Williams News
Round six of the championship sees the paddock arrive in Monte Carlo for arguably the most famous event on the calendar, the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2013. So how are the teams preparing for the unique challenge that is the Principality’s streets?
Claire Williams says Williams will return to the top in F1 despite a tough road to recovery lying ahead
Claire Williams says Williams will return to the top in F1 despite a tough road to recovery lying ahead
Round six of the championship sees the paddock arrive in Monte Carlo for arguably the most famous event on the calendar, the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2013. So how are the teams preparing for the unique challenge that is the Principality’s streets? Those involved discuss their prospects for the race
This time last year Williams had just won the Spanish Grand Prix. But 12 months is a long time in Formula One racing and last weekend in Barcelona the team suffered the ignominy of both drivers getting knocked out of qualifying in Q1.
Chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar insists that the Williams FW35 has potential despite failure to score again in Spain
The sudden announcement by Pirelli that they are to change the tyre specifications from the seventh round of the world championship onwards will inevitably raise many questions: who will it favour, what are the implications for the racing? JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan was chief operations engineer at Williams until the end of 2012 and has a deep understanding of how the tyres work and what is involved in this change. Here, with his input, is our analysis of today’s decision
Williams chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar says there is “definitely potential” with the FW35 and that the team won’t switch focus until 2014
The Spanish Grand Prix threw up a few interesting comparisons from last year to this, not least in the relative pace of the cars and the improvement in speed of the pit stops. At one end of the spectrum the Mercedes was 2.3 seconds faster in qualifying than in 2012, while the Williams was a second slower than Pastor Maldonado’s pole time from last year. But in the pits there has also been progress; Ferrari set the fastest stop on Sunday, a clear second faster than its best time last year (when it was again fastest) thanks to the many ;More…
Last year’s Spanish Grand Prix winners were never in contention of even making it into the points in 2013.
Pastor Maldonado finished 14th with Valtteri Bottas 16th in today’s Spanish Grand Prix. Williams opted to switch Pastor onto a four-stop strategy, because of the high tyre degradation, with Valtteri remaining on his planned three-stop.
The Spanish GP has rarely been won by anyone outside the front two rows, but that doesn’t mean that Sauber, Williams, Toro Rosso and the rest of the field haven’t got their sights on Sunday success.
THREE-STOP RACE LIKELY IN SPAIN Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has clinched his third career pole position, ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton. Pole position was set on Pirelli’s P Zero White medium tyres, which have been nominated alongside the new P Zero Orange hard tyres this weekend. Rosberg’s pole time of 1m20.718s on the medium compound was more than a second a half quicker than the 2012 pole position set by Williams driver Pastor Maldonado (1m22.285s) on last year’s soft, despite the fact that usage of the DRS was unlimited last season.
Valtteri Bottas qualified 17th with Pastor Maldonado 18th for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix. Both Williams drivers found there was not enough pace in the FW35 to progress into Q2.
Neither Valtteri Bottas or 2012 racewinner Pastor Maldonado made it out of the opening phase of qualifying in Barcelona.
BBC Sport’s Eddie Jordan takes a look at why McLaren and Williams, traditionally two of the most successful teams in Formula 1, are struggling in 2013.
Williams and Sauber are two of the teams desperately hoping that new aero upgrades this weekend will put their season back on track at Barcelona.