Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe is to take a "leave of absence" from Formula 1.

So much for the "we all win and lose together as a team". He's paying for the car being so late and untested. Well now we know for sure who brings up the rear in Melbourne...

Meanwhile Indycars are at St Pete this week end as an appetizer for open wheel racing in 2019...

wow, the jungle drums beat fast on this thread :eek:

Not all of us have real jobs, Cap'n. Some of us have nothing but time to surf the interwebs.

Well, if Williams keep their nose(s) clean at the start by being slow and careful, they might pass a third of the pack in the first few corners while the front runners are making fools of themselves. So by race end, they could end up mid pack, who knows?

There, see how easy that was! Go Clair!!

I'm gonna go way out on a limb here and make a prediction:

Ferrari will dominate, right up until 30 seconds are left in Q3. That's when hambone will turn it up to 11 and go P-1 and lead most of the laps and win the race. And so goes the season.

Hope I'm wrong tho.

You’re presuming Paddy had no role at all “for the car being so late and untested”. How can that be if he was the chief technical director?

Not really presuming that, you read too much into a few words. I’m sure he’s responsible to a degree and there was nobody else to hide behind apparently. I’m just pointing out last week Williams presented a united front - this week he’s gone. He even invested into the team ! It looks really bad for them - no technical director.

I’m not sure the F1 team will survive long term. The engineering group might.

an interesting insider view from Windsor:

https://www.omologatowatches.com/blog/racers-edge-williams

Does this mean that racers are finally out? If it is a corporate world, is Toto a racer? Is Binotto? Was Arrivabene? Hoerner? Thinking that most are, but given where this and frankly all motorsports seem to be going, $$ not racing may be the motivator.

Netflix’s F1 drive to survive is a good show. If you’re a fan you need to watch that ! Came out today... Gunther Steiner is a hoot. “We look like ****ing wankers”

Nice to see the drivers with their family and the teams from inside - a must watch !

I'm not sure how you're interpreting an article about Williams and arriving at your other names.

However, F1 is trying to court auto manufacturers, and in turn, that means F1 must cater to current corporate speak and appearance.

I don't know what this season will bring, but I mostly watch short track oval racing now.

I think Claire is well past her sell by.....sad. I've always been a big fan of Frank.

Man... you guys gotta watch that Netflix thing. It’s like scripted drama but real...
Watching the gut punch of Horner announcing they are dumping Renault on abiteboul’s face is the conference ... and just later Renault signing Ricciardo, and this time Horner getting gut punched. You can’t write stuff like that. Very human. Great series !!!!

this is interesting, James does a good job explaining some of the aero challenges when designing a F1 car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsFjDou_4qk

Thanks!

I wonder if any of the F1 Honda powered teams watched yesterday's Indy car race ? There were two Honda engines that as David Hobbs would say " suffered from excess crankcase ventilation " :D Both had what appeared to be massive engine/turbo failures .

Alonso?

At any rate l believe Red Bull isn't on deck with the "new" F1, although I follow less closely these days.

Their teams went to Honda primarily as Honda is giving them equipment instead of needing to buy it. Red Bull has a contractual obligation to be in F1 up to a certain date.

Red Bull markets itself on a different premise than Liberty is taking F1. The move to Honda allows Red Bull to spend less yet still keep their contract. If it doesn't work out Red Bull will leave when the time is up. If it does work out they will likely stay as long as the team earns money.

Lovely to have some motorsport back... Between the netflix F1 show (fantastic end to end, I'm surprised y'all aren't devouring this), WRC in Mexico, and Indy, I feel all warmed up for the return of F1... It's funny watching Indycars pit and think "Those tire changes are soooo slow" ;-)

In 2016 Nico wins with hambone following, and Nico surprisingly retires.
I though huh, that's weird. I wondered if there was some arrangement.

In 2017 Hambone won and I wondered, was that payback for letting Nico win last year? Naw, couldn't be.

In 2018 hambone wins again with Bottas trailing.
Was bottas held back? Naw, couldn't be. Hambone was just faster.

Now it's 2019. Bottas is saying he's going to beat everybody. We'll see.
I don't think he has it in him but if he does, I'll be sporting the fanciest tin-foil hat there ever was.


https://www.planetf1.com/news/bottas-im-going-to-beat-everyone-this-year/

Helpful video, thanks!

I chuckled when he called some of the solutions on the 2018 car, clumsy. Development never sleeps in F1, does it (except during the mandated break?)?