Williams "Embarrassed" by Pre-Season Start

[Paul Jeffrey]

Williams Deputy Team Principle Claire Williams “Embarrassed” by the team’s difficult start to pre-season testing.

With Williams having finally managed to get their new FW42 Formula One car onto the circuit at Barcelona, a full two and a half days later than the rest of their rivals, Deputy Team Principle Claire Williams has admitted embarrassment at how the team have failed to produce the new car on time alongside the rest of the 2019 field.

“This is not a situation that we anticipated,” said Williams. “It’s certainly not a situation that we ever wanted to find ourselves in.​

“We’re not just disappointed. It’s embarrassing not bringing a race car to a circuit when everyone else has managed to do that, particularly a team like ours that has managed to bring a race car to testing for the past 40-odd years.

“So we can only apologise. I would apologise to our fans, I would apologise to all the people that have had the pressure really dialled up on them at Grove over the past few days to get everything ready, just to get us to this point today, and mostly to George and Robert [Kubica], who were looking forward to a car on Monday so that they could prepare and have the most amount of time possible to prepare ahead of the season.”​

Although having now managed to get things up and running at Barcelona, clocking over 20 laps in total thanks to George Russell, Williams have failed to record any serious long run action, mostly concentrating on performing shakedown runs and acclimatisation with the FW42 – essentially completing the checks most teams undertook as part of their running during various filming days prior to testing beginning on Monday.

With rumours circulating in the paddock that the issues at Williams could be far deeper than meets the eye, Claire was understandably reluctant to go into detail about the circumstances that have put the former championship winning team at this early disadvantage, claiming the squad prefer to keep their own counsel about internal issues back at the team HQ in Grove.

“But I am not going to go into any detail as to why that happened. I don’t think that it’s appropriate to discuss the ins and outs of what went wrong. Completing that inquest anyway has not happened at Grove yet.

“We’re clearly aware of some of the issues, but it’s too early in the day to start discussing them in any detail and probably something that we wouldn’t do anyway.

“We need to resolve what went wrong or analyse what went wrong, and then to resolve it so that this doesn’t happen again at Williams.”​

Williams now have just five more days of testing at Barcelona before the new cars head out for the opening round of the new season, set to take place on Sunday 17th March at the Australian Albert Park circuit.

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[CC]

Nothing worse than turning up on your prom night with your date and then you realize you forgot to put your knickers on.

 

[apex11]

This is the beginning of the end for Williams. I see a sell off coming. There is value in the brand from a historical perspective.
But might even be sold and re branded like Sauber et al.

 

[beachamor]

houston we have a problem, the rokit wont launch

 

[antirussia81]

Nothing worse than turning up on your prom night with your date and then you realize you forgot to put your knickers on.

Well, some would say that not wearing any knickers would spare you a trouble with pulling them off... when you and your date decide to have a little "afterparty"

 

[BrettSinclair1]

Well, some would say that not wearing any knickers would spare you a trouble with pulling them off... when you and your date decide to have a little "afterparty"

Good luck explaining this when she first opens the door

 

[NDG]

It's gonna be the hardest car to look at when the races come.

 

[michelforest]

I wonder how much money Williams has lost when Martini decided to end its sponsorship. This could be one of the reasons things have gone so wrong for the team so far... I also think they have completely redesigned the car compared to last year and that creates many problems.

 

[Terry Rock]

Nothing worse than turning up on your prom night with your date and then you realize you forgot to put your knickers on.

Less to take off at the end of the night...
But seriously, Williams seem to keep shooting themselves in the foot.
It's not like they've never built a race car before.
Why are they having such a hard time at doing this of late?
Even before RP got an infusion of cash...and long before their buy out, they were well and truly ahead of Williams...on a small budget.

 

[apex11]

I wonder how much money Williams has lost when Martini decided to end its sponsorship. This could be one of the reasons things have gone so wrong for the team so far... I also think they have completely redesigned the car compared to last year and that creates many problems.

Martini was about 16 million.
Strolls Dad was paying 20 million for the seat plus the sim etc...

Safe to say rokit aren't paying 16 million.... they are screwed.
Kubica is in for PR which could yet backfire on them...

 

[Motowntom]

Sources please,.....

 

[InsaneOzzie]

Lets face it! unless your one of the works teams F1 has become a financial black hole, sooner or later it will swallow you up. Williams are even further under the hammer to perform, their fall from the top has been a long hard road, it wouldn't surprise me if they sold it off as I can't see them surviving much longer without the massive sponsor funds. Sad as it is, nothing last's forever.

 

[Copef1]

It would be sad to see them go the way of Lotus and Brabham. If they do fold, it makes me wonder about the future of McLaren.

 

[Kuckoo]

Williams has put themselves in this situation where they are under a mountain of pressure to show just the slightest result, and it's clear they lack both the resources and management acumen to push things any further.
The operation just looks incompetent now. That certainly isn't fair to the drivers or staff who surely have been busting their backsides just to show up.
The way this team appears to be run, it's only a matter of time. Unless some kind of miracle occurs, the Williams team will not survive the season.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

If Williams are struggling this badly for cash after 42 years in F1, it makes Ferrari's "special payment" of £70 million every year just for turning up seem even more outrageous and corrupt!

 

[Kjell81d]

Williams gonna Williams.

 

[Michel Bélisle]

It's gonna be the hardest car to look at when the races come.

We will not see it much. It will be in the back of the field most of the time...

 

[Antony Snook]

This is the beginning of the end for Williams. I see a sell off coming. There is value in the brand from a historical perspective.
But might even be sold and re branded like Sauber et al.

Shore We havent seen Frank for a long time as he hides in the factory. I feel he may be in bad health and dose not want the media over it. The Kids have to run the show in Claire at the track and her brother in the stock room at the factory. The sell off is in the picture but you need the Kids to keep the name and achievements. Re branding will loose all this. I guess Patrick Head is calling the shots now.

 

[Antony Snook]

If Williams are struggling this badly for cash after 42 years in F1, it makes Ferrari's "special payment" of £70 million every year just for turning up seem even more outrageous and corrupt!

Scudaria Ferrari could take off and build there own breakaway series. They are always threatening to leave. Imagine a INDY CAR out there beating the Lollas. It could happen if they don't get the cash. We all know it would serve better use in the mid or back of the pack.

 

[Antony Snook]

Less to take off at the end of the night...
But seriously, Williams seem to keep shooting themselves in the foot.
It's not like they've never built a race car before.
Why are they having such a hard time at doing this of late?
Even before RP got an infusion of cash...and long before their buy out, they were well and truly ahead of Williams...on a small budget.

It is simple when you are on a budget you keep salary low. (Frank always beveled more money should go to the car) So any talent like Adrian Newley who took them to there last tittles will be lured away by rival teams for the extra zeros on the pay check. Money talks, People walk.