we’ve got to get to Melbourne to see where we truly are."
One of the talking points of 2019 was Williams and their dismal performance throughout the season, scoring only one, yes just one point, compared to their 2018 and 2017 seasons with scoring 7 and 83 points respectively.
Williams F1 Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_Grand_Prix_results
But what a difference a year has made thus far. Williams were left red-faced and frustrated last year at pre-season testing, when their car didn’t turn up until Day 3.
But chatting to Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams and delving into the data, there are reasons to be hopeful.
But just how hopeful?
Cruising out onto the track first on a crisp opening morning of testing meant a lot to Williams.
It was a show of defiance, an act that proved that they may have been battered, they may have been bruised, but they were going to keep on getting back up.
 |
| Initial Testing Gap Comparison to Mercedes is at +1.2 seconds, which places the Williams FW43 just below the Midfield teams. |
Their long-run pace was the seventh-best overall, around 1.2s/lap off the ultimate pace set by Mercedes, better than Racing Point, Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri.
Their short runs weren't as impressive, but they were still above Haas.
The likelihood is that when all things shake out in Australia, they will still be bottom in both metrics – and the team are very realistic about this – but they are almost certainly going to be part of the fight, in the mix, rather than trailing seconds off the back of the pack in no-man’s land.
Not only did they get good running across the four compounds that will be most frequently used this year – they did at least 100 laps on the C2, C3, C4 and C5, while the C1 will be rarely seen in 2020 – they were able to get consistency in those runs, which makes the data more useful.
Based on testing, clear progress is exactly what the team have made. As Williams says, Melbourne – and the opening few races – will be the real test, but the signs from our data, those inside the team and indeed their rivals is that the iconic British team are back in a position to go racing, rather than trailing off the back.
Sure, they are slowest of all in the slow corners, based on testing data, but they were better than AlphaTauri, Racing Point and Alfa Romeo in the medium-speed turns, and better than Mercedes and Racing Point in the fast stuff.
Again, it’s that caveat: it’s unlikely they will be faster than the world champions in fast turns once competitive running begins, but they are in the mix again – and that was their target.
It’s almost certainly still going to be a challenging year, but this seems like a step in the right direction and one which could provide the foundation to one day, in the future, being back where they belong.
"I’m feeling a lot happier, probably inevitably, and that is not going to come as a surprise to anyone,” said Williams during testing."
"Things at Williams have definitely taken steps forward but that’s been off the back of a lot of hard work that everybody in the team has done over the last 12 months to ensure that’s been the case."
"But we know we’ve still got a lot of hard work to do if we are to achieve our ultimate goals and that’s to get Williams back to where we want to see it and that’s podiums and races, but that in reality is a way off."
"This year the target is to make clear progress."
"Just coming to testing and having achieved what we’ve done here in these last six days demonstrates that, but we’ve got to get to Melbourne to see where we truly are."
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