[Team] Williams: Do they have a spare tub?

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by EastonNeston

Alex looked to be very shaken up, and have a hand/wrist injury, so the decision hat he wont race is very wise.
It will allow the team to give Franco the best prepared car possible in the limited time available.

And he crashed it again.
The conditions were very difficult.

My only concern is that the costs of repairs from this weekend is pushing the financial and banking side of the team hard and they're probably running out of spares.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

And he crashed it again.
The conditions were very difficult.

My only concern is that the costs of repairs from this weekend is pushing the financial and banking side of the team hard and they're probably running out of spares.

Yeah, that's almost the definition of a nightmare weekend for a small team, after a tough start to the year too. The hits just kept coming once the track was wet.

They'll be a pretty miserable crew when they get back to Grove - heaps of damage, packing up in the rain and then trying to repair enough stuff to have it useable as spares for the last three races.

[broadrun96]

Has to be extra costly if they get close to the spending cap too trying to fix everything. Odds on one car not making at least one more race for the spares has to be a concern

[Richard C]

We assume this will be a question of remaining budget being spent on next year vs. this year. Assuming the repairs will be an issue, might they instead revert to a prior spec that they might already have spares for? And that is just for aero/bodywork. Who knows what might be damaged they they don't have spares for.

Richard

[P38 in workshop]

With two weeks between races and with even a "small" team having several hundred people to call on,it ought to be possible to get the chassis in order.Whether there is time to replace all the other damaged parts with new items to the same specification is a different problem.They do have the advantage that the parts near the extremities can be flown out at quite a late stage.The positive might just be that any lessons learned during this weekend may now be incorporated in those parts of next year's car which have not yet been finalised.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by Richard C

We assume this will be a question of remaining budget being spent on next year vs. this year. Assuming the repairs will be an issue, might they instead revert to a prior spec that they might already have spares for? And that is just for aero/bodywork. Who knows what might be damaged they they don't have spares for.

Do they even have any old-spec spares? Didn't Logan Sargent use them all up?

Originally Posted by P38 in workshop

With two weeks between races and with even a "small" team having several hundred people to call on,it ought to be possible to get the chassis in order.Whether there is time to replace all the other damaged parts with new items to the same specification is a different problem.They do have the advantage that the parts near the extremities can be flown out at quite a late stage.The positive might just be that any lessons learned during this weekend may now be incorporated in those parts of next year's car which have not yet been finalised.

Main lesson to be learnt: Don't crash!

It was running through my mind that with three major crashes at one Grand Prix, there is a real danger of simply running out of money within the cost cap. Teams are contractually bound to run two cars at every race so falling back to being a one-car team is not an option. Transferring new car expenditure to current year parts production could be an option, but it would have a disastrous impact on next year. And is it even possible? You can't just move people out of the wind tunnel or CFD office, put them in the laminating shop and tell them to get on with it.

[bjohnsonsmith]

The increase in National Insurance contributions won't help a team like Williams.

[chillibowl]

While Williams may be at risk of exceeding their own budget, I can’t imagine they are at risk of violating the overall budget cap amount? Just a guess on my part tho.

[EastonNeston]

The increase in National insurance contributions will harm every business that employees staff, regardless of the business been in the motorsport industry or not.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by EastonNeston

The increase in National insurance contributions will harm every business that employees staff, regardless of the business been in the motorsport industry or not.

That is true, but not all businesses have a mandatory budget cap.

Having said that, the FIA does permit cap increases due to inflation, and they may take that in to account for the coming year. However, Ferrari and Sauber/Audi will not be affected, and they may have other financial obligations that other teams do not have, whilst Haas will only be partially affected for their UK based team members.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Do they even have any old-spec spares? Didn't Logan Sargent use them all up?

Good point!

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Main lesson to be learnt: Don't crash!

It was running through my mind that with three major crashes at one Grand Prix, there is a real danger of simply running out of money within the cost cap. Teams are contractually bound to run two cars at every race so falling back to being a one-car team is not an option. Transferring new car expenditure to current year parts production could be an option, but it would have a disastrous impact on next year. And is it even possible? You can't just move people out of the wind tunnel or CFD office, put them in the laminating shop and tell them to get on with it.

On the "don't crash" aspect. And specifically related to Williams.

To research some details on the Red Flag drama (my posts in race thread), I went back and watched parts of the race around the start of the VSC through the SC and eventually the Red Flag caused by Colapinto's crash. (Note: I did this by using the "MultiViewer for F1" app which is FANTASTIC)

Anyhow, the team pitted Colapinto during the SC. He was pushing hard to catch up to the back of the field. I expect he was trying to drive faster than what might have been a normal race pace to try to erase the gap caused by his pit stop. He was on the ragged edge many times before he crashed. Was the team pushing him to do this? Was he doing it on his own, but the team allowing it? So... don't crash. I can imagine in hindsight the team might have said... Hey, slow down a bit and bring the car home.

Richard

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Richard C

Anyhow, the team pitted Colapinto during the SC. He was pushing hard to catch up to the back of the field. I expect he was trying to drive faster than what might have been a normal race pace to try to erase the gap caused by his pit stop. He was on the ragged edge many times before he crashed. Was the team pushing him to do this? Was he doing it on his own, but the team allowing it? So... don't crash. I can imagine in hindsight the team might have said... Hey, slow down a bit and bring the car home.

Richard

On this point, and it applies to many forms of motorsport, the main train of cars during a safety car period are restricted to travelling at the speed of the safety car. However, a car that may have been in the pits will normally far exceed that speed in order to catch up with the train, almost regardless of the risk.

This in turn often leads such cars/drivers far exceeding a safe speed past the scene of the place where there is an incident, even where double waved yellows may be being shown. I cannot recall if there was a safety car in one such case, but this surely brings to mind the tragic crash, in the rain as well, of Bianchi; going far too quickly for the conditions.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

On this point, and it applies to many forms of motorsport, the main train of cars during a safety car period are restricted to travelling at the speed of the safety car. However, a car that may have been in the pits will normally far exceed that speed in order to catch up with the train, almost regardless of the risk.

This in turn often leads such cars/drivers far exceeding a safe speed past the scene of the place where there is an incident, even where double waved yellows may be being shown. I cannot recall if there was a safety car in one such case, but this surely brings to mind the tragic crash, in the rain as well, of Bianchi; going far too quickly for the conditions.

Yeah, have to say I'm not a fan of the run like you stole it allowance behind control cars, the wave around in IMSA can get crazy but they seem to at least be under control and most of the delay is waiting until incident cleared up. But they have blitzed past a roll back carrying the car away and always think hopefully not JPM there. And even more so in poor conditions

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

And he crashed it again.
The conditions were very difficult.

My only concern is that the costs of repairs from this weekend is pushing the financial and banking side of the team hard and they're probably running out of spares.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the steering loaded and unloaded for Mr Colapinto, and its inconsistency contributed to his crash. Possibly related to the double time rebuild from the earlier qually session...

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the steering loaded and unloaded for Mr Colapinto, and its inconsistency contributed to his crash. Possibly related to the double time rebuild from the earlier qually session...

I would love to hear the source of that rumor. We are now seeing Senna esque theories of a poorly repaired Williams causing a crash of a South American driver. Unbelievable!

Heaven forbid the cause might have been the driver racing around to catch the tail end of the field during a SC. Just watch the in-car from the time he leaves the pit with new tires to his crash. He was driving on the edge the entire time. Or maybe Williams just gave him a dodgy car.

Richard

[Skam85]

This will be looked back on as the costliest weekend for Williams in many seasons.

Not only would they have 7 figures worth of damage to contend with, but have now slipped to P9 in the constructors thanks to a direct competitor taking advantage of a crazy race, something Ocon and Gasly have a strong history of doing.

It's the F1 equivalent of missing a penalty and the other team going to the other end and scoring straight away.

And it all happened without Logan Sargeant at the wheel!